Last month, our nursing home abuse lawyers wrote about a facility in Ann Arbor, Michigan where maggots were found in a patient’s catheter. The staff of the Whitehall Healthcare Center of Ann Arbor was told to document the incident as “debridement,” which is a term that means dead tissue, not maggots. Now, three former employees of the facility have sued the home and parent company, claiming that they were fired for reporting the abuse. The state came to the home after one of the former certified nursing aides filed a complaint due to a patient fall. When the investigators were visiting