Nurse Admits To Over-medicating Nursing Home Patients
With a criminal trial set to begin, a former nurse has pleaded guilty to criminal neglect charges as opposed to letting a jury decide her fate. The nurse identified as Marty Himebaugh and her supervisor Penny Whitlock faced multiple criminal counts for their roles in a series of suspicious patients deaths at Woodstock Care Center (Illinois). Authorities quickly ascended on the nursing home after they received reports of six suspect deaths of patients at the facility from an overdose of the painkiller, morphine. Though there was insufficient evidence to establish the patients died from morphine intoxication (overdose), the investigation did...
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Court Date Set In Illinois Elder Neglect Case
Will County, Illinois Judge Amy-Bertani-Tomczak has set a December 2nd court date for two sisters facing criminal neglect charges relating to the care of their mother. Prosecutors brought the charges against Bernice Brandon and Elizabeth Williams after a medical examiner determined that their neglect contributed to the death of their mother, Hattie Smith. According to court documents, the pathologist determined Ms. Smith never received adequate medical treatment for health problems such as bed sores. "The defendant failed to take Hattie Smith to the doctor or arrange for medical treatment, and such neglect resulted in the death of Hattie Smith." Williams...
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Criminal Charges Filed Against Assisted Living Employee In Relation To Resident Suffering Burns While Eating
As an injury lawyer who frequently handles nursing home negligence matters, I find myself regularly thinking 'what happened to plain old common sense'? I mean, you can train the nurses, physicians, maintenance workers and administrators til' you're blue in the face-- yet most of the commonly encountered nursing home problems could easily be avoided with plain old common sense. Want an example? How does checking on the temperature of food before feeding a disabled person? Is that too much to ask? Along those lines, homicide charges were filed against Alador Thompson, an employee of Cambridge-Brightfield Assisted Living Facility in...
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Illinois Elder Abuse Trial To Help Define Standard Of Care
The pending criminal trial of Jill and Julie Barry will have an important impact on Illinois seniors as it will help define what constitutes 'reasonable care' when it comes to the home-care of elders. Currently, prosecutors in Illinois have few parameters when it comes to the definition of 'elder abuse' because Illinois courts have not formally ruled on the issue before. Consequently, the decision as to how to define 'reasonable care' in a criminal neglect context will fall squarely on jurors. In 2008, Kane County State's Attorney, John Barsanti filed criminal neglect charges against the Barry sisters related to their...
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'Dog The Bounty Hunter' Takes Priorty Over Resident Safety In Chicago Nursing Home
New information has come to light regarding the death of the 89-year-old woman who froze to death just a short distance from The Arbor, a Chicago-area nursing home. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this matter was a 'cover-up' of the death by nursing home staff that was quickly detected by local police. Quite obviously, the staff tried to cover up the woman's elopement and subsequent death from exposure to make it look like she died from natural causes. Officers arrived at The Arbor to investigation a report of an 'unresponsive resident'. Staff at the Arbor told the officers the...
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Nursing Home Cleared Of Neglect Charges In Case Where Resident Had Maggots In His Eyes
A shameful tale of a nursing home neglect recently was reported in Florida. As amazing as this sounds, the Florida Nursing Home was cleared of criminal neglect charges by the Florida Attorney General when a nursing home resident was found to have maggots in both eyes. The Attorney General, investigating the case blames their inability to prosecute the case on the lack of physical evidence available. "There was no way to pin down the origin of the maggots," according to Sandy Copes, communication director for the Florida Attorney General. Further hampering the attorney general's ability to bring charges was the...
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