Attorney Don Brown of Montgomery County, Texas (not to be confused with our own Donald Browne) died late last week from complications that arose from nursing home abuse and negligence at the Willis Rehabilitation Center in Willis, Texas.
Clarence Lee Brandley Sr., poses for a picture at his home. Brandley was exonerated after 9 years on death row thanks to Attorney Don Brown. Don Brown was most known for a triumphant victory that saved a man on death row. Clarence Lee Brandley, Sr. was wrongfully convicted of murder and spent 9 years on death row before Browne had him exonerated, proving that he was the victim of racial prejudice, witness intimidation, and perjured testimony.
Brandley, 65, said of Browne, “He was a great attorney. There was a lot of things he tried to do (to help me), but they hindered him. He did a lot of things for a lot of people.”
Brown’s daughter, Celia, has spoken out about the horrendous care her father received in the nursing home before his death. She claims that he was overmedicated. Willis had him on a regimen on anti-psychotic drugs and vicodin. Celia believes that the doses of vicodin were so high, Brown could not eat, which eventually lead to his kidney failure.
She also speaks of a bedsore so bad that his tailbone was actually protruding from the skin. Brown was taken to Conroe Regional Medical Center and treated for penumonia. He died three days later.
It’s sad that a man who dedicated his life to helping others had to suffer so before he died. Don Brown was nearly broke at the end of his life, having given away most of his assets, and trying most of his cases for free. He was a man of compassion, and deserved the same from caretakers at his nursing home.
Victim of Nursing Home Abuse?
If you or a loved one have suffered from nursing home abuse or negligence, you must seek the consult of a nursing home abuse attorney. They will help you receive the compensation that you and you’re loved ones deserve. Contact the Mininno Law Office for a free case evaluation, or call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.
If you or a loved one have fallen due to the negligence or abuse of nursing home caregiver, contact the Mininno Law Office for a free consultation. The dropping or falling of a nursing home resident can have serious consequences on that person’s quality of life. Each year, an average nursing home reports one to two falls or drops per resident. About 1,800 older adults living in nursing homes die each year from fall-related injuries.
Residents who experience non-fatal falls can suffer serious injuries that greatly reduce their quality of life. Residents have the right to live their remaining years with dignity, and avoidable falls rob them of this dignity and often accellerate their death.
How serious are these falls?
Nursing home falls can cause serious injuries including head trauma and fractures. Many times, the nursing home resident who suffers a fracture is not a candidate for corrective surgical measures. Falls result in disability, increased functional decline and reduced quality of life. Fear of falling can cause further loss of function, depression, feelings of helplessness, and social isolation.
Why do falls occur more often in nursing homes?
Falling can be a sign of other health problems. People in nursing homes are generally more frail and unstable than older adults living in the community. The problem is that nursing homes don’t always take the appropriate measure to prevent avoidable falls. Also, nursing home employees often take shortcuts that lead to the dropping residents.
Residents are generally older, have more chronic conditions, and have difficulty walking. They also tend to have problems with thinking or memory, to have difficulty with activities of daily living, and to need help getting around or taking care of themselves. Of course, this is generally the reason the family trusted the nursing home to care for their loved one in the first place.
The nursing home has a duty to properly assess a resident’s probability for falls, and to communicate with their physician to institute appropriate measures to prevent avoidable falls and drops.
What are the most common causes of nursing home falls?
Nursing homes know muscle weakness and walking or gait problems are the most common causes of falls among nursing home residents. Environmental hazards, such wet floors, poor lighting, incorrect bed height, and improperly fitted or maintained wheelchairs are also a cause of falls among residents. Medications often increase the risk of falls and fall-related injuries.
Other causes of falls include difficulty in moving from one place to another (for example, from the bed to a chair), poor foot care, poorly fitting shoes, and improper or incorrect use of walking aids.
It is the duty of the nursing home to understand and consider these factors when developing individualized strategies to prevent the resident from falling or being dropped, in order to avoid nursing home abuse.
