Articles Posted in Nursing Negligence

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The recent sentencing of a former nursing home administrator from a Lake Isabella facility is sure to send shockwaves throughout the nursing home community. Channel 17 KGET news recently reported that Pamela Ott, a former nursing home administrator, was sentenced to three years probation and 300 hours of community service for the actions committed by lower ranking staff while under her watch and her subsequent lack of action to prevent further crimes. The news station reported that this is the first time in the country that an administrator was held criminally responsible for the administration of pyschotropic medications.

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The facts of the case paint Ott not as someone committing criminal acts, but instead as someone who failed to respond to criminal actions. Because of Ott’s failure to act, eight residents of the home were seriously injured and three of those died. From August 2006 to August 2007, these eight residents were inappropriately medicated by lower ranking staff in order to keep them quiet and subdued. Ott failed to monitor the medicating practices of the staff and then later failed to investigate these incidents after they were reported to her. She received complaints about nursing director Gwen Hughes’ abusive actions at the home, but ignored those complaints and instructed the employees to follow the director’s instructions. Ott was told by staff members that residents were being “forcefully restrained and injected with medications” according to The Bakersfield Californian, but she failed to do anything about it. Ott plead no contest to a felony count of conspiracy to commit an act injurious to public health according to the report. Ott’s plea deal resulted in three years probation and 300 hours of community service. If she had fought the charges and had been convicted on all counts, she could have faced 20 years or more in prison.

Our San Diego Elder Law Attorneys point to this regretful situation as additional evidence that both residents of nursing homes and their family and friends need to keep a careful watch over the conditions within nursing homes and the actions of the staff. In this instance, employees of the nursing home were using abusive tactics involving restraints and medication in order to subdue and control the residents. The evidence presented showed that this behavior was reported, but the nursing home administrator failed to handle the complaints appropriately, leading to additional instances of abuse and the resulting mistreatment of the side effects of the abuse. Three residents died. Our Southern California nursing home abuse lawyers agree with the prosecution in making a resounding statement that this type of behavior should not go unpunished.

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Many California seniors seek care in nursing facilities across our state when they find that they can no longer care for themselves or, simply, if they do not wish to continue to live on their own. When deciding to reside in a long-term care facility, no one expects that they will become the victim of neglect or abuse. Unfortunately, as the attorneys at the Walton Law Firm know, elder abuse perpetrated by caregivers is very common.

elder%20hands.jpgFor example, two El Dorado County nurses have recently been charged with felony elder abuse involving the 2008 death of 77-year-old Johnnie Esco. Our Orange County elder abuse lawyers previously discussed the elderly woman’s tragic death because her case revealed the shocking and negligent practice of record falsification at California nursing homes. The 77-year-old suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and was recovering from pneumonia. Her death was caused by staff negligence. Nurses were supposed to closely monitor the patient because her medications gave her chronic constipation, according to an article in the San Jose Mercury News. Their failure to do so left the elderly woman with severe fecal impaction, and she died the day after arriving at a local hospital. Doctors also discovered unexplained bruising on the woman’s body.

The nursing staff’s failure to monitor the elderly woman amounted to nursing home negligence. Prosecutors involved in the case stated in court documents that both defendants “clearly neglected” their patient, causing her to suffer “unjustifiable pain.” Those of us working in San Diego area elder abuse understand there is nothing worse than knowing a loved one died in pain. Even worse, in this instance, the staff at the El Dorado County nursing home attempted to cover up their actions and allegedly altered their patient’s medical records to hide their neglect and abuse.

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blalock_t593.JPGA patient at the San Diego Health Center nursing home wandered away from the nursing facility on Wednesday and police have been unable to locate her. Verna Blalock, 76, who suffers from dementia was last seen at the facility located on Meadowlark Drive near Starling Drive. San Diego Health Center is one of San Diego County’s largest nursing homes, with over 300 beds, and includes a secured section for people with memory impairment like Ms. Blalock.

Ms. Blalock is described as 5 feet 4 inches in height and weighs approximately 135 pounds. She was wearing a pink and white striped shirt at the time of her elopement, which the nursing home says was the first time she has wandered away from the facility. It is currently unknown how she was able to escape from the building.

Anyone with any information about her whereabouts is asked to call San Diego Police at 619 531-2000, or the nursing facility at (858) 277-6460.

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Many elderly people use them in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and the product in their own homes. They are “bed handles,” manufactured and sold by a company called Bed Handles, Inc, a bedside rail of sorts created to allow users easier ingress and egress from bed. Now, Public Citizen, the non-partisan consumer advocacy group, is announcing that the bed rails are dangerous to consumers.

“Contrary to the manufacturer’s claim that the Bedside Assistant bed handles make any bed a safer bed, data previously provided to the FDA demonstrate that these devices can turn a bed into a death trap for patients who are physically weak or have physical or mental impairments,” said Dr. Michael Carome, deputy director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group.

The bed handles, which look similar to bed rails, can trap elderly or frail individuals, and can even cause strangulation or asphyxiation. According to Public Citizen, a review of public records has revealed that four people have been killed using the device since 1999 after the handles slipped out of place, creating a gap where the user can slide into.

