Author: Dave Abels

The decision to place a loved one in a nursing home can be very difficult for many who want to care for the loved one themselves but who realize that an advanced degree of skilled nursing care is needed. With the aging population in Illinois and across the nation, this issue will only become larger in the years to come.

Nursing homes should be held to a high standard of care with any deviation from state and federal laws being unacceptable by those working in the home, owning the home, and inspecting the home. But in reality, the quality of care received by residents varies widely, with some homes providing excellent care and others engaging in practices that can only be described as abuse and neglect of the elderly.

Injury lawyers regularly hear stories about suspected abuse of an elderly family member who is confined to a nursing home. These cases tend to be particularly disturbing as many residents are unable to care for themselves and therefore are entirely dependent upon home employees for their basic needs, including nutrition, personal care, and mobility. Still more troubling are the instances that emerge where vulnerable elderly residents were neglected because a physical or mental condition made it easy, like ignoring dementia patients or failing to move the physically disabled.

A disturbing report has emerged from a New York area nursing home claiming gross neglect and endangerment by one of the employees. Police believe that a patient at the home awoke yesterday morning and became frightened when she could not find an employee to help her, prompting the elderly woman to pull the fire alarm to seek help. When police and emergency personnel responded, they also could not find an employee who was in charge of the home. Through a thorough search of the building, a female employee was eventually located asleep in a recreation room. A search of her purse revealed sleeping pills and officials believe she took some of the pills while she should have been supervising the residents.
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Nursing homes and their employees are entrusted with the care of the home’s residents, meaning they are required to provide safe and adequate housing and medical care to their wards. Federal laws as well as laws in Illinois set forth guidelines that must be met to ensure that our most vulnerable members of society receive the attention they deserve.

Many believe that placing a loved one in a nursing home is enough to guarantee that he or she will be properly cared for and looked after, something that may not have been possible had the loved one remained at home. Yet every year, inspections of Illinois nursing homes continue to show that many provide inadequate or lacking care, placing residents at risk of injuries.

Some of the most disturbing abuse that nursing home lawyers learn about is the sexual abuse of the residents, many of whom are incapacitated and completely at the hands of their abusers. Often, multiple residents of a home fall under the abuse of the same offender, leading many to question why something was not done sooner to prevent these attacks from occurring.

That has been asked by some Colorado residents lately after learning that a 41-year-old male nursing assistant has been accused of sexually abusing three residents, all of whom have been described as “physically helpless” and “at-risk adults.”

The first report of abuse was made in July of this year and sparked an internal investigation that deemed the complaint “unfounded.” After the finding, the 41-year-old male was allowed to continue working at the home as a certified nursing assistant where he continued to provide care for dozens of patients.

After the initial finding and during the time the man had returned to work, a second victim emerged and also claimed that the employee had sexually abused the resident. A third victim has also claimed abuse which has led to the arrest and charging of the 41-year-old employee with three counts of sexual abuse.
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A Denver area nursing home employee recently pleaded guilty to a felony count of negligence causing serious bodily injury to an at-risk adult and received a deferred two year prison sentence as well as 240 hours of mandatory community service. During her deferred sentence, the employee will not be authorized to care for others as part of the ordered punishment.

The charge stems from an incident at the nursing home where the woman was employed. She was tending to a nursing home patient who did not have sensation in her feet and could not control her own legs. The employee placed the patient’s feet in scalding hot water to soak and then left the resident unattended, returning 15 to 20 minutes later. The water that was used was so hot that it burned the flesh from the patient’s feet and causing the skin to peel off, leading to the amputation of four of the patient’s toes.

The nurse admitted that she was negligent in causing the incident that left another with permanent damage and only 6 remaining toes. But this criminal sentence may not be the end of the nurse’s liability in this incident. The laws of most states, including here in Illinois, allow the victims of nursing home abuse to make a monetary claim against the responsible parties for their damages, including any medical expenses that the victim was forced to incur.

In Illinois, a claim can be brought against a doctor, a nurse, an employee, and/or the nursing home responsible for injuries to a resident, depending on the individual incident and the parties involved. In cases of nursing home abuse, it can be challenging to determine who is responsible for a loved one’s injuries and who is legally liable for any consequences, a good reason to consider speaking with a personal injury attorney who can help you understand the options that may be available.
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A 44-year-old former nursing home employee recently pleaded guilty to abusing an 84-year-old resident of the home back in 2012. The incident occurred in an Arlington, Texas nursing home and was captured on video through the use of a hidden camera, a tactic that has been gaining support and opposition in recent years.

Concerns about the care provided in the nursing home led to the installation of a security camera which captured the 84-year-old woman being abused by an employee. It is not clear whether the employee knew of the camera’s existence or its use before the abuse was captured, a requirement in some states that allow hidden camera use in nursing facilities. The video captured a female employee “roughing up” the elderly woman, including lifting the patient by her hair to put a pillow down on a bed and apparently pinching at the woman’s skin in an aggressive motion.

