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

Grace Miller is an 87-year-old resident of Dorchester Senior Center, a south suburban assisted living facility in Dolton, Ill.   Miller claims she was unfairly and forcibly evicted from her home for a second time.  The 87-year-old says she moved from Nebraska into the Dorchester Senior Center as a part of what she believes to be her spiritual ministry.   Miller served in the military during World War II.   Dorchester Senior Center is managed by the daughter of town's mayor, whose name is Angelic Lewis.

Miller says the trouble started after other residents began to join her in complaining about the facility and how it is run.  Miller received a non-voluntary removal in March but appealed it and was allowed to stay.  Residents say Miller-- who must use a wheelchair-- was ordered by Lewis to be handcuffed and restrained after she, once again, complained about the food served at the facility.  At the demand of the nursing home, police forcibly removed her from her unit at an assisted living community because of what she calls a vendetta against her by the facility's manager.

"They literally cuffed my feet and cuffed my hands and lifted me out of my chair, and I want you to know, before they cuffed by hands, I took a swing at one of them. I think I slapped one of them pretty good," Miller said.

 Witnesses claim Lewis then had officers take Miller to a Hammond, Ind., hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.  When Miller returned to the Dorchester the next day, she discovered the locks to her apartment door had been changed and that she had been evicted by the management company hired by the village to run the facility.

Several residents claim the Dorchester has been cited for violations by the Illinois Department of Public Aid more than a half-dozen times since January.

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Tulsa World had an article about a nursing home employee who reported neglect and abuse at a nursing home, and was subsequently fired from her job despite her affirmative duty to report such incidents.  This is outrageous.  This employee did exactly what she was supposed to do and the nursing home fired her for it.  She is now suing Cimarron Pointe Care Center and one of its contractors for wrongful termination.  Is it any wonder why many nurses look the other way when residents are abused and neglected?

In the lawsuit, Harris said she worked as a housekeeper at the facility. She was paid by Health Care Services Group, a Tulsa company contracted by the home to provide cleaning services, and supervised by nursing home staff.   During her employment, she observed numerous instances of improper care of the home's residents.

"Mrs. Harris observed a male resident who had been left in his own waste for so many hours that he had feces caked on to his leg from his hip to below his knee, and had wet himself at least one time."   She saw the man sitting in his waste and reported it to her supervisor, the head nurse and two nurse's aides. Her supervisor sprayed deodorant in the man's room to cover the smell. The aides said they would leave him for the next shift.

"Two and a half hours later, he was still sitting in his own waste," Harris said. "He couldn't say nothing. I would always talk to him. He would just light up when I went to clean his room. It's heartbreaking when you see a resident not being taken care of."

Also, an elderly woman paralyzed from the waist down was left in her own waste, Harris said. She rolled out of the bed and into the hallway to get someone to change her soiled garments and the nurses "just laughed at her," Harris said.

"On another occasion, Ms. Harris brought the needs of another female resident to the attention of the nursing staff. The resident's needs were ignored, prompting the resident to write a letter to her family saying goodbye, in anticipation of death from neglect," the petition states.

Another female resident, who was unable to sit up alone, was left on a bench in the shower. She fell and hurt herself, the petition said.

Harris reported each instance of neglect or abuse to the facility's staff.  The home's administrator and a supervisor from Health Care Services Group of Tulsa, the contractor that paid Harris, fired her.   Of course, Cimarron Pointe Care Center denies any improper care of its residents. It also states that Harris was employed by Health Care Services Group, so the nursing home isn't responsible for her termination.   However, Ms. Harris was told that the only basis for her termination was her reporting of the abuse.  Ms. Harris had not done anything else to merit termination, and no other basis for termination were discussed or even suggested."

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