Articles Tagged with nursing home abuse attorney

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We all know nursing home abuse is far too common in elder care facilities across the U.S. But a new study suggests it’s not only the staffers that residents and their families have to fear. 

Reuters reports that researchers with Weill Cornell Medicine revealed the startling commonality of resident-on-resident nursing home abuse.

Of the 2,011 nursing home residents they tracked, 407 had been involved in at least one incident of abuse that involved another resident over the course of four weeks. That’s right, in just one month, 1 in every 5 residents suffered a resident-on-resident abuse incident.

Many of these cases involved verbal taunts, which were to blame in nearly half of the reported cases. However, physical assaults comprised 26 percent of the reported incidents. What’s more, these were only the incidents that were reported to researchers. There may be many more about which we do not know. Continue reading →

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Abuse of the elderly in Florida is on the rise, according to a recent investigation by the Orlando Sentinel. 

Although the news outlet did not offer a breakdown of whether the abuse suffered occurred in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes and assisted living centers, those too were included in the overall totals.

The newspaper noted there is no federal agency that keeps a detailed list of how many elderly people are abused and neglected, there are dozens of government agencies and social service providers that do follow what happens at both the state and local levels.  Continue reading →

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A jury in Colorado has awarded the family of a former patient $5.5 million in damages – which included $5 million in punitive damages – following the death of a patient in 2013, just six months after she was admitted. 

Attorneys who represented her family announced in a press release the record-setting award in that county, which was based on the fact that her death was reportedly preceded by months of repeated abuse and neglect. The damage award was imposed against both defendants, the nursing home itself and its corporate parent, Life Care Centers of America, Inc. In Florida, there are more than two dozen nursing homes owned by this same corporation, including two in Orlando and one in West Palm Beach.

The press release asserted this was a company that, like so many others, put profits ahead of patient care. There with issues with poor care, gaps in charting and staffing shortages – all of which resulted in a fatal outcome for decedent, plaintiff’s mother. Continue reading →

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An increasing number of nursing home abuse lawsuits boil down to this single question: Who signed the admissions contract?

Specifically at issue is who signed the provision compelling arbitration or agreeing to release the center from liability. The reason this question is central is because if the person who signed was not authorized to do so on behalf of the patient, the contract is invalid,. That means plaintiff has the right to sue.

In some cases, if the patient personally signed the contract, was he or she legally fit to do so? Many times, the answer is no, and that too can work in a plaintiff’s favor.

This issue was recently underscored by The New York Times, which highlighted a 2009 case in which a nursing home resident was murdered by her roommate. Her son sought to hold the nursing home accountable for this violent act.  Continue reading →

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A former nursing home owner is being held personally responsible to pay $1.6 million after a court found he tried to transfer money from the facility’s bank accounts to avoid payment of previous court judgments handed down for abuse of residents. 

According to media reports of the case, one of the earlier judgments against his facility was for $1.21 million, and was to go to three daughters, the surviving family members of a woman who had been abused at his nursing home in Oklahoma. The women had sued the owner for mental and physical abuse.

That abuse, which was captured on video, showed staff at the nursing home stuffing a rubber glove into the elderly woman’s mouth, slapping her about the head and face, forcefully throwing her down on to the bed and hitting her on the chest.

Continue reading →
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The largest nursing home rehabilitation therapy provider in the nation has agreed to a $125 million settlement after federal prosecutors accused the firm of submitting phony Medicare claims. 

RehabCare, a subsidiary of Kindred Healthcare Inc., Kentucky-based company, and operators of four facilities, allegedly submitted claims for Medicare service bills that were either not reasonable, not necessary or that simply never occurred.

Why does this matter to patients in nursing homes? First, this is far from an isolated incident. Secondly, when a nursing home or other care facility is more interested in stacking its dollars than in making sure its patients get the right level of care based on their individual needs, patients are at risk for illness, injury and even death. Continue reading →

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Trial of a $4 million nursing home negligence lawsuit has commenced, with representatives for the alleged victim asserting the people who were supposed to care for her were negligent in their duty, resulting in severe injury.

According to court documents in Carmon-Rogers v. Sentara Life Care Corp., the patient, a widow, had resided in the nursing home since 2008, after suffering a stroke. She was a full-assist patient, meaning she depended on the nursing staff to meet all of her basic daily needs. As she was unable to get out of bed, she was not able to reposition herself regularly, as necessary to prevent pressure sores.

In March 2014, plaintiff alleges a licensed practical nurse was changing patient’s bed linens when patient was rolled onto her right side at the edge of the bed. The bed linens were then pulled out from underneath her, and the patient rolled out of bed, falling onto the floor. As a result, patient suffered fractures to her right shoulder, left leg, right foot, right ankle and right lower leg. The leg fractures were potentially life-threatening because the tibia became detached from her foot.

But it got worse. Continue reading →

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When it comes to neglect and abuse in nursing homes, it can be difficult to confirm suspicions. Patients are often either afraid or unable to come forward about what is happening to them. This vulnerability is what makes them such easy targets in the first place.

This is why many family members seek to substantiate their concerns by installing an in-room electronic monitoring system, sometimes referred to as a hidden camera or “granny cam.” These clips can be useful in both criminal and civil liability cases, as it reveals the way staffers behave when they think no one is looking. Illinois has just passed a measure, effective Jan. 1, 2016, that will explicitly allow cameras in nursing homes. That will make it one of five states that has granted this allowance.

However, they are in some places illegal. Florida, for example, has a strict statute concerning recording third parties recording individuals who do not consent to such action. Continue reading →

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Four nursing home workers have been arrested and the state attorney general in New York is continuing to investigate allegations the facility actively concealed abuse and neglect of vulnerable residents.

In all, there are 45 crimes listed in the indictment among the four workers, including:

  • willful violation of health laws
Continue reading →
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A special kind of impact-absorbing floor material was found to slash fall-related injuries by approximately 60 percent in Swedish nursing homes, according to a new study published in the journal Injury Prevention.

The lead author of the study noted the seriousness of falls for elderly in nursing homes, asserting they comprise nearly 70 percent of all falls among older people, who on average suffer three to four falls annually. Consequences can range from minor bruising and pain to hip fractures and head injuries.

Meanwhile in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports one of every three adults over the age of 65 will suffer a fall. Of those, about 25 percent will suffer a moderate-to-severe injury that will not only impair their mobility, but possibly put them at risk of serious infection or even death. The direct medical costs for these incidents pushes $35 billion a year.

Continue reading →
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