Nursing Home Fall Cases

February 6, 2015

Report Shows That Nursing Home Residents Are Found to be Abused in One of Three Nursing Homes

It is not new that nursing home residents are too often at risk for abuse, neglect and injury in the more than 17,000 nursing home facilities operating in the United States. Too many times these facilities are understaffed or staffed with untrained or unskilled workers. All of this results in many reports of serious physical, verbal and even sexual abuse in Illinois nursing homes and in other states.

It has been more than a decade since there was a two-year investigative study completed that found more than 9,000 instances of abuse. The most common abuse problems are untreated bedsores followed by inadequate medical care, malnutrition, dehydration, falls, inadequate hygiene and cases of wandering residents.

The aging of adult Americans places even more stress on nursing home facilities and long-term care facilities in which the aging are most likely to be residing. The cost of maintaining a resident at a qualified nursing home is now out of reach for many families. Many times a family member or a loved one becomes unmanageable at home because of illness, injury, age, dementia or other onset of the conditions related to aging.

October 8, 2014

Resident’s Fall at Nursing Home Leads to $1.25 Million Settlement

by Robert Kreisman

John Tully, 80, had a history of an unsteady gait. He was living at a nursing home owned and managed by the California Department of Veteran Affairs. Tully had fallen twice within a 10-day period and, as a result of his last fall, he fractured his spine. Complications from that fall included the loss of use of his legs; he now requires a catheter to urinate and must undergo a fecal removal procedure three times a week.

Aided by his attorneys, Stephen Garcia and William M. Artigliere, Tully filed a lawsuit against the Veterans Administration alleging that its nursing care was negligent in allowing him to walk without the assistance of a walker, which resulted in his first fall. They also alleged that the facility’s nursing assistant attempted to transfer Tully using a mechanical lift without proper knowledge on how to do so, which led to his second and most damaging fall.

The lawsuit also alleged that the defendant’s employees chose not to provide a proper medical evaluation after the first fall and did not timely inform Tully’s family about these two incidents. The defendant denied the allegations of the lawsuit; however, the case settled before trial for $1,250,000.

September 16, 2014

Nursing Home Resident Suffers Fractures and Settles for $1.5 Million for Injuries

by Robert Kreisman

Peter Piel, 62, resided at the Mirajoy Home. When a nurse’s aide attempted to transfer Piel from his bed to a shower chair, he fell, hitting his head, fracturing his left hip and injuring his right leg. He required surgery for the hip and was diagnosed as having brain damage and chronic pain. His injuries and permanent condition are all related to his fall at the assisted living facility.

Through his guardian, Piel filed a lawsuit against the nursing home and its owner claiming improper staffing and training. Among other things, the lawsuit claimed that there should have been two aides transferring Piel to that shower chair.

The defendants argued that his injuries were not related to his fall. They contended that the aide had caught him before he hit the floor and that his injuries were not as significant as claimed. Before the case went to trial, the parties settled for $1,500,000. The attorneys representing Piel’s guardian were Michael F. Moran and Alexander H. Feldman.

August 5, 2014

Jury Enters Record-Setting $43.5 Million Nursing Home Abuse Case for the Neglect of an 80-Year-Old Man

by Robert Kreisman

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.

May 6, 2014

Florida State Senate Has Passed the Bill That Would Limit Jury Verdicts in Nursing Home Abuse Cases

by Robert Kreisman

In a measure passed by the Florida State Senate, lawsuits that allege nursing home abuse could be subject to smaller awards. The bill would shield many private equity firms that own nursing homes around the state of Florida. The bill is directed to shield from financial exposure in lawsuits for those in ownership positions and take no active role in the management of the facilities. It would limit actions against any ownership party who had no impact on the day-to-day activities in the nursing home facility.

The proponents of the bills say its purpose is to allow for private equity firms and other private investors to take a more active role in investing in nursing home facilities in the state.

According to the report, this bill was targeted at Tampa attorney James Wilkes, who has a reputation for successfully representing plaintiffs in nursing home abuse cases. The bill has the support of the Florida Healthcare Association, AARP, the Florida Justice Association, which represents a host of Florida trial lawyers.

December 2, 2013

Cases of Nursing Home Abuse Go Uninvestigated

by Robert Kreisman

The state of California recently reported that long-term facilities across that state were the subject of elder abuse, but the resolutions of those cases were incomplete. These nursing home facilities have been the site of resident injuries and deaths. A state investigation found that the Department of Public Health chose not to investigate accusations of abuse of nursing assistants in many of those facilities across the state or there were open and unresolved cases.

In one instance, a resident at an assisted living facility in southern California believed that she would be safe there. Instead, the 95-year-old died from injuries she sustained while at the assisted living facility. Seven years after her untimely death, the family is still waiting for answers from investigators at the California Department of Public Health. This apparently is not an uncommon occurrence.

The nursing home facility claimed that the resident, Elsie, had died from injuries that she sustained when she fell. However, it was stated by a former nursing director at the same facility that Elsie’s injuries came as a result of being punched by a nursing home assistant.

September 12, 2013

$28 Million Jury Verdict in Nursing Home False Claims and Whistleblower Act Fraud Case

by Robert Kreisman

Two former employees of Momence Meadow Nursing Center, Vanessa Absher and Lynda Mitchell, asserted that Momence Meadows and its owner, Jacob Graff, consistently chose not to provide nursing home residents with the adequate care. It was alleged that the nursing home staff allowed patients to suffer neglect, lack of medical care and food, lying in urine- and feces- soaked beds, not receiving required prescribed medications and suffering ongoing outbreaks of skin disorders and infections, including bed sores and at least 6 deaths attributable to defendants’ failure of care.

The plaintiffs, the individual whistleblowers and the United States contended that the defendants chose not to meet the Illinois Department of Public Health’s minimum staffing requirements. It was claimed that the defendants were guilty of grossly inadequate staffing levels and knowingly submitted thousands of false claims for payment to Medicare and Medicaid, forged and destroyed medical documents and staffing logs to conceal the inadequate care, instructed the nursing staff not to log negative information related to patient care such as falls and missed meals and medication, and routinely ripped out pages from medical records that would have shown lapses in care. The defendants were alleged to have then replaced medical records with more favorable entries and even forged nurses’ signatures.

During the employment of Absher and Mitchell, they repeatedly complained to the nursing homes’ management and reported several incidents to the Illinois Department of Public Health nursing home hotline.

September 11, 2013

Nursing Home Resident’s Family Receives $1.75 Million Settlement for Failure to Provide Fall Prevention Procedures and Pain Management

by Robert Kreisman

An 86-year-old nursing home resident fell as many as 12 times during her stay. This led to the need for a wheelchair. The resident, Ms. Doe, required pain management because of her injuries. A staff member at the nursing home was alleged to have stolen the pain medicine from Ms. Doe.

After Ms. Doe’s death, her family brought a lawsuit against the nursing home claiming that it chose not to implement fall-prevention procedures. In addition, it was claimed in the lawsuit that the nursing home chose not to properly care for Ms. Doe’s needs or perform timely reviews to ensure that she was receiving the care that she required. It was also maintained in the lawsuit that Ms. Doe did not receive the necessary medication because staff members of the nursing home were stealing her pain medicine.

The defendant denied these allegations, but settled the case with a confidentiality condition before trial for $1,750,000.

August 20, 2013

Nursing Home Employee Reveals Resident Bed Sores and Other Nursing Home Abuses by Photography

by Robert Kreisman

A former nursing home employee reported to state health officials that he witnessed severe neglect at the nursing home in which he worked, including a resident’s severe bed sores, an elderly resident lying in a pool of urine and another resident who had fallen and was calling for help, yet remained unattended. These reports of abuse were photographed by the former nursing home employee and reported to the state health officials. The nursing home employee was then fired after being temporarily suspended.

The trial court has allowed a proceeding to take place with the former employee’s whistle-blowing lawsuit as well as his wrongful termination case. The nursing home had moved to dismiss the lawsuit, which resulted in a temporary shutdown of the rehabilitation center located in Tennessee.

According to the attorney for the nursing home employee, the man was fired in retaliation for “doing the right thing.” The nursing home claims that the employee violated work rules and patient privacy laws by using his cell phone to take photographs of the conditions at the nursing facility.