Articles Posted in Dependent Adult Abuse

September 19, 2013

Consumer Advocates at the Heart of Assisted Living Reform

Earlier this month, UT San Diego published a news story about a report it co-authored with the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF). What was the story about? The dismal state of assisted living homes in California. This may not come as a surprise to some of us, given that California nursing homes earned a “C” grade in a report card published by Families for Better Care. For many of us, however, it’s shocking and disheartening to learn that so many of the assisted living facilities and nursing homes in our state aren’t passing master.

So what’s being done? On the heels of the CHCF report, UT San Diego released a story about consumer advocates in California and the work they’re doing to encourage assisted living reform in our state. Specifically, Chris Murphy, 67, of San Diego, and Chrisy Selder, 34, of La Mesa, have personally taken up the cause. According to UT San Diego, “the two women are leading a small but hard-hitting campaign to draw attention to a side of long-term care in San Diego that most people have never seen.”

Hand%20in%20Water.jpg Are you concerned about the kind of care your elderly loved one currently receives? No one should have to worry about nursing home abuse and neglect. The experienced nursing home abuse attorneys at the Walton Law Firm can answer your questions today.

November 16, 2012

Somebody Call 911!

by Walton Law Firm

Families with loved ones in adult care facilities are pushing for new legislation that will affect how the facilities handle missing patient situations according to a recent article in the Mercury News. The legislation is not up for a vote yet, but if enacted, the law will require care facilities to contact authorities immediately once a resident is discovered missing or has failed to return at a scheduled time.

The two incidents highlighted in the article involve situations where mentally impaired adults went missing for several hours from the facilities whose care they were under. The facilities did not act quickly in either case.

Yolanda Membreno was an 86-year-old mentally impaired woman under the care of Julia’s Home. She went missing from the home on September 30th of this year. According to Roy Roberto, the man who operates Julia’s Home, their established protocol is to conduct their own search before contacting the police. In Membreno’s case, the staff followed protocol but that meant waiting an hour before contacting the police. Membreno was found dead on a playground only 100 yards away from the entrance to the care facility just a few hours after she went missing.

October 26, 2012

Frequent Financial Scams

by Walton Law Firm

Many individuals automatically assume that issues of elder or dependent adult abuse strictly involve physical or mental abuse occurring within nursing facilities or perpetrated by in-home caregivers. Individuals see images of bed sores where patients were not rotated correctly or bruises from an abusive caregiver who became impatient with someone and beat them. These are obviously serious instances of abuse, but there is another way that elder abuse rears its ugly head: financial scams.

Scam artists have prey on the knowledge that the elderly and dependant adults are not always fully aware of their finances. These individuals often suffer from dementia or other mental diseases, leaving them with a diminished mental capacity. Scam artists play off of that reduced capacity and use it to scam these individuals out of sums of money both large and small. The examples below are some of the common schemes that criminals use to pick at elderly and dependant adults and their bank accounts.

Home Repair

September 26, 2012

Who Can You Trust for In-Home Care?

by Walton Law Firm

Two caregivers are charged with physically abusing a young autistic man inside his family’s home. This story emphasizes the serious issue of whether or not you can trust your in-home caregiver. The U-T San Diego recently reported that two men, Michael Dale Garritson, 61, and Matthew Alexander McDuffie, 27, were charged with abuse after a secret video showed them physically abusing the 23-year-old autistic man, Jamey Oakley – hundreds of times over a three-week period.

This latest news story screams several questions that anyone who employs in-home care must be dying to ask.

How Did This Abuse Happen?

July 19, 2011

Glendale Nursing Home Criminally Indicted After Patient Death

by Walton Law Firm

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 was the third time Morrill attempted suicide.

“On and between January 22, 2009 and February 28, in the County of Los Angeles, the said Verdugo Valley Skilled Nursing Wellness Center and Phyllis Paver did, under circumstances and conditions likely to produce great bodily hard and death, knowingly and willfully cause and permit Charles Morrill, a dependent adult, to suffer, and inflicted theron, unjustifiable physical pain and mental suffering and, having the care and custody of said person, willfully caused and permitted him to be placed in a situation in which his health was endangered, and knew and reasonably should have known that said person, Charles Morrill, was a dependent adult.”

