Justia Lawyer Rating for Robert D. Kreisman

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A 15-year-old boy, Kevin Barr, who had cerebral palsy and seizure disorder, lived at a residential care facility. Early one morning, staff at the home found Kevin unresponsive. Emergency personnel were called one hour later. However, Kevin died before the paramedics arrived at the scene. Kevin is survived by his parents and a sibling.

Kevin’s parents, individually, and Kevin’s mother on his behalf, filed a lawsuit against the residential care facility. In the lawsuit it was alleged that the care facility had chosen not to administer a critical anti-seizure medication to Kevin and then lied to the family, stating that the facility had “done everything it could” to care for Kevin before his death.

The lawsuit also charged that the defendant residential care facility had failed to promptly call 911, lied to the police by telling them Kevin’s medical file was unavailable and failed to inform the police that Kevin had missed a dose of his critically important anti-seizure medicine.

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Mary, 77, suffered from an end-stage renal disease and required a wheelchair due to left-sided weakness that resulted from a stroke. Mary lived at a nursing home facility, Beachwood Pointe Care Center, with her husband who also used a wheelchair.

When the nursing home’s staff chose not to bring Mary to the facility’s dining room, her husband threw a belt over his shoulder and “towed” Mary — in her wheelchair — to the eating area. As the couple rounded a corner, Mary’s wheelchair caught on a doorframe, which caused her to fall to the floor. Mary suffered a broken leg in the fall, but it went undiagnosed for two days until the nursing home’s staff at her dialysis center noticed the injury and sent her to the hospital.

After Mary returned to the nursing home, she developed multiple bed sores. This included two Stage IV sores on her buttocks, which became infected and led to sepsis from which she later died.

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Edward Fiala and his wife were residents of Bickford Senior Living Group. He was confined to a wheelchair and suffered from a disorder that affected his motor control and cognition. The healthcare power of attorney was held by Fiala and his children. The nursing home staff from the beginning of his residency were instructed that Fiala was not to get any medicine without their prior consent and that Paxil specifically was prohibited. These instructions were made apparent in Fiala’s nursing home medical chart.

In spite of that specific instruction, the nursing home staff members, who found Fiala difficult, administered Paxil and other medicines from time to time. There was no prior consent to allow it over the original instructions prohibiting it.

Fiala believed that the staff gave him medication to chemically sedate him to make him easier to work with. Sometimes, the drugs left him in a catatonic state. Other times the medicine caused him to be agitated and behave violently.

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A new Illinois law related to nursing homes went into effect on Jan. 1, 2016. The law states, “A resident shall be permitted to conduct authorized electronic monitoring of the resident’s room through the use of electronic monitoring devices placed in the room pursuant to this act,” Section 10(a).

This new statute places ownership and control of the electronic monitoring process in the hands of the resident. “A resident choosing to conduct authorized electronic monitoring must do so at his or her expense, including paying purchase, installation, maintenance and removal costs,” Section 25.

Because of the authority of the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act, once a video recording is made in a resident’s room under this legislation, it is not permitted to be destroyed. Under the Nursing Home Care Act, “no person shall: Intentionally prevent or interfere with the preservation of evidence pertaining to any violation of this act or the rules promulgated under this act.” 210 ILCS 45/3-318(a)(4) (2015).

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In an interesting Louisiana Supreme Court case, it was held that in the matter of Lessie Porter, a nursing home resident at Southern Oaks Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, her abuse and treatment by a nursing home nurse was not a medical malpractice issue under the state’s Medical Malpractice Act. The court ruled that the treatment was not such that mandated the case to be handled under the Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act, La. Rev. Stat. Ann. ¶ 40: 1299.41.

In this matter, Porter, the nursing home resident, on one particular evening began leaving her room by crawling down a hallway. The attending nurse became frustrated and asked several nursing assistants to drag Lessie to her bed. Lessie was then dragged across a brick floor and injected with a tranquilizer.

Before she died, she sued the nursing home for her injuries claiming negligence, breach of contract and breach of the state’s nursing home resident’s bill of rights. The nursing home moved for summary judgment claiming that the claim brought by Porter fell under the Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act (MMA) which required involvement of a medical review panel. Lessie’s family also moved for partial summary judgment. The trial judge ruled in favor of her family holding that her claims were not medical treatment related.

