Putting your loved one into a nursing home is a scary time because of all of the unknown worries. You are giving up control of the care of this vulnerable person to a group of strangers. We give advice for picking facilities and tell stories of nursing home abuse and neglect that we hope you learn from, but sometimes even doing everything right when picking a facility is not enough.
Son Captures Abuse of Mother on Hidden Camera
Prentiss Center for Skilled Nursing Care, a MetroHealth nursing home in Cleveland, has been in the news recently because Steve Piskor captured the abuse of his 78 year old mother, Esther, on a hidden camera. The videos, which have led to both criminal charges and regulatory investigations, show nurse’s aides Virgen Caraballo and Giselle Nelson striking the patient’s face, violently throwing her into her bed and wheelchair, pushing her face into the wall, and repeatedly spraying her face with an unknown liquid that was later identified as perfume.
The facility has apologized for the nursing home abuse and hired an outside firm to investigate what has happened. The investigation will also look into the home’s policies and procedures to make sure this does not happen again. The facility has fired both Caraballo and Nelson and suspended nurse’s aide Jamiescha Whitlow for five days for failing to report patient abuse she witnessed.
The scary part about this story is that both of these employees have been praised for their work performance in the past, showing that abuse can come from any of these caregivers. It was noted that Caraballo received high marks on her past evaluations. In February 2010, supervisors said that she “maintains a safe environment for her residents” and that she is “very conscientious with the care she gives.” A few months ago, she was called “attentive to residents needs and very thorough.” The other nurse’s aid in the video, seen spraying the patient with perfume, was recently named the nurse’s aid of the year, an award that is based on nominations from residents, staff and families.
Since this story came out, a MetroHealth employee has said that she reported potential nursing home abuse similar to this story but the facility’s administrators repeatedly ignored her complaints.
“Many a time I’ve reported different things that didn’t look right – scratches, bruises – and it’s pretty much like ‘I don’t want to hear it.’ My heart breaks to see that happening like that …Everything I’ve seen is uncalled for.”
Susan Christopher, a spokeswoman for Metrohealth, said the hospital has no record of any employee coming forward with these complaints. She told reporters, “We encourage our employees to report any inappropriate behavior and we will continue to do so … we have steps in place to ensure patients are safe.”
Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers in New Jersey and Philadelphia
If your loved one is currently a resident of a nursing home or care facility, we encourage you to visit frequently and be very observant of any scratches, bruises or anything that does not look right. If you are worried that the care they are receiving is negligent, abusive, or inadequate, contact the Mininno Law Office for a free case evaluation. You may also call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.
A woman entered the Lake Ridge Care Center in Buffalo, Minnesota on January 14, 2010 with a diagnosis of congestive heart failure and low potassium. She was prescribed two tablets of potassium three times a day to help keep her blood pumping through her heart. On January 23, 2010, the resident was sent to the emergency room because she was found unresponsive. Treaters in the emergency found a severely abnormal heart rhythm and extremely low potassium levels. The woman died later that afternoon. Her official cause of death was cardiac arrest. 
According to a report issued by the Minnesota Department of Health Facility Complaints Office, the man fell from his wheelchair on March 8th and suffered a “large hematoma, approximately four centimeters by three centimeters, on his left forehead.” He had bleeding that was putting pressure on his brain and depriving him of oxygen. The patient was examined 30 minutes after the fall, but no vital signs or neurological tests were done for at least three hours. Four hours after the fall, he was unresponsive and his vital signs were not stable. The nursing home transferred him to a hospital where he died two days later on March 10th. The death certificate states the cause of death as a “massive intracranial hemorrhage.”
An 82-year-old man from Illinois died this month at Heartland Healthcare nursing home. According to the police report, Irvin W. Brackett was found by nursing assistant Annette Payton at 10:30 p.m. on the floor with an oxygen tube and electrical cord wrapped around his neck and tied to an assistance lever that was hanging over his bed. Payton immediately called other nurses for help. They removed the constraints and began emergency resuscitation. An ambulance was called to help but nothing could be done and the nursing home called for the coroner at 12:16 a.m. Brackett was pronounced dead at the scene by the Knox County Coroner Mark Thomas. According to Thomas: 
Sometimes parents ask what caused their baby to develop a cleft palate. In many cases the answer is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to say. There are many different environmental factors that can lead to the development of a cleft palate. However, in some cases, there may a clear indication of what caused the cleft palate. For example, the FDA 
Sherrye Dianne Huff, the former administrator of the home, was arrested in May on five felony charges- three counts of theft and two counts of exploiting an elderly or disabled person- and one misdemeanor charge of theft for stealing from an Alzheimer’s patient. Donna Tower, the elderly man’s niece, said that the man would tell his family that someone was stealing from him but everyone brushed it off because of his Alzheimer’s. They later found out that he was telling the truth and Huff was taking his checks.
– Physical Abuse is the non-accidental use of physical force that may result in injury, physical pain or impairment of an elderly person. Physical abuse includes acts of violence such as hitting, beating, shaking, shoving, kicking and burning as well as inappropriate use of medications, physical restraints, depriving basic needs and force-feeding.
People need to get in contact with their doctor or health care provider as soon as possible. This stage of bed sores can lead to a serious deterioration of health and even worse, it could cause death. Following a medical consultation, it is imperative that people closely monitor the status of the bed sore. We know that the first sign of recovery will be that the wound will slowly begin to diminish in width and depth. New tissue will begin to form along the edges of the sore, which will generally be a light pinkish color. People may also notice blood at the site of the wound: although most people usually see blood as a bad sign, in the case of bed sore recovery it is actually a positive sign. Bed sore attorneys believe that blood shows that there is good circulation in this region of the bed sore which will help the region begin to heal.
Ella Jean Moorer is facing a charge of Injury to the elderly, disabled reckless bodily injury for an incident where she injured an 88-year-old patient who has severe Alzheimer’s. According to other staff members of the nursing home, Moorer was trying to change the patient’s clothes when he resisted… “She then became frustrated and grabbed the elderly man’s upper arm, pushed him towards the toilet, put him in a head lock and tried to force him to the toilet with her hand on his chest”. The man later complained of chest pains and had bruising on his upper arm. Moorer denied the incident to the nursing home administrators. She was put on administrative leave and later fired. According to facility administrator Timothy Stuteville: