Another Example Of Nursing Home Negligence: Disabled Patient Falls Down Unsecured Stairway
Sometimes I see news stories with such common fact patterns that I have to look at the date of the report as I frequently ask myself, "didn't I just see this article?" Unfortunately, the cycle of negligent nursing home care continues with seemingly never ending cycles of stories about patient injury and death. And yes, many of these do have an erry resemblance to one another. If there's one thread of similarity amongst many of these stories, it's that the majority of these occurrences could likely have been avoided with a small dose of adequate judgment. Amongst the pattern...
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Unattended Nursing Home Patient Falls Down Stairway In Wheelchair
Particularly when it comes to physically disabled patients, nursing homes must take steps to protect them from harm due to potentially dangerous conditions at the facility. When facilities fail to take basic steps to safeguard patients from these environmental hazards, we frequently see patients getting severely injured or killed. A recent example of nursing homes failure to take basic precautions to safeguard a patients comes from a Missouri nursing home, where a wheelchair-bound patient was left unattended-- and without engagement of wheel lock-- in a stairway at the facility. Stltoday is reporting that the above circumstance forms the basis of...
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Failure To Follow Supervisory Guidelines Results In Substantial Fine For California Facility
The fall-related death of a 58-year-old nursing home patient at Browning Manor Convalescent Hospital triggered an investigation by the California Department of Health that determined that the facilities errors are partially to blame for the death of the patient. An investigation by the agency revealed that the facility violated its own supervisory guidelines in caring for the man who unbuckled a safety restraint and fell from his wheelchair and fractured his neck. The man died several days later from complications related to his injury. In the days leading up to his death, the facility documented the man’s irregular behavior, yet...
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Improper Maintenance Of Lift Device Costs Nursing Home Patient Their Life
Inadequate maintenance of a lift is responsible for the death of a patient at Eskaton Care Center Manzanita (California). The lift at issue is used to help staff transfer physically disabled patients into and out of their bed. According to an investigation completed by the California Department of Health, the 60-year-old nursing home patient was being transported from a wheelchair to bed when the sling on the lifting device broke and causing the patient to fall to the floor and suffer a head injury which subsequently caused his death. The agency determined that the nursing home failed to perform the...
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Medical Facilities Must Use Wheel-Locks & Supervision To Protect Patients In Wheelchairs
Perhaps the most basic safeguard nursing homes and hospitals can implement with wheelchair patients is the utilization of wheel-locks. Too often, physically disabled patients are simply propped up in their wheelchairs with the assumption that they face little chance of getting injured. However, as I have discussed before, wheelchair patients must be properly supervised in order to minimize the chance of accidental injury due to the rolling of a chair or falling from it. The lack of supervision appears to have played a role in the case of a Connecticut nursing home patient who literally rolled from the facility...
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Wheelchair-Bound Nursing Home Patients Must Be Properly Supervised To Avoid Injury
Allowing a nursing home patient to sit comfortably in their wheelchair in a hall or perhaps in an outdoor area of the facility seems like a pretty innocent act-- right? I mean aren't patients in wheelchairs entitled to a little fresh air or just hang out in an common area with other patients? Despite the seemingly harmless act of sitting in a wheelchair, nursing home employees need to take steps to ensure the safety of these handicapped residents-- even if they appear to be sitting idly. Too often nursing home employees take for granted that wheelchair patients' limited mobility puts...
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Nursing Home Abuse: Hidden Camera Catches Nurse Yanking The Wheelchair Of A Disabled Patient
If you think 'nursing home abuse' is simply a term of art, thrown into headlines for the purpose of getting attention-- think again. Below is an actual video of a nurse seemingly intentionally yanking the wheelchair of a disabled nursing home patient. The yanking of the chair caused the patient to fall to the floor and fracture her hip. Should there be any question regarding the intent of the nurse, I think the fact the that nurse lets the patient lay on the ground as she seemingly goes about her tasks certainly reinforces the fact that she has little regard...
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Court Determines Nursing Home Corporation Can't Be Criminally Prosecuted For Employees' Negligent Conduct
The collective negligence of multiple nursing home employees does not impute criminal conduct on the part of the corporate owner according to a recent ruling made the Supreme Judicial Court-- the highest court in Massachusetts. The decision stems from the death of a 74-year-old patient at a MA nursing home owned by Life Care Centers of America. Despite the patient's extensive history with respect to wandering from the facility, the facility failed to take basic precautionary measures that would likely prevented the wheelchair-bound patient from falling down a set of stairs to her death. An investigation into the patient's death...
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Contractures In Nursing Home Patients Put Them At Risk For Developing Decubitus Ulcers & Other Injuries
After working on many cases involving the development of pressure sores in a nursing home or other long term care settings, I am convinced that contractures are a tremendously under-appreciated threat to patient health. Like many ailments, we are now learning that getting older should not necessarily mean developing disabling conditions such as contractures- with the proper nursing care. What are contractures? Contractures are a medical condition where a joint is held in a fixed position (frozen joints) due to the shortening of a muscle or tendon due to stress exerted on the muscle or spasticity (uncontrolled muscle movement). Older...
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Dropping Patients, Failing To Secure Wheelchairs & Dangerous Driving Put Elderly Patients At Risk Of Further Harm During Ambulance Transport
Very few people consider the journey to or from a nursing home. Unfortunately, what may be an afterthought for many, has turned into a nightmare for others when they where injured during ambulance transport. Over the years, I have seen many errors made by ambulance drivers and attendants that has resulted in severe injuries to my clients. In a pending matter, my law office was retained by the family of a man who was being transported from a nursing home to an out-patient dialysis center by a private ambulance company. During a short ride, the driver of the ambulance lost...
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