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Ms. Doe, 82, lived at an assisted living facility. While she was there she fell, suffering a neck fracture and a myocardial infarction. In other words, not only did she sustain a fractured neck but she had a heart attack as well. Ms. Doe died two hours later. She was survived by her four adult children.

The lawsuit that was filed against the assisted living facility by the family alleged that the owner and operator of the facility chose not to implement fall precautions and properly monitor Ms. Doe or transfer her to a skilled nursing facility in light of her condition. Ms. Doe had dementia and a history of previous falls.

The defendant assisted living facility operator maintained that Ms. Doe’s cardiac event, her heart attack, was unrelated to her fall. When admitting a new resident, nursing homes and assisted living facilities go through a checklist of fall protection issues. Fall prevention in nursing home and assisted living facilities is a major focus for quality improvement in patient safety. The best way to prevent falls is to complete a thorough fall risk assessment on the first day of admission at any nursing home or assisted living facility. Significantly, these fall protection plans must be implemented to reduce the number of falls or the risks of future falls. Despite the best efforts of assisted living facilities and nursing homes, the elderly or infirm are susceptible to falls, which cause serious injuries.

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A Cook County jury signed a $150,600 jury verdict for injuries suffered by Ruth Ratowitz on Oct. 17, 2011. She was wheelchair-bound and was being transported by Rich Township to and from her healthcare appointment at Ingalls Memorial Hospital’s Professional Office Building in Harvey, Ill. She was 67 years old at the time. The transportation program was sponsored by the Rich Township Dial-A-Ride Program for Rich Township residents.

The township provided the transportation in a van specifically outfitted with a Q’Straint Restraint System for the purpose of keeping passengers secure in wheelchairs.

The plaintiff filed this lawsuit against the Rich Township and its driver, Horace Morgan, claiming that they chose not to properly secure her wheelchair in the van for the return trip and was speeding and making sharp turns during the transit causing her to fall from her wheelchair inside the van where she suffered a fractured tibia.

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William Dieser, 58, underwent surgery at St. Anthony’s Medical Center in St. Louis County, Mo. Several days later, he developed a black spot on his coccyx. The black spot turned out to be a Stage IV pressure sore, which required surgery and removal of his coccyx, low back, buttocks and anus. As a result, he required dressing changes and plastic surgery over the next year.

Dieser filed a lawsuit against the hospital claiming that it chose not to prevent and properly treat the pressure sore. He alleged that the hospital staff should have timely turned him and provided adequate nutrition, among other things.

The lawsuit did not allege lost time from work. After the jury deliberated, it entered a verdict of $883,000.

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The Illinois Appellate Court for the First District has affirmed in part and vacated in part a decision of the Circuit Court of Cook County. In January 2011, Robert Holman was a resident at a long-term care facility in Chicago called the Renaissance at Midway. On or near Jan. 22, 2011, he was assaulted by another resident of the long-term care facility. His left eye was injured, which severely impaired his vision.

Johnnie Stuckey, Holman’s sister, as well as his attorney, filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Public Health. On April 13, 2012, the department report showed that Holman had been assaulted by his roommate who had “become physically aggressive toward staff and pushed staff on [a] bed” in early January. The roommate, identified only as John Doe, was described in the report as “severely demented.”

Stuckey sent several discovery requests seeking information about John Doe. The defendant, the Renaissance at Midway, refused to comply, arguing that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prevented Renaissance from responding to the discovery requests, which in addition to his name included requests for Doe’s address, criminal background and history in the facility as well as his medical charts.

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The nursing home real estate trust investment company, Extended Care Real Estate Trust Investments, which operated 146 skilled nursing facilities in 11 states, was found to have over-billed Medicare and Medicaid, provided substandard and essentially worthless nursing care and put in place worthless rehabilitation therapy.

Two private citizens, including the entities’ area director of rehabilitation, brought separate whistleblower lawsuits under the federal False Claims Act on behalf of the United States and themselves. It was alleged that Extended Care bilked Medicare and Medicaid for nursing services that they didn’t provide or failed to meet federal and state standards in 33 of the skilled nursing homes in multiple states. These states included Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Washington.

The lawsuit alleged that Extended Care chose not to provide an adequate number of skilled nurses and sufficient catheter care and failed to prevent pressure ulcers or falls to its many residents.

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