How can we prevent falls in nursing homes?
Fall prevention takes a combination of medical treatment, rehabilitation, and environmental changes. The most effective interventions address multiple factors. Interventions include:
1. Nursing home staff assessment of resident upon admission to evaluate the degree a resident is at risk for falling.
2. Nursing home staff assessment of resident after a fall to identify and address risk factors and treat the underlying medical conditions.
3. Educating nursing home staff and families about fall risk factors and prevention strategies.
4. Making changes in the nursing home environment to make it easier for residents to move around safely. Such changes include putting in grab bars, adding raised toilet seats, lowering bed heights, and installing handrails in the hallways.
5. Instituting toileting schedules so residents do not try to go to the bathroom without assistance.
6. Using devices such as alarms that go off when residents try to get out of bed or move without help.
Do physical restraints help prevent falls?
The biggest misconception for the public is that restraints lower the risk of falls or fall injuries. Restraints should not be used as a fall prevention strategy. Restraints can actually increase the risk of fall-related injuries and deaths. Limiting a resident’s freedom to move around leads to muscle weakness and reduces physical function.
Doctors are more likely to order the lowering of beds and the placement of soft mats around them to prevent injury from falls.
Nursing Home Abuse in NJ and PA: Mininno Law Office
The nursing home abuse attorneys at the Mininno Law Office are dedicated to fighting for those wronged by abusive and negligent treatment in the nation’s nursing homes.
If you or a loved one have been negatively affected by nursing home abuse or negligence, please contact the Mininno Law Office and get a free case evaluation. You can also call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.
We will fight to get you the settlement that you deserve.
Reported cases of nursing home abuse are on the rise.
The Hampton Roads News recently published an article discussing the results of a study on nursing home abuse. The study asserts that elderly citizens are being abused more than ever before.
Study results are only helping the fight to improve nursing home and long term facility care.
Within the study are statistics that illustrate a 9 percent rise in reported cases of nursing home abuse from 2008-2009. From 2007-2009, reports rose 19 percent.
A personal account in the study involved the story of an 87 year old Alzheimers patient that died in the hospital after being brought in covered in bruises and bedsores or pressure sores, and suffering from extreme malnourishment.
Experts believe that these numbers are poised only to rise.
Never let Nursing Home Abuse go Unreported
Considering that thousands of nursing home abuse cases go unreported, perhaps a rise in these numbers would be good for the fight against inattentive and abusive care.
Reporting nursing home abuse to the state ombudsman will trigger an investigation, making it hard for nursing homes and long term care facilities to continue treating residents with such callous disregard.
Contacting a nursing home abuse attorney in the event of elder abuse is also essential. Nursing homes tend to provide inadequate care because their staff is overworked and underpaid, or perhaps not trained or properly educated. Owners of these homes cut staff numbers, sometimes below regulatory standards, to raise profits.
In the end, our elderly loved ones are suffering so someone else can get rich. Recently, juries have been awarding huge sums of money to victims of nursing home abuse. It’s clear that the crime is intolerable and offenders must be punished.
Victim of Nursing Home Abuse? Contact the Mininno Law Office
If you or a loved one have suffered due to nursing home abuse or negligence, please 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.
We will work hard to earn you the compensation you rightly deserve.
On September 1, 2010, we posted a blog about a $677 million dollar nursing home abuse verdict against Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc.
The verdict came after a number of nursing homes owned by Skilled Healthcare were shown to be understaffed, causing abusive and negligent events within the long term care facilities they operated.
Last week, attorneys agreed to a settlement of $50 million for all plaintiffs involved in the case. Though the final amount is significantly smaller than what the jury awarded, it is a good sign to plaintiffs that they will actuallty receive their money.
It is highly unlikely that Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc. would have been able to pay out the enormous original sum.
