Articles Posted in Nursing Home Abuse and Negligence

Eight months after 100-year-old Elizabeth Barrow was allegedly strangled to death by her 98-year-old roommate at a Dartmouth assisted living facility, her family has filed a Massachusetts wrongful death lawsuit. The 54-count civil complaint accuses Brandon Woods of Dartmouth, its executive director Scott Picone, and a number of staffers of Massachusetts nursing home negligence. Barrow’s family is also seeking damages from her roommate, Laura Lundquist.

Barrow was found dead in her ed on the morning of September 24. There was a plastic bag around her head.

Autopsy findings showed that Barrow sustained blunt force trauma to her chest, left leg, skull, and arms and that the cause of her death was strangulation via asphyxiation. The Dartmouth, Massachusetts nursing home neglect lawsuit accuses the assisted living facility and its employees of failing to provide Barrow with a safe environment and that, as a result, she suffered until she died.

Hilda Almonor, a nurse’s aide, is accused of raping a 68-year-old nursing home resident. The 46-year-old woman has pleaded not guilty to one count of indecent assault and battery and two counts of rape.

According to prosecutors, the alleged Massachusetts nursing home abuses occurred on April 3 and April 10 while Almonor was helping the patient shower at the Hancock Park Rehabilitation & Nursing Center in Quincy. “Terrified” that Almonor would assault her again, the woman reported the nursing home sex abuse to another nurse and the assisted living facility contacted police.

According to the victim, Almonor used her fingers and an unknown object to sexually assault her. A police investigation is under way.

Nursing Home Sexual Assaults
Unfortunately, incidents of sexual assaults at assisted living facilities throughout the US are all too common occurrences and it is usually the patients, who are often too frail, sick, vulnerable, or scared to fight back or report what happened that are the victims.

Sexual abuse, assault, rape, and molestation are crimes and acts of nursing home abuse when committed by a nursing home worker. Regardless of who sexually assaulted you or your loved one, if the crime occurred at a Quincy assisted living facility, you may have grounds for filing a Massachusetts nursing home negligence lawsuit.

Nursing homes are supposed to provide residents with the nursing care they require while making sure that they don’t come to any physical or emotional harm during their stay at the assisted living facility. Assisted living facility supervisors know that nursing home abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse can happen and it is their responsibility to must take the necessary steps to prevent such incidents from happening.

Quincy nursing aide held on $10k bail in alleged rape, Wicked Local/The Patriot Ledger, April 21, 2010
Nursing Home Aide Accused Of Raping Patient, The Boston Channel, April 20, 2010
Related Web Resources:
Nursing Homes, Health and Human Services, Mass.gov
Massachusetts (MA) Nursing Homes, UCompareHealthcare.com Continue reading

According to the Boston Globe, close to 2,500 Massachusetts nursing home patients were given antipsychotic drugs last year even though the medication isn’t recommended for treating their illness. Data gathered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shows that 28% of the state’s nursing home residents were given the powerful medications and that 22% of these patients-that’s 2,483 people-had not been diagnosed with a medical condition that warranted this type of treatment.

The fact that so many patients were given antipsychotics without just cause is an issue of concern-especially because so many residents suffer from dementia. Dementia patients increase their fatality risk when they take antipsychotic meds, which are actually for treating patients with serious mental illnesses. Confusion and weight gain are two of the other unpleasant side effects that antipsychotic meds can have on a someone with dementia.

Other Possible Side Effects When Taking Psychotropics:

• Dizziness • Drowsiness • Increased risk of cardiac failure • Skin rashes • Sun sensitivity • Muscle spasms • Rigidity • Menstrual problems
With such potentially serious side effects, choosing to administer this kind of powerful drug to a patient is a decision that cannot be made for the wrong reasons. Unfortunately, some nursing homes use psychotropics to sedate patients who exhibit “bothersome behavior” or they fail to follow up after prescribing the drugs to determine whether a resident’s dosage should be reduced or eliminated. Inadequate training, low staffing, and nursing home negligence are some reasons why patients who don’t need to psychotropic drugs are forced to take them.

Overmedication, prescribing the wrong drug, or sedating a patient solely for the convenience of the nursing staff can be grounds for a Boston, Massachusetts nursing home negligence lawsuit.

Nursing home drug use puts many at risk, Boston.com, March 8, 2010
Sane Elderly Given Antipsychotic Drugs at Mass. Nursing Homes, Fox News/AP, March 8, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Study Confirms Antipsychotics Pose Heart Risk, Wall Street Journal, January 15, 2009
Nursing Homes, Mass.gov Continue reading

Helen T. Van Dale was a patient at Wingate’s Silver Lake Rehabilitation & Skilled Nursing Residence in Kingston in 2007 when she hit her head during a fall accident. The 92-year-old nursing home resident died within 24 hours. Now, in an attempt to hold the assisted living facility liable for her mother’s wrongful death, Van Dale’s 74-year-old daughter, Dottie Hammond, has filed a complaint alleging Massachusetts nursing home neglect.

