South Carolina Nursing Home Blog : South Carolina Nursing Home Lawyer & Attorney : Poliakoff & Associates Law Firm : Elderly Care, Senior Care

Levin & Perconti reported on their blog that they helped the family of a victim of nursing home abuse in their settlement against the Mercy Health Care Rehabilitation Center, securing a $690,000 settlement for the 87-year-old victim's family.

The victim was initially admitted to the nursing home after suffering a stroke that caused her some left-sided weakness. When she entered the nursing home she required supervision and needed assistance with activities. She was known to be a fall risk. However, despite the nursing home’s knowledge of her fall risk, they allowed her to fall. She suffered a right femur fracture which was treated with a brace. While still in the nursing home’s care, she suffered a skin breakdown from the brace rubbing against her leg. This breakdown still went untreated by the nursing home staff and the victim developed Osteomyelitis. The combination of the fracture and the infection contributed to the victim’s death seven months later, according to the settlement report.

The nursing home negligence complaint alleged that the defendant nursing home failed to appropriately develop, implement or revise a care plan to address the decedent’s fall risk and failed to ensure that the decedent received proper supervision to prevent falls. It also stated that after her fall, the nursing home failed to provide preventative measures to avoid the development of skin breakdown, and failed to provide the necessary treatment and services to promote the healing of the decedent’s skin breakdown.

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Lexington Herald-Leader had an article about Kentucky indicting nursing home employees for neglecting a resident and trying to cover it up.  A nurse and two nursing assistants have been indicted in connection with a case of neglect at Creekwood Place Nursing Home in Logan County.

One of the nursing assistants, Melissa L. Lyon, was trying to transfer a patient into bed on her own, even though the patient's care plan called for two people to lift the person.   As a result, the patient suffered a fractured leg.   After the incident, Lyon and the other nursing assistant, Destiny W. Duncan, "concealed the true facts of the incident," the news release says.

The nurse, Barbara A. Moore of Beechmont, "did not call a physician or family member or check on the victim, all of which caused the victim prolonged suffering and pain," the release states.  Each of the women was indicted on a single count of knowing abuse or neglect of an adult, a Class C felony. 

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There have been several articles about the lawsuit filed against Everett Rehabilitation and Care Center that neglected a resident's penis until it rotted off.  See articles here, here, and here.

A lawsuit has been filed against a Washington state nursing home accused of neglecting Charles Bradley's penile infection.   The lawsuit states that Bradley was taken to an emergency room, where doctors discovered his penis had decayed, leaving only a gaping wound. He died 18 days later, in March 2008.   The lawsuit cites an investigation by the state Department of Social and Health Services, which shows the nurse told a manager in November 2007 that the man had a wound on his penis. Staff noticed that Bradley's skin was breaking down while changing his diaper in November 2007.  The records say the manager forgot about the report and neglected to properly care for the wound.  Though staff notified a care manager, that manager failed to notify Bradley's doctor. Instead, the manager went on a three-week vacation and when she returned she forgot about the nurse's report.

Bradley's family claim staff at the nursing home left a wound on the elderly man untreated for months. Nursing home records allege that staff changed the man's diaper daily and provided him weekly baths between November 2007 and March 13, 2008.  During the four months that followed the initial notice of the wound, Bradley's genitals essentially broke apart bit by bit while the elderly man steadily lost weight.   By allowing Bradley's injury to fester and worsen for months, the nursing home and parent company SunBridge Healthcare Corp. violated a promise to care for him. "They trusted that the nursing home would provide the care they said they would provide," family spokesman said Wednesday. "We're not talking about extraordinary care. We're talking about basic daily needs."

An investigation conducted by the center's director of nursing "did not find any impropriety" by staff. State regulators, though, issued the center a citation for failing to meet quality of care requirements set by federal law.  The state determined that the home failed to meet a federal standard for care. The man didn't receive timely medical attention and the facility failed to notify his family or his doctor of changes in his health, the state determined. 

"There was no evidence the facility had contacted the resident's physician … to allow for timely medical intervention," the state investigators said in an investigatory report provided by DSHS. "There was no evidence the facility had contracted their social services department or the resident's family."  A financial penalty was not assessed.

“They definitely should have seen it. There was no documentation that his penis was beginning to fall off,” Gooding said. “We believe they chose not to put it in the records.”  Sounds like a cover up but no monetary fine was issued!

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Knoxnews.com had an article about the death of Hillcrest North nursing home patient Linda Darlene Carter.  The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation labeled the death as "suspicious" after the Knox County medical examiner labeled the death a homicide, blaming poor treatment. TBI spokeswoman Kristin Helm said  "We are looking into it as a suspicious death."  "We met with the (district attorney general) and he asked us to look into it more, to review it and come back and meet with him again."

Carter was 46 when she died March 27, 2008, at the University of Tennessee Medical Center after a nine-day stay at Hillcrest North.   The autopsy report by Knox County Medical Examiner Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan concluded, "Because of the nursing home neglect, the manner of death is homicide." The report states, "Linda Carter died of dehydration due to inadequate care following multiple blunt force injuries due to (an) automobile accident."

Carter suffered injuries including a closed head injury in a Feb. 8, 2008, car crash and was recovering at the University of Tennessee Medical Center before being transferred to Hillcrest on March 18, 2008, to continue her recovery, according to the March 9 lawsuit against Hillcrest Healthcare North and Hillcrest Healthcare LLC.

Hillcrest "failed to provide adequate fluids for the decedent to survive, not to mention heal and/or attempt to heal from her injuries.," the lawsuit claims. The suit also alleges that Hillcrest "failed to maintain accurate medical records, develop and implement a nursing care plan regarding her condition during her stay, and to properly track the progress and treatment of her health care issues."

The lawsuit was filed  "just to prevent it from happening to anyone else, to make sure no one else's mother, grandmother or grandfather" go through the same thing.   "You expect better care under someone who is professional. You would expect to be taken care of - not neglected."

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