Articles Posted in Inadequate Nutrition

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A Georgia jury has awarded $43.5 million in damages related to the abuse and neglect of an 80-year-old man, Morris Ellison. Ellison was a resident of a nursing home where the ownership held title to a string of nursing facilities in and around the state of Georgia. Ellison eventually died in this nursing home.

Along with the neglect and possible abuse, Ellison was found to have been malnourished, dehydrated and lacking sufficient nursing and medical care, all of which was a contributing factor in hastening his death. But the background of this catastrophic case was that the nursing home owners had bilked Medicare and Medicaid out of tens of millions of dollars.

In this case, the nursing home’s individual owner and his wife ran three nursing facilities or long-term care facilities in Georgia. According to newspaper reports, this couple had a net worth of almost $100 million, relying almost exclusively on Medicaid and Medicare payments to operate their nursing home empire. According to the testimony in the case, one of the nursing home directors stated that the facilities were so lacking in funds that they were unable to pay for laundry, essential supplies and personnel wages for the nursing homes. The owners were systematically draining money out of the nursing homes, which resulted in a lack of food supplies, water, medicine, personnel and basic cleaning supplies.

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In a case that was filed in confidential style, Ms. Doe, an 85-year-old woman with dementia and other medical issues, lived in a nursing home that was owned by Kindred Healthcare Inc. A nursing aide penetrated Doe’s vagina with an object while the two were in a bathroom next to her room. Despite Doe’s heavy vaginal bleeding after the incident, Doe was not taken to the hospital for several days.

Doe was diagnosed later as having suffered vaginal trauma and bruising resulting from this sexual assault.

Doe’s family sued Kindred Healthcare claiming liability and injuries to Doe because of the sexual assault. The jury entered a verdict in favor of Doe’s representative in the amount of $2.01 million.

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Alice Horne was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes. She was confined to her bed at the Lexington Healthcare of Orland Park nursing home. Horne was 82 years old; the staff discovered bedsores on her heels and sacrum. The nursing home staff began repositioning her, but the staff did not notify Horne’s family about her condition.

The wounds on her heels and sacrum became infected, and Horne remained in pain until she died from unrelated causes several months later.

Horne’s family filed suit against the nursing home claiming that it had chosen not to provide adequate nutrition and to timely notify the family about Horne’s declining medical condition.

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