Juries are becoming more and more sensitive to cases of nursing home abuse. Verdicts in recent abuse cases throughout the country have been quite large, which says something for how people feel about the way our elderly sick are being treated.
Nursing home care seems to be taking a severe downward plunge, and unless these facilities start to pay for their mistakes, change will not come.
Nursing Home Abuse in NJ and PA: Mininno Law Office
The nursing home abuse attorneys at the Mininno Law Office are dedicated to fighting for those wronged by abusive and negligent treatment in the nation’s nursing homes.
If you or a loved one have been negatively affected by nursing home abuse or negligence, please contact the Mininno Law Office and get a free case evaluation. You can also call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.
We will fight to get you the settlement that you deserve.
By definition, an ombudsman is a government official who hears and investigates complaints by private citizens against other officials or government agencies.
In the state of NJ, an ombudsman works on behalf of the elderly in nursing homes and long term care facilities through the The Office of the Ombudsman for the Institutionalized Elderly.
This office accepts reports and complaints of nursing home abuse, negligence, inadequacy, theft, fraud, and other issues concerning the care residents receive in nursing homes and long term care facilities. The office invesitigates these reports of abuse and neglect from a neutral, third party stand-point, and takes the proper steps in the event that abuse is taking place.
I am a Victim of Nursing Home Abuse, What Should I Do?
If you or someone you know have been abused or neglected in a nursing home, the first thing you should do is contact the Elder Ombudsman’s Office. They will document the complaint, and take further steps to investigate it. Your next step is to contact a nursing home abuse attorney.
The NJ and PA nursing home abuse attorneys at the Mininno Law Office are dedicated to eradicating the disturbing trends of abuse and neglect in our nations nursing homes and long term care facilities. 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, and (215) 567-2380 in Philadephia.
New Jersey Office of the Ombudsman for the Institutionalized Elderly
To file a complaint:
Call 24-Hour Toll Free Hotline: 1-877-582-6995
Email: ombudsman@advocate.state.nj.us
Write: The Office of the Ombudsman
P.O. Box 852
Trenton, NJ 08625-0852
Fax: 609-943-3479
Pennsylvania Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman
Pennsylvania Department of Aging
555 Walnut Street, 5th floor
Harrisburg, Pa. 17101-1919
(717) 783-8975
Tort reform is an effort to take away the average consumer’s rights to fair compensation for substantial losses brought on by negligent manufacturers, doctors, nurses, or caregivers. Tort reform allows big businesses and other power players to get away with negligence, fraud, or other acts of harm.
These corporations, insurance companies, and their political counterparts promote an aggressive campaign of propaganda, boasting the economic benefits of tort reform, so that companies will not have to rightly compensate the people they injure. It pushes for caps on recoveries that judges and juries can award in litigation.
Who is in Favor of Tort Reform?
Tort reform advocates are a coalition of insurance companies, HMO groups, pharmaceutical companies, big businesses, and other interests who want to protect companies from liability when they harm their own consumers.
Consumers are the victims of tort reform. Tort reform takes away your right to a fair case, in which an impartial judge or jury looks at the facts of your case to determine liability, if you are eligible for compensation, and what that compensation should be.
We trust juries every day to determine if people are guilty of capital crimes and other serious offenses, but tort reformists claim that we shouldn’t we be able to count on them to determine fair compensation for someone whose life has been negatively affected by the negligence of another.
Particularly in the case of medical malpractice, doctors are made to appear the victims of the tort system. However, most of the damages paid to those harmed by medical malpractice comes from the deep pockets of the insurance industry.
When tort reform measures are passed and the insurance companies are shielded from paying for the mistakes of their insured, they do not pass those savings down to doctors who are charged outrageous premiums to obtain medical malpractice insurance. Our doctors are simply being used as pawns in an effort by insurance companies to pay out less in damages, and raise premiums anyway.