The indictment came after an investigation by the California Department of Public Health, which had a long history with the facility. Glendale Police told reporters that over the last few years it had received numerous calls about residents wandering away from the facility, 911 hang ups, and accusations of assaults at the nursing home.

April 12, 2011

San Diego County Pays $2 Million To Settle Wrongful Death Case

by Walton Law Firm

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 circumstances (to say the least).

According to news accounts, in the early hours of May 30, 2010 the 50-year-old Stovall, who had a preexisting leg wound, fell out of his bed and on to the floor. His leg began to bleed profusely while on the floor, but he could not reach his call light. His roommates were alerted by his fall, and began using their own call lights to summon help. The nurses on duty did not respond. A half-hour later, a nursing assistant entered Stovall’s room and found him on the floor in a pool of blood and with labored and erratic breathing.

Even after being discovered, Stovall did not receive appropriate care. It was nearly 15 minutes later that the nursing assistant called a supervisor, who, after assessing the situation, told the nursing home staff to call 911. When medics arrived an hour-and-a-half after Stovall’s fall from bed, it was too late. He died minutes before they arrived.

The Stovall family hired attorney William Berman to investigate and prosecute a civil lawsuit against the County of San Diego for Stovall’s death. Berman’s investigation revealed a cover-up at the facility, which no doubt contributed heavily to the County’s decision to pay such a large settlement.

February 23, 2011

San Diego Mother and Son Face Charges of Criminal Neglect of Disabled Adult

by Walton Law Firm

Jeremy Marlow suffered from cerebral palsy and died at the young age of 28. But police believe that his death had nothing to do with his affliction, and everything to do with the way he was treated by his mother and brother in their El Cajon apartment. Deborah Marlow and her son Christopher Marlow will stand trial in June on charges of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Jeremy, who was living with the defendants at the time of his death.

An investigation was triggered when Christopher Marlow called 911 to report that his brother Jeremy was having trouble breathing. When paramedics arrived, they discovered an apartment full of rotting food, animal waste, and trash. In his filthy bed, paramedics found Jeremy weighing less than 100 pounds. He was taken to a local hospital where he died five days later.

In addition to charges of involuntary manslaughter, the defendants have been charged with neglect of a dependent adult causing great bodily injury, as well as charges of animal cruelty.

January 12, 2011

Younger Patients Ending Up in Nursing Homes

by Walton Law Firm

The Washington Post is out with an interesting article about a growing national trend – younger patients are ending up in nursing homes. According to the article, approximately one in seven nursing home residents in the United States is under the age of 65, a number that has grown significantly just in the last eight years. This development has raised all kinds of issues for the nursing homes that take these younger patients like Adam Martin, at 26-year-old quadriplegic who is living in a nursing home.

“It’s just a depressing place to live,” Martin says. “I’m stuck here. You don’t have no privacy at all. People die around you all the time. It starts to really get depressing because all you’re seeing is negative, negative, negative.”

Older residents have their own issues with it as well, and frequently complain about loud music and rowdy visitors. And while most nursing homes try to house younger residents together, new steps are being taken to address this growing problem.

June 23, 2010

Abuse of Disabled in Nursing Homes Not Treated as Crime Study Says

by Walton Law Firm

Disability Rights California, a non-profit that advocates for the rights of the disabled, recently released a report finding that the physical abuse of disabled adults in nursing homes are frequently not treated as crimes. The study analyzed 12 cases, including the following

• For months, a middle aged nursing home resident suffering from cerebral palsy with cognitive impairment was paraded naked and soaking wet in front of others after being forced by staff to take cold showers. Despite many witnesses, nothing was done.

• A disabled resident in his 40s was punched in the mouth by a staff member and then slapped, drawing blood. When he complained, it took days for the facility to report it to authorities. No charges were brought.

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