Hammond contends that during the five weeks her mother stayed at the Kingston long-term care facility, her health declined because the nursing home staff failed to diagnose that she was suffering from a UTI. The infection caused Van Dale to feel disoriented, which is why she fell off her wheelchair.

Last July, a Massachusetts superior court medical tribunal determined that there was enough evidence for Hammond’s Massachusetts medical malpractice complaint to go forward. Hammond is determined to hold the South Shore nursing home liable for nursing neglect so that other patients won’t “suffer.”

According to WCVBTV 5, there are level 3 sex offenders living and working in Massachusetts nursing homes. This category of sex offender is considered the most dangerous. They can be at risk of reoffending.

The idea that sexual offenders who are likely to strike again are living with other nursing home patients or providing them with nursing care is very disturbing to our Boston nursing home neglect and abuse lawyers. Their presence is a danger to the other residents, who risk becoming the victims of sexual assault, rape, molestation, uninvited fondling, harassment, and other sexually inappropriate behavior.

According to Team 5, there are two level 3 sex offenders living at the Old Soldier’s Home, a Chelsea nursing home. While the two men reportedly have not reoffended, A Perfect Cause, an organization committed to protecting nursing home residents throughout the US, says it has documented over 60 incidents of sexual and physical assault committed by molesters against nursing home residents.

In 2005, John Enos, a 69-year-old level 3 sex offender and nursing home patient in a wheelchair, allegedly raped his 90-year-old roommate. Prior to the incident, Enos had sexually assaulted his 9-year-old daughter. He died before he could be tried over the nursing home sexual assault.

Although it is illegal in Massachusetts for level 3 sex offenders to “knowingly and willingly” reside in nursing homes, the statute provides a loophole. Also, nursing homes don’t’ have to notify anyone that there is a level 3 sex offender working or living at the assisted living facility.

Boston, Massachusetts Nursing Home Negligence
Not only is it the responsibility for Boston nursing homes to provide the proper nursing and medical care to residents, but they must also protect their residents from becoming the victims of any type of crime. This means ensuring that prospective nursing home workers and patients do not have histories that could make them likely to abuse or neglect other residents. Also, any nursing home patients with violent physical or sexual histories must be kept away from other residents.

Sex Predators Live, Work Inside Local Nursing Homes, WCVB TV, February 18, 2010
Information for Sex Offenders, Mass.gov

Related Web Resources:
Commonwealth of Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry

Massachusetts Department of Public Health

A Perfect Cause
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According to two new studies, many nursing home patient in the US are still being given antipsychotic drugs to regulate their problem behavior. These findings come even after the US government has attempted to curb this practice and the Food and Drug Administration issued in 2005 its “black box” warning notifying patients that may increase their risk of death when they take these powerful medications.

Although one study reports that since the warning went out there has been a 19% drop in the use of atypical antipsychotics to treat elderly dementia patients, researchers say that antipsychotics still comprised 9% of all prescription meds given to these nursing home patients in 2008. Not only are antipsychotics used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, they are also used for “off label” purposes, such as controlling problem patients’ conduct.

Dr. E. Ray Dorsey, the lead author of one of the studies and an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, believes that most of the use that he documented was for “off label” purposes.The co-author of the second study, University of Massachusetts Medical School associate professor of medicine Becky A. Briesacher, notes that there is a disconnect between the prescribing patterns and the evidence.

Her study found that one-third of nursing home patients who are treated with antipsychotics are not suffering from psychosis or dementia. Also, elderly persons admitted to assisted living facilities with high antipsychotic prescription rates were more likely to also receive prescriptions for these meds.

While some nursing home patients benefit do benefit antipsychotic drug treatment, treating a patient with antipsychotics without proper cause can be harmful to the resident and may be grounds for the victim to file a Boston nursing home abuse lawsuit. Antipsychotics drug use can lead to serious side effects, such as seizures, severe lethargy, permanent involuntary muscle movements, and sudden death.

It is illegal for nursing home to administer antipsychotics to a resident unless the doctor has prescribed it and the patient has consented to the treatment. You can read more about these two studies in the Archives of Internal Medicine’s January 11 issue.

Antipsychotics Still Widely Used in U.S. Nursing Homes, Business Week, January 11, 2010
Compromised Care: Psychotropic drugs given to nursing home patients without cause, Chicago Tribune, October 27, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Archives of Internal Medicine

US National Institute of Mental Health
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In Massachusetts, a 98-year-old nursing home patient is charged with killing a 100-year-old woman. Laura B. Lundquist is accused of strangling Elizabeth W. Barrow. The two of them were roommates at Brandon Woods of Dartmouth. Lundquist has suffered from dementia.

Barrow’s body was discovered in her bed last September. She had a plastic bag over her head. While suicide was explored as a possible cause of death, autopsy results say she was murdered by manual strangulation.