NJ and PA Attorneys at the Mininno Law Office
The Attorneys at the Mininno Law Office are dedicated to protecting the rights of consumers. If you have been affected by the negligence of a manufacturer, a doctor, a nurse, or a caregiver at a nursing home, contact the Mininno Law Office for a free case evaluation.
We are here to work for you, and earn you the compensation that you DESERVE!
You may also call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.
Nursing Home Abuse claimed the life of a 93 year old man, after a horrid accident involving a bed lift. In 2005, John Donahue was a patient at the Embassy House nursing home, owned by Kindred Nursing Care, in Brockton, Massachusetts. It was there that a negligent nursing home staff member caused an accident that would claim Donahue’s life. The caregiver was using a machine called a Hoyer Lift to lift Donahue from his bed. The machine was to be operated by two people, but this caregiver acted alone. A metal safety hook attached to the lift gouged Donahue’s left eye. The eye was removed, but Donahue died 46 days later, at 93 years of age. His official cause of death was sepsis, which occurs when the immune system overreacts to an infection.
Donahue’s stepdaughter, Marlene Owens, has been fighting for years to hold Embassy House and Kindred Nursing Care accountable for her stepfather’s death. Two weeks ago, a jury awarded Owens $400,000 , agreeing that Donahue’s death was caused by nursing home abuse and negligence at the Embassy House nursing home.
Owens was lucky to have recovered any monies at all, as Donahue signed an arbitration agreement two years prior to his death saying that he could not sue the facility should he die or be injured while a resident. A Massachusetts judge invalidated this arbitration agreement, which allowed litigation to proceed.
Kindred owns over 40 nursing homes in the state of Massachusetts. Embassy House is no longer one of them.
The Mininno Law Office and Nursing Home Abuse
If you or a loved one have suffered due to nursing home negligence or abuse, you’ll need a NJ or PA nursing home abuse attorney to help fight for your rights. Contact the Mininno Law Office for a free case evaluation.
You can also call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.
Our nursing home abuse attorneys will work hard to get you the compensation you deserve.
Nursing home abuse and negligence are claiming the lives of the ill and elderly all over the country. Changes must be made to hault the disturbing trends of indifference towards our elderly loved ones. A San Francisco, CA jury slammed the Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc. last month with a $677 million dollar verdict for a routine failure to keep any of its nursing homes or long term care facilities properly staffed. Cindy Cools, in an interview with The Associated Press, told of her experiences with Eureka Healthcare and Rehabilitation, the facility, owned by Skilled Healthcare Group Inc., that “cared” for her father before his death in 2006. She would often visit her father, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, and find him in urine-soaked clothing. She also reported that it would take staff members upwards of 20 minutes to respond to a distress call. “A lot of times I walked out of there crying because of the things I saw,” she said.
The nursing home abuse lawsuit brought against the group claimed that the company failed to maintain a California State required 3.2 hours of nursing per patient, per day. Pat Mcginnis, executive director and founder of the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, said in the article published by the AP that that time should have been easy to maintain, considering that the federal recommendation is 4.1 hours per patient, per day. The $677 million verdict is currently thought to be the largest of it’s kind in the country, and suprised even plaintiff’s attorneys. Of course, tort reformers are already pointing the case out as litigation abuse.
Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc. is a publicly traded company, and it’s thought by some that their care became sub-par when Wall Street Investment Firms started buying up nursing home companies and cutting their staff numbers to spike stock prices.
This is just further proof that long term care facilities being run by money hungry mongrels are not serving the purposes of caring for the ill and elderly, but rather putting luxury SUV’s into winding drive-ways, and in-ground swimming pools into oversized backyards.
Since the verdict, stock prices have fallen due to fear of the group’s seemingly imminent bankruptcy. It is likely that the verdict will be reduced during settlement negotiations, but hopefully the verdict will serve as a wake-up call to other companies running long term care facilities without regard to the care they are providing.
Mininno Law Office and Nursing Home Abuse
If you or a loved one have suffered due to inadequate, negligent, or abusive care at a nursing home or long term care facility, contact the Mininno Law Office. We are here to get you the compensation that you deserve.
We offer free case evaluations, or free consultations by phone at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.
Bedsores are a sure sign of nursing home abuse and neglect in a long term care facility. A Bedsore, also known as a pressure sore or pressure ulcer, is defined by the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel as a localized injury to the skin and/or underlying tissue, usually over a bony prominence, as a result of pressure, or pressure in combination with shear and/or friction.
In laymen’s terms, it’s a wound that forms when someone spends too much time in a bed without moving or changing position.
Bedsores or Pressure Sores are often located on bony prominences because these places suffer the most from oxygen deprivation due to lack of blood flow. Think of when your leg falls asleep after you’ve been sitting on it for a while. You move your leg to allow the blood to return to it.
But a bedridden patient that is unable to move themselves must be cared for meticulously, being moved and turned every two hours, to keep areas like the lower back, heels, and elbows, from becoming oxygen deprived.
Bedsores are a sure sign of nursing home abuse and negligence. Residents that are bedridden are automatically high risk bedsore patients. Care plans must be developed that include the routine 2 hour repositioning of these high risk, bedridden patients.
The National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel: Four Stages of Bedsores.
– Stage I: Redness in a localized area, usually over a bony prominence. The area may be painful, and either firmer or softer, or warmer or cooler than the surrounding tissue.
– Stage II: A shallow, open ulcer that can be red or pink. This stage may also present itself as serum-filled blister.
– Stage III: Advanced tissue loss. Fat may be visible but bone, tendon or muscle are not exposed.
– Stage IV: Full thickness tissue loss with exposed bone, tendon or muscle.
Bedsores & Nursing Home Abuse in NJ or PA: Mininno Law Office
Bedsores are prone to infection can prove fatal for some patients. They can cause unwanted and unneccesary complications to a patients’ health, and are completely avoidable.
The New Jersey nursing abuse attorneys at the Mininno Law Office are here to get you the compensation you deserve.
If you or a loved one have suffered to the acquisition of a bedsore during a stay at a hospital or long term care facility, you’ll need to assistance of a nursing home abuse attorney. Contact the Mininno Law Officefor a free case evaluation or call at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.
Nursing Home Abuse is a disturbing trend plaguing the long term care facility industry.On Wednesday, August 4th, six nursing home employees at the Valley View Skilled Nursing Facility in Ukiah, California were arrested on misdemeanor criminal charges for a cruel and abusive prank they played on a select number of residents.
According to a release from the Attorney General’s office, each of the six employees greased up the bodies of their patients with slippery ointment cream at they end of their shift so they would be slippery for the oncoming shift of workers. The residents that fell victim to this nursing home abuse were chosen because they suffered from an advanced level of dementia and could not fight the treatment.
The charges filed against the workers include injury to an elder or dependant adult; battery committed on an elder or dependant adult; conspiracy; and battery committed while on hospital property.Attorney General Jerry Brown said, “As part of a cruel and and shocking prank, these caregivers abused defenseless elders. This dispicable behavior by people placed in a position of trust.”
Nursing Home Abuse and the Mininno Law Office
This form of nursing home abuse is truley disturbing. These six employees turned sick, elderly residents whose care they were responsible for into the butt of a joke. Clearly, they had no respect for those they were caring for, the facility in which they worked, and the work they were supposed to do.
The Mininno Law Office takes a strong stand against this depraved and awful behavior. Nursing Home Abuse is all too common, and we must fight against the entities that allow it to continue.
If you or a loved one have sufferend the effects of nursing home abuse, contact the Mininno Law Office. Let our New Jersey and Philadelphia Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys help you get the compensation you deserve.
You could also call at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.
On September 1, 2010, we posted a blog about a $677 million dollar 
By definition, an ombudsman is a government official who hears and investigates complaints by private citizens against other officials or government agencies.
