When a person’s kidneys no longer work properly, dialysis can filter waste products from their blood. Your kidneys keep your blood clean and balanced. They filter 200 quarts of blood every day, filtering out waste and excess water, which becomes urine. Diabetes and high blood pressure are the two most common causes of kidney disease. … Continue Reading
Tag Archives: infection
Dirty Needles May Be Cause Of Hepatitis B Outbreak In Nursing Home
Posted in Infections In Nursing HomesWe recently discussed the Hepatitis B outbreak at a North Carolina Nursing Home that has take the lives of several patients. Now as authorities look for the source of this outbreak, they are beginning to look at dirty needles as the source for spreading the disease from one patient to another. According to news reports,… Continue Reading
Untreated Urinary Tract Infections In Nursing Home Patients May Result In Urosepsis
Posted in Nursing Home Injury, SepsisOne of the most memorable cases I worked on involved a young man who was in a nursing home following a severe injuries he sustained in a construction accident. Due to the nature of the man’s injuries, a catheter was used to drain urine from his bladder. Despite doctors orders to change the catheter every… Continue Reading
Oral Health In The Elderly Nursing Home Population: A Widely Ignored Threat To Patient Health
Posted in National Nursing Home Issues, Nursing Home InjuryMost people never associate dental care with with nursing homes. To be honest, I never really did either until I was contacted by a family regarding a nursing home patient who developed a horrible infection in their mouth that went untreated for months. By the time the infection was diagnosed, it had progressed to the point… Continue Reading
Long-Term Care Hospitals: More Profit, Less Staff
Posted in National Nursing Home IssuesThere’s been a lot of discussion recently regarding a New York Times article that details patient care at long-term acute care hospitals– a relatively new type of medical facility for patients requiring long-term medical care. Although these long-term care hospitals have many similarities to traditional nursing homes, they are structured to take advantage of Medicare… Continue Reading
Under-staffing At Nursing Home Blamed For Pressure Ulcer, Infection & Subsequent Death
Posted in Bed Sores, Pressure Sores, Decubitus Ulcers & Pressure UlcersThe son of a deceased nursing home patient blames ‘under-staffing’ as the primary reason why his mother fell and subsequently developed pressure ulcers. Gary Brown filed a lawsuit against a county operated nursing home in Nebraska on behalf of his deceased mother’s estate. In addition to under-staffing, the lawsuit alleges the facility allowed his mother… Continue Reading
New York Jury Punishes Nursing Home Where Man Develops More Than 20 Bed Sores
Posted in Bed Sore Lawsuit, LitigationIt never fails to amaze me. Frequently, when I tell people about some of the cases I work on involving bed sores, I only to get a ‘so what?’ reaction from them. Are the people who surround me heartless? Maybe some of them (just joking, honey)? Nonetheless, the reality is that most people have no… Continue Reading
Bed Sore Problems Compounded: Amyloidosis
Posted in Bed Sores, Pressure Sores, Decubitus Ulcers & Pressure Ulcers, Osteomyelitis, SepsisOne of the nursing home negligence cases my office is currently investigating involves the death of a man related to complications related to amyloidosis. Turns out, the man was suffering from an advanced bed sore on his coccyx (also called pressure ulcers, pressure sores or decubitus ulcers) that had progressed so far that the bone… Continue Reading
Left Untreated, Stomach Aches Can Be Deadly For Elderly Nursing Home Patients
Posted in Clostridium Difficile (C-Diff), DehydrationClostridium difficile (also called C. difficile or C. diff) associated disease (“CDAD”) is a bacterial infection that can cause diarrhea and serious intestinal conditions (such as colitis – inflammation of the colon). CDAD is responsible for about three million cases of diarrhea and colitis annually in the United States. C. difficile is naturally found in the… Continue Reading
Video Demonstrates Proper Dressing Changes For Patients With Pressure Ulcers
Posted in Bed Sores, Pressure Sores, Decubitus Ulcers & Pressure UlcersIn order to heal a pressure ulcer, staff at nursing homes, hospitals or wound clinics must pay extra attention to dressings on the wound. Too often, the problems associated with pressure ulcers are compounded when staff fail to follow physician orders with respect to the frequently of dressing changes or the dressings changes are not… Continue Reading
Nursing Home Spotlight: St. Martha Manor
Posted in Illinois Nursing HomesSt. Martha Manor is a smaller 57 bed nursing home located in the north side of Chicago. According to the government’s Medicare website, the facility received only one out of five stars, which is a much below average rating. In the past year, the nursing home had seven health deficiencies, which is one less than… Continue Reading
Never Event #6: Foreign Objects Left In During Surgery
Posted in Medical MalpracticeIncidents involved foreign objects left inside the body during surgery are common occurrence. Statistics from The New England Journal Of Medicine show that most large hospitals will have at least one incident per year where a surgical teams leaves surgical equipment behind. The most common item left inside body cavities are surgical sponges. Even larger items have been… Continue Reading
Sputum Color As Indicator Of The Quality Of Nursing Care
Posted in Ventilator PatientsWho really likes to think about sputum or mucus? Well, Thomas Sharon, R.N. at legalnurseconsultanttom.com points out that sputum color is an important factor to look at when evaluating the quality of breathing tube care. Breathing tubes such as tracheostomies and ventilators are a common medical medical conditions for nurisng home and long-term care residents…. Continue Reading
Scabies Outbreak In Pennsylvania Nursing Home
Posted in Infections In Nursing HomesFifteen residents of the Gallagher Center of Saint Mary’s Home in Erie, PA have developed what physicians believe was scabies, a contagious skin infection caused by skin mites. An unknown number of staff and patients’ family members also developed the condition. The first case was reported in the spring, though most cases were reported in… Continue Reading
In For Rehab. Out With Bedsores.
Posted in Bed Sores, Pressure Sores, Decubitus Ulcers & Pressure UlcersAn Ohio woman is bringing a lawsuit against Mansfield Memorial Homes for improper care resulting in bedsores. Dorothy Modcap, 64, sought skilled rehabilitation for a fractured hip following an auto accident. What she got instead was a bedsore and infection. According to her attorney, no preventative measures were put in place to prevent the development… Continue Reading
Catheter Usage
Posted in NeglectBlog readers occasionally ask: what really constitutes ‘neglect’? The best answer is given by example. Once readers hear specific examples of how neglect occurs everyday in nursing homes they begin to appreciate it’s the severity of the situation. Currently, my office is prosecuting a case of severe neglect involving a paralyzed man who is a… Continue Reading
Nursing Homes- The Perfect Breeding Grounds for MRSA
Posted in Infections In Nursing HomesIn the 1960′s a new strain of strain staph infection began to evolve. The new staph strain was resistant to common antibiotics that were commonly used to treat other strain. The new stain of staph was named, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or commonly known as MRSA. MRSA is a drug resistant bacterium that causes infection in… Continue Reading