The victim’s son says he asked nursing home workers at the Dartmouth, Massachusetts nursing home to separate the two women, who did not appear to get along. Scott Barrow claims that Lundquist accused Barrow of stealing from her and complained about her visitors. The Massachusetts nursing home says that they asked the two women if either of them wanted to move to a different room but they both refused.

Last week, New Bedford Superior Court Judge Lloyd MacDonald sent Lundquist to a state hospital where she will undergo a lengthy competency evaluation prior to her arraignment. She is charged with second-degree murder.

Massachusetts Nursing Home Negligence
Nursing homes are supposed to make sure that patients with violent tendencies are closely monitored and/or are kept separate from the other patients. They are also supposed to determine whether patients suffering from mental illness pose a danger to themselves or others and if so, nursing home employees must take the proper steps to prevent that patient from hurting others. Failure to provide this protection can give an assisted living facility patient and/or family members cause for filing a Boston nursing home negligence lawsuit.

Examples of nursing home patient violence:

• Molestation • Physical assault • Sexual assault • Murder • Rape
Woman, 98, charged in slay, Boston Herald, December 12, 2009
Roomate, 98, indicted for murder in 100-year-old woman’s nursing home death, SouthCoastToday, December 11, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Aggression between nursing-home residents more common than widely believed, studies find, Cornell University, May 29, 2008
Nursing Homes, Mass.gov Continue reading

In Bristol County, Massachusetts, District Attorney Sam Sutter announced that the 100-year-old woman who was found dead in her bed at a Dartmouth nursing home on September 24 was strangled. Elizabeth Barrows was a resident at the Brandon Woods nursing home. Now, the medical examiner’s office is ruling her death a homicide.

Barrow was found in her bed with a plastic bag over her head. Investigators at first thought that she committed suicide, but autopsy findings indicate that she died from asphyxiation caused by manual strangulation.

The Dartmouth, Massachusetts nursing home is working with the authorities on this case. Barrow’s relatives say that because of an error in communication, a press release was issued announcing that her death was a homicide before the family was notified.

A 23-year-old Quincy nursing assistant is under house arrest for allegedly beating four Alzheimer’s patients. On Friday, Kara A. Murphy pleaded not guilty to seven counts of assault and battery on a person over 60.

The alleged Quincy nursing home abuse incident reportedly occurred at the Atrium at Faxon Woods where Murphy worked. On August 8, she allegedly abused four elderly women and the nursing home facility has since fired her. A background check was reportedly conducted on Murphy prior to her hiring.

In one Quincy nursing home abuse incident, Murphy is accused of throwing a 92-year-old woman onto a wheelchair and slapping her on the forehead. In another alleged nursing home abuse attack, Murphy is accused of grabbing an 89-year-old woman by the jaw while she was having a bowel movement and making her sit on a toilet. Murphy is also accused of sitting on the lap of a 96-year-old woman and bouncing around on her lap. She also allegedly hit a 79-year-old resident on the shoulder after the patient struck her first.

A Boston woman wants Massachusetts lawmakers to pass a new law that would require local nursing homes to provide nursing home residents and their families with a copy of their rights. Rachel Geller began pushing for the law after her aunt was dismissed from a Jamaica Plain nursing home without warning.

According to Geller, she checked Sally Miller, her aunt, into the Sherrill House Nursing and Rehab Center after paying the Massachusetts assisted living center a $12,000 check. Miller,77, suffered from Alzheimer’s. She died this year.

Miller hadn’t even been at the facility for a full day when she suffered a seizure. The Jamaica Plain assisted living facility sent her to the hospital. After Miller was discharged from the hospital, the Sherrill House Nursing and Rehab Center refused to take her back. Geller had to send her aunt, who cannot speak, to the hospital psychiatric ward for a few weeks.

Geller is accusing the Jamaica Plain nursing home of making up a bogus law that give a Massachusetts nursing home 24-hours to kick out a new patient. It turns, out, however, that there are 10 requirements that must be met before this can happen. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has determined that the Sherrill House Nursing and Rehab Center did not provide Miler’s family with a safe discharge plan.

Sally’s Law
Sally’s Law, also called Bill 3416, or an Act to Protect Nursing Home Residents, requires that all Massachusetts nursing homes give the family/health care proxy a copy of the laws whenever a new resident is admitted to the facility. Documentation that this action was taken must be provided.

All Boston nursing home resident and other Massachusetts nursing home patients are entitled to certain legal rights. There are also laws in the state that exist that protect these patients’ rights.

Failure to provide Massachusetts nursing home residents with the due care that they are owed can be grounds for a Boston nursing home neglect lawsuit. A long-term care facility can also be sued for Massachusetts nursing home abuse if a patient becomes a victim of sexual abuse, physical abuse, or verbal abuse while staying at the nursing home.

Woman Fights For Nursing Home Law, WCVB Boston, June 19, 2009
Sally’s Law

Related Web Resources:
Massachusetts Nursing Home Ombudsman Program, Caregiverlist.com
Welcome to MassLongTermCare.org
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