Southern California elder abuse occurs with surprising frequency, affecting thousands of area seniors. Unfortunately, in many ways it remains a hidden problem because most cases of elder abuse and neglect are never reported and wrongdoers are rarely held accountable for their conduct. This sad reality was brought home in an…
A skilled nursing facility in Montrose was indicted for criminal abuse and neglect after a committed suicide by discharging a fire extinguisher down his throat. A grand jury indictment asserts that the facility, Wellness Centre, and its former administrator were complicit in the death of 34-year-old patient Charles Morrill. It…
Iris Ramirez owns four residential care facilities for the elderly in San Diego called Ambassador Senior Retreat. Those facilities, like all licensed RCFE facilities in California, are overseen by the California Department of Social Services – Community Care Licensing (CCL). That means licenses can only be issued by CCL, inspections…
A patient at the San Diego Health Center nursing home wandered away from the nursing facility on Wednesday and police have been unable to locate her. Verna Blalock, 76, who suffers from dementia was last seen at the facility located on Meadowlark Drive near Starling Drive. San Diego Health Center…
Attorney Randy Walton was invited by the Intertribal Court of Southern California to speak on the issue of elder abuse and nursing home abuse and neglect. The event took place on June 15, 2011 and was hosted by the San Pasqual Band of Indians. Approximately 100 people attended. The event…
Many elderly people use them in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and the product in their own homes. They are “bed handles,” manufactured and sold by a company called Bed Handles, Inc, a bedside rail of sorts created to allow users easier ingress and egress from bed. Now, Public Citizen,…
The family of an 84-year-old nursing home resident was stunned to learn the cause of their father’s death – an overdose of morphine. They were doubly stunned when then also learned that there was no order by a physician prescribing the drug. The case is the focus of a criminal…
The County of San Diego has agreed to pay $2 million to the family of Alton Stovall Sr., who died in the county-run skilled nursing facility Edgemoor Hospital. The payment was the result of a lawsuit brought against the facility for the neglect of Stovall, who died under very suspicious…
Prime Healthcare Services is a Southern California company well known for turning around troubled hospitals. It also happens to be the subject of a federal investigation for possible overbilling in relation to an outbreak of septicemia. Last week’s release of an investigation by the San Diego Union Tribune and California…
Law enforcement officers from the California Department of Justice arrested a San Jose nursing home employee on suspicion of elder abuse after it was learned the employee, according to new accounts, “yanked on the elderly man’s genitalia.” Two other employees were arrested for knowing about the abuse, and failing to…