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It was announced this morning that six nursing home workers were arrested for playing a cruel prank on several residents at the Valley View Skilled Nursing Facility. According to a release from the California Attorney General’s office, the employees applied a slippery ointment cream over the bodies of seven elderly nursing home residents to make them “slippery” for the oncoming shift. It is believed that the residents were selected because all suffered from advanced dementia, and could not object to the mistreatment.

“As part of a cruel and shocking prank, these caregivers abused defenseless elders,” AG Jerry Brown said. “This is despicable behavior by people placed in a position of trust.”

After an investigation by the California Bureau of Elder Abuse, the district attorney’s office has filed a misdemeanor criminal charge against each employee for injury to elder or dependent adult; battery committed on elder or a dependent adult; conspiracy; and battery committed while on hospital property.

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San Diego’s 10News I-Team has conducted an investigation into what it is calling the chemical restraint of elderly residents of nursing homes. That is, using anti-psychotic drugs not necessarily for their prescribed use, but to control behavior in residents who otherwise wouldn’t be candidates for the drugs.

The investigation profiles the family of Dr. Keith Blair, a retired dentist, who died at age 86 after a stay at Arbor Hills Nursing Center in La Mesa. The family contends Dr. Blair’s death was expedited by the use of the anti-psychotic drugs Risperdal and Haldol that were given without consent. Both drugs contain warnings that state the drugs are “associated with an increased risk of mortality in elderly patients.”

Upon one visit to the nursing home to see her father, Marian Hollingsworth told the I-Team that her father was “completely out of it. I shook him on the bed, I hollered his name. I asked the nurse what was going on. I couldn’t wake him up. She said, ‘Oh, he was sleepy last night.'”

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A jury has awarded the family of a 76-year-old nursing home resident $114 million for egregious nursing home abuse and neglect. The family’s lawsuit against the nursing home alleged that the staff knew Juanita Jackson was at a high risk for falls but failed to take preventative measures. She fell within two weeks of admission and suffered a closed head trauma and fractured her upper arm, injuries from which she never fully recovered. The family also alleged that Integrated Health Services, the nursing home where Ms. Jackson lived, failed to provide the elder woman adequate care, including allowing her to become malnourished and dehydrated.

The verdict may not be all that it’s cracked up to be. According to news accounts, the nursing home quit defending itself in the lawsuit several weeks ago after many years of litigation, and the family was able to get a default judgment. The judge then asked the jury to determine the proper amount of damages. After some deliberation, the jury awarded $14 million in compensatory damages, and $100 million in punitive damages. The nursing home, of course, was not there to defend itself.

The family intends to do everything it can to collect on the judgment, and told the TheLedger.com that it was proud of itself for standing up for their mother.

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The family of a man who was found dead in a ditch near a freeway overpass is blaming a Long Beach hospital for his death. Joseph Castillo, 63, had apparently been dead for several days when his body was found near the 405 Freeway near the 710 Freeway off-ramp.

According to family, Castillo suffered from advanced cancer, dementia, and diabetes, and had a trachea tube in his throat when he was released from Pacific Hospital in Long Beach at 2:00 a.m. on the 4th of July. He had been taken there when he collapsed at home the day before. After spending several hours in the hospital, he was released from the hospital, where it appears he just walked away.

When Castillo didn’t return home, the hospital called the police to report him missing. Castillo’s daughter said her family was unaware that her father was going to be released from the hospital, and expected that she, or someone else from her family, would have received a call to take the dementia suffering Castillo home. She believes her father was released prematurely because he was a Medi-Cal patient, and that he would be alive today had the family been contacted.

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Johnnie Esco, age 77, was hospitalized because of pneumonia, and her husband of 61 years was at her bedside every day. When she recovered, she was sent to a local nursing home for physical therapy, to help her regain her strength, and then she was headed home, where she wanted to be. That day would never come.

After only two weeks in the nursing home, Johnnie’s health had deteriorated to the point that she needed an emergency transport to the hospital, where she died a short time later. Her family was stunned, and now believes that the nursing home’s failure to provide adequate care caused Johnnie’s death.

“If she had received proper care, she would still be alive today,” Johnnie’s husband Don told KCRA news.

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“Elvis impersonator Donald Trapani is about to leave the building. But not just yet.” So begins an article in yesterday Arizona Republic paper about hospice patient Donald Trapani, who spends his days entertaining his fellow hospice patients with his impersonation of Elvis Presley. What a nice story.

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READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE BY CLICKING HERE.

The nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at the Walton Law Firm represent seniors and disabled and dependent adults who have been abused or neglected in the skilled nursing facility, residential care facility for the elderly, and assisted living setting. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free and confidential consultation.

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Over the last six years, complaints against Ventura County nursing homes are up almost twentyfold despite a California law that pumped nearly $900 million of Medi-Cal money into nursing homes throughout California. Remarkably, just prior to receiving the additional funds, Ventura County ombudsmen filed only 10 complaints against local nursing facilities, yet over a the period of July 2009 to May 2010 the same ombudsmen filed 194 complaints.

“The numbers show that (the law) did not do what it was supposed to do: increase the quality of care for residents in nursing homes,” Sylvia Taylor Stein, executive director of the Long Term Care Services of Ventura County ombudsman program, told the Ventura County Star. “They were given a checkbook with no oversight.”

By way of example, Oxnard’s Shoreline Care Center received $877,356.00 in additional Medi-Cal funding from 2004 to 2008, but records show that the facility actually provided less nursing hours per patient per day than it did prior to the funding increase. It’s not surprising that the nursing home took in $4.1 million in profits after the law was passed.

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In an ongoing investigation, journalists Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein of ProPublica have a startling article out that says that more than 3,500 registered nurses with “clean” nursing licenses from the State of California have been punished for misconduct in other states. According to the article, approximately 2,000 of these nurses will now face discipline in California.

The article states that California officials won’t disclose the names of nurses who were discovered to have disciplinary records until charges are filed, but will be filing emergency petitions with the board for nurses who are viewed as a threat to public safety.

Weber and Ornstein easily uncovered cases involving current California nurses. Here’s a sampling:

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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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Closing arguments began in what is now one of the longest trials in Humboldt County history involving allegations of neglect at 21 nursing homes owned by Skilled Healthcare. Michael Thamer, a lawyer dedicated to defending the rights of nursing home residents, will argue that Skilled Healthcare, because of deliberate decisions to keep nursing home staff at the lowest possible numbers, repeatedly exposed its residents to substandard care, including the failure to regularly bathe its patients, allowing residents to lie in soiled bed sheets for hours, and failing to treat bed sores.

”In my opinion, they (staff members) are set up to fail before they even start,” Thamer told the court.

Under California law, nursing must provide at least 3.2 hours of nursing care per resident, per day. These hourly requirements apply to direct patient care, and must be performed by registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses and certified nursing assistants. According to the plaintiff, Skilled Healthcare totally failed in this regard, and regularly understaffed its facilities for financial gain.

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