Last week, Public Citizen has submitted a petition to the US Food and Drug Administration asking the agency to order a recall of the bedside device, and to issue a ban of all further sales. [Click Here to Read the Petition .pdf]
Click here to read the entire Public Citizen press release.

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The County of San Diego has agreed to pay $2 million to the family of Alton Stovall Sr., who died in the county-run skilled nursing facility Edgemoor Hospital. The payment was the result of a lawsuit brought against the facility for the neglect of Stovall, who died under very suspicious circumstances (to say the least).

According to news accounts, in the early hours of May 30, 2010 the 50-year-old Stovall, who had a preexisting leg wound, fell out of his bed and on to the floor. His leg began to bleed profusely while on the floor, but he could not reach his call light. His roommates were alerted by his fall, and began using their own call lights to summon help. The nurses on duty did not respond. A half-hour later, a nursing assistant entered Stovall’s room and found him on the floor in a pool of blood and with labored and erratic breathing.

Even after being discovered, Stovall did not receive appropriate care. It was nearly 15 minutes later that the nursing assistant called a supervisor, who, after assessing the situation, told the nursing home staff to call 911. When medics arrived an hour-and-a-half after Stovall’s fall from bed, it was too late. He died minutes before they arrived.

The Stovall family hired attorney William Berman to investigate and prosecute a civil lawsuit against the County of San Diego for Stovall’s death. Berman’s investigation revealed a cover-up at the facility, which no doubt contributed heavily to the County’s decision to pay such a large settlement.

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The Goldstar Rehabilitation and Nursing Center was issued an AA citation by the California Department of Public Health after investigators concluded that substandard care led to the choking death of one of its residents. According to reports, the 60-year-old resident, who was on a doctor-ordered soft diet, died after choking on solid food during dinner. The man choked for 10 -15 minutes before passing out. Nursing staff was unable to revive him.

The Department of Public Health has the statutory authority to levy fines against nursing facilities for acts of abuse, neglect, or otherwise substandard care. State citations imposed are categorized as Class B, A or AA, depending on the severity of the wrongdoing. The fines range from $100 to $1,000 for Class B up to $100,000 for Class AA. The citation class and amount of the fine depend upon the significance and severity of the established violation.

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The California Department of Public Health has levied its harshest fine against a nursing home after a resident fell from a mechanical lift. According to reports, the lift was being to transfer a 60-year-old patient from her wheelchair and into her bed. As nursing assistants were transferring the woman, the sling holding the woman broke, causing the woman to fall hard to the ground. She struck her head on a nearby door, causing a severe brain injury, and ultimately causing her death four days later.

Lift.jpg An investigation by the Department of Public Health revealed that the nursing home, the Eskaton Care Center, failed to properly maintain the lift. The lift, which law required be checked monthly, had not been checked for five years. The DPH report stated that the sling appeared worn and had “what appeared to be bleached out blood stains at the center.”

The nursing home can appeal the fine (and the AA citation it received), but it’s not clear if it will. “We’re mortified,” Trevor Hammond, the nursing home’s chief operating officer, told the Modesto Bee. “We had a tragedy when a piece of equipment failed. It was a catastrophe.”

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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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A Los Angeles area nursing home received the state’s most severe penalty (short of losing its license) yesterday when it received a $100,000 fine for neglectful care that resulted in the death of a resident. The nursing facility also received an AA citation.

The case involved the misplacement of a feeding tube, which is a type of case the Walton Law Firm has handled on several prior occasions. According to reports, the 84-year-old resident was admitted to the nursing home in early 2008 to rehabilitate a hip fracture. He was noted as having no problems chewing or swallowing. Because of a weight loss, his physician ordered nasogastric tube feedings.

When staff at the nursing home inserted the tube through the man’s nose, it placed it in the man’s lung, not his stomach. When feedings began, the lungs filled with feeding material, and the man became sickened immediately. Three days later he was dead from aspiration pneumonia.

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In their ongoing series on nursing oversight in the State of California, Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein of ProPublica are out with another story about California’s shortcomings in regulating healthcare professionals. Weber and Ornstein reveal that the national database that tracks dangerous or incompetent caregivers is missing serious disciplinary actions against “what are probably thousands” of health care providers. The revelations apparently surprised federal health officials, who just last month proclaimed that “no data is missing.”

For almost twenty years the federal government has kept a database of disciplinary actions against doctors and dentist, and in 1999 individual state boards were required to include in the database reports on all other healthcare professional, including nurses, whose licenses were restricted or revoked. In California, however, not all penalized caregivers were included in the federal database. For example, California has formally disciplined 84 psychiatric technicians over the last two years, yet the federal database does not contain a single report of discipline against a psychiatric technician in the State of California.

The dangers of an incomplete database are obvious, as Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe of the Public Citizen’s Health Research Group observed, prospective employers of health care professions could be given “a false sense of security that somebody who may be really dangerous isn’t, because their name isn’t there.”

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