Articles Posted in Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect

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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 was entitled Know Your Rights, Benefits & Laws, and was produced to benefit tribal elders and seniors from all the San Diego County Indian tribes. Topics included Identity Theft, Medicare, Elder Abuse, Health and Well Being, and Social Security Benefits, and included a variety of speakers.

Mr. Walton addressed the issue of abuse and neglect in the custodial care setting, including nursing homes and assisted living facilities, and advised what to do to avoid abuse and neglect, and what to do if it occurs.

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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 report it. The three face misdemeanor charges of elder abuse and battery and failing to report.

According to a press release from the CDO, agents from the Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse received a report about “sexual misconduct” at the Idylwood Care Center. The report came from the California Department of Public Health in January after it received a tip from an anonymous source that certified nursing assistant Arnold Sampson was witnessed grabbing the testicles of a male resident and making crude comments. A criminal investigation was then commenced.

The investigation revealed that Sampson had abuse the resident on other occasions, and had threatened to continue to touch him to “torment him.”

A spokesman for the nursing home issued a statement saying that, “Idylwood has always placed the highest priority on ensuring the most responsible level of care for our residents. We have cooperated fully with the attorney general in this investigation and will continue to do so.”

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California Assembly Bill 313 would require nursing homes and residential care facilities to notify all residents and family members if the license of the facility is in jeopardy of being revoked. The bill, authored by Assemblyman Bill Monning, would require written notification “when its license is in jeopardy from serious deficiencies, revocation or suspension, or court proceedings.” The bill was instigated by events at a Santa Cruz nursing home were residents and those responsible for them were not given adequate notification before the license was revoked.

Source: theCalifornian.com

The nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at the Walton Law Firm represent seniors and dependent adults who have been victims of physical abuse in the nursing home, and those who have been neglected or received substandard care. Call (866) 607-1325 or complete on online for for a free and confidential consultation.

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The online magazine Long-Term Living has compiled a list of persons it has determined as the “most influential” in the long-term care industry. It prefaces its list with a kind of warning that the industry has a storied history “full of ups, downs, hair-raising regulation and heartwarming innovations.” The magazine doesn’t identify the “downs” or the “hair-raising regulations,” but a clue might be a name included on short list (that also includes the late Edward Kennedy).

The magazine has listed James L. Wilkes, II of the law firm Wilkes & McHugh, P.A. to the list of most influential persons in the long-term care industry. Based in Florida, Mr. Wilkes is a nationally recognized attorney who, like the Walton Law Firm, represents individuals and families who have been impacted by nursing home neglect, a far too common occurrence in American nursing homes. Mr. Wilkes is described as a “holy terror” to nursing homes, because of the lawsuits he files against them for “negligent resident care, often manifested by life-threatening pressure ulcers, falls, fractures, and assaults due primarily to alleged understaffing by large for-profit chains.”

Congratulations to Ms. Wilkes for his inclusion on this list, and for fighting the fight on behalf of abused and neglected nursing home residents everywhere.

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An elder abuse and neglect lawsuit has been filed on behalf of an elderly Korean-American woman who died last year after what the family alleges was abusive treatment by her caregivers. Kyong-hui Duncan died last June while her family was looking for a new nursing home to take her to after it became concerned about the care she was receiving.

When the family’s concerns began, Ms. Duncan’s grandson installed a security camera in her room. The camera wasn’t hidden, and caregivers knew about its presence, but family members became suspicious when they would frequently find the camera turned off when they came for visits.

Though the family claims the camera was often shut off by care providers during routine visits, images taken by the camera during one such visit show caregivers violently shaking Duncan as they attempt to place her in a wheelchair. The family adds that she would often be seen sitting in her room for hours, crying for help, sometimes upside down in her wheelchair, without any response from the attendants at the center. Bruises were also periodically found on her body, while an autopsy revealed toxins from medicines not prescribed by her doctors.

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The nursing home industry (and nursing home lawyers) was stunned earlier this year when a Humboldt County jury returned a class action verdict against the nursing home chain of $677 million dollars. The plaintiffs alleged, and the jury believed, that Skilled Healthcare, the owner of many nursing homes in several states, routinely understaffed its California nursing facilities, compromising patient care in an effort to maximize profits.

The case was a battle. ”Everything was fought tooth and nail,” Timothy Needham, lead trial lawyer for the team of plaintiff lawyers told the Times-Standard. The trial lasted six months. But the verdict was so big it created practical problems for the victors, and potentially fatal concerns for Skilled Healthcare, a publically traded company. Because of the size of the verdict, Skilled Healthcare could not afford to pay such a huge judgment and could not appeal the result (appeals require the posting of a bond, which is a percentage of the verdict), and the plaintiffs really didn’t want to take over the company. So, smartly, everyone agreed on a settlement.

It was announced yesterday that the verdict of $677 million was settled for $62.8 million.

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The giant nursing home neglect verdicts continue to come in around the country. Last week, a jury in Kentucky awarded the family of a neglected nursing home resident $42.75 million after the resident became lethally dehydrated and malnourished, and arrived at the hospital covered in bed sores. The resident died as a result.

According to news accounts, 92-year-old Joseph Offut had been a resident of Harborside nursing home for only nine days prior to his death. The World War II veteran had been very active up until the age of 90, when he suffered a stroke and was cared for by his wife of 58 years. Like many, after some difficult conversations the family ultimately decided that Mr. Offut needed professional care and placed him in a nursing home.

After his death, Offutt’s family filed a lawsuit for wrongful death against the nursing home’s parent company, Sunbridge Healthcare Corp. The lawsuit alleged that caregivers at the nursing home neglect Offut, causing him to suffer severe dehydration, malnutrition, decubitus ulcers, and ultimately death.

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It is being reported by California Watch that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigation what is being described as lax care at several California nursing homes, and even threatening criminal and civil actions against those homes. Specifically, the investigators will be examining the use of psychotropic drugs in these facilities and those injured by the misuse of such drugs. Also being investigated are the nursing homes that prematurely discharge patients whose condition requires them to stay.

The investigation was triggered in part by the federal health reform law that includes the Elder Justice Act. That act allows for the coordination between the U.S. attorney general’s office and local and state law enforcement to crack down on elder abuse and neglect. The Northern California office of the Justice Department retained the services of a consultant, who interviewed local ombudsmen’s offices about nursing home complaints. Out of those interviews, several facilities were identified.

U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag told California Watch that her office hired the consultant approximately two months ago, shortly after a California Watch article about the decline in the prosecution of elder abuse cases. “My office is in the process of evaluating the complaints our consultant gathered and will prosecute, to the fullest extent of the law, those individuals who are in violation of federal statutes,” Haag said in a written statement.

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This story makes one wonder what would happen if a hidden camera sting was done in every nursing home. The attorney general of New York placed a hidden camera in a single room of a long-term care facility, which resulted in an indictment against nine nurses, the nursing home, for a whopping 169 separate crimes.

The indictment filed in the case alleges 57 instances of neglect during a three-month period in 2009. With the family’s permission, a hidden camera was placed in the room of a 53-year-old resident who suffers from multiple sclerosis and other mental and physical illnesses. The video revealed that the nurses failed, on several occasions, to turn the patient regularly as required, failed to medicate as needed, treat his pressure ulcers, or even change the resident’s clothing. Of course, in the medical chart, these nurses stated that all this care had been provided. The fraudulent medical charting resulted in further criminal charges.

In interesting footnote to the story, when the alleged abuse revealed, several people came to The Record newspaper to tell their stories of abuse or neglect inside the facility, including unanswered call lights and untreated infections and bed sores.

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There has been a string of large verdicts against nursing homes for poor care. A few months ago, a Northern California jury returned a verdict of over $600 million against a nursing home chain for deliberately understaffing its homes and putting residents at risk. Two weeks ago an Orange County jury awarded $3.1 million in a case involving a morphine overdose. And last week, a Georgia jury awarded $43 million in a wrongful death lawsuit, believed to be the largest in the state’s history against a nursing home.

In the Georgia case, the surviving family members of 80-year-old Morris Ellison sued after their father died after a stay at the Moran Lake Nursing Home. Mr. Ellison fell numerous times in the home, including one fall that broke his hip. According to reports, the nursing home failed to notify doctors when Mr. Ellison suffered his fracture.

The nursing home was operated by a company called the Forum Group Corp., which was owned by attorney George Houser. Houser represented himself and the nursing home during the trial, and, of course, lost big. But after the verdict, things only got worse for Houser. Immediately after the verdict was rendered, Houser was arrested and taken into custody for contempt of court.

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