After seeing the abuse on video, the patient was moved to another nursing home last fall but she passed away in December of 2012, before any resolution to abuse could be reached. The employee captured in the video was criminally charged with abuse and pleaded guilty earlier this week to her role in the incident. The employee is now awaiting sentencing for her crime and will face anything from probation to a potential 10 years in prison for her crimes. The nursing home itself was subject to an investigation by state authorities that resulted in a $137,000 fine for improper procedures regarding the treatment of the elderly victim. Since that time, the owners of the nursing home have stated that their current employees have been retrained and that their roles have been narrowly defined to prevent abuse of this nature in the future.
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An investigation into an Iowa nursing home has left the home with performance-related fines stemming from multiple incidents involving and leading to the death of one of its residents.

The resident had long and short term memory problems and was unable to safely walk on his own. Instead, he required the assistance and supervision of a staff member as he walked about, requiring that he be supervised at all times when he was moving so that he would not fall. Despite this need, the resident repeatedly was allowed to walk unassisted which resulted in him falling more than 50 times between January 2012 and June 17, 2013.

In June of this year, the resident was found on the floor of a hallway, unresponsive. Nursing home staff called for help and the resident was transported by ambulance to an area hospital where he was diagnosed with bleeding between the brain and the skull. Though the man received treatment while in the hospital, he died of the brain bleed just four days later.

The investigation determined that the man fell mostly in the afternoon and evening hours and that staff attempted to address some environmental issues related to the falls but that they did not adequately curb the behavior that led to the incidents.

Many nursing home residents have some form of memory loss and often this can make caring for the patient more difficult. If a resident forgets where he or she is, the resident may become scared and attempt to leave a room or a facility. Memory loss does not waive the duty of nursing home employees to appropriately care for and treat those under their care, including those who may forget that they need help when walking about a home. In this instance, there is some indication that the resident had been instructed not to walk about unassisted but that instruction was ineffective. The resident may not have been able to recall his walking problems but even if he did, his care was in the hands of those nursing home employees who should have been supervising him. Failing to do this led to this resident’s fall and ultimately his death.
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A former nurse’s aid at a New York nursing home has been charged with manslaughter in relation to the death of a nursing home resident that happened under her care. The victim, an 86-year-old female, died in 2012 as the result of a fall that happened in the home.

Authorities say the nurse’s aid was trying to lift the resident into a wheelchair without assistance, though proper protocol required two employees be used for this job. The aid dropped the elderly resident during the attempted transfer. The patient began bleeding on the floor with what would later be determined as a fractured spine, fractured leg, and broken nose. Instead of seeking help for the injured woman, the aid first went to another aid at the facility in an attempt to convince the second aid to lie about the incident by saying she was present during the transfer.

While the first aid was trying to cover up the incident, the victim continued to lay on the floor of the home, bleeding and injured, without receiving medical care.

After the February 2012 incident, the victim eventually died from her injuries. An investigation revealed the alleged improper conduct by the aid and criminal charges were brought against her. Initially, state authorities charged the aid with endangering a vulnerable elderly or disabled person and with charges related to covering up the incident. On Wednesday, the charges were upgraded to manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

The details as alleged in this incident should be disturbing to anyone who has ever considered placing a loved one in the care of a nursing or rehabilitative home. When a loved one needs care, a family should be able to rely on a facility to provide the necessary care without recklessly endangering the loved one’s safety, as the aid in this case reportedly did.

Safety procedures are in place for a reason: they are necessary to protect the staff and the residents of nursing homes from injuries and accidents. Failing to adhere to safety procedures is irresponsible and a threat to the safety of everyone. If the aid in this case used a mechanical lift to help transfer the patient in addition to the use of a second employee, this accident likely would never have occurred and the victim would still be alive.

Perhaps most troubling is the fact that an employee of a nursing home who was trusted with the care of a vulnerable elderly patient was more concerned about covering up her error than seeking the medical attention the victim needed. Allowing the victim to lie in pain and in a pool of her own blood while the aid covered her tracks seems unthinkable, yet it happened here.
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The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced that criminal charges have been levied against 21 current and former employees of a nursing home that cares for patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Among those accused is the owner of the facility, which is located about 60 miles north of Atlanta in Commerce, Georgia.

The charges stem from a three month investigation into the facility that housed 27 patients as of Tuesday morning. That’s when investigators made a surprise visit with a warrant in hand to investigate the home and gather evidence. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation released a statement that alleged “inhumane and undignified conditions” Some of the employees reportedly had prior felony convictions for crimes including voluntary manslaughter and identity theft.

The alleged abuse reportedly includes staff members tying patients to beds with bed sheets and striking and hitting the patients or throwing water on them. The facility is designed for those suffering from Alzheimer’s, which lowers the ability of these victims to protect themselves from the abuse or to report it if an opportunity arises. These vulnerable adults were also doubled diapered, where two diapers are used at the same time, so that staff reportedly would not have to tend to the patients as often and could let the elderly lie in soiled diapers for extended periods of time.

As of Tuesday evening, 11 of the 21 charged had been apprehended and were in a local jail. Authorities were searching for the remaining 10, including the owner, who is facing charges including cruelty to a person 65 year of age or older, abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation. Of the patients at the nursing home, three were transferred to area hospitals for medical treatment and the others will be relocated to other nursing homes after authorities can discuss the matter with the families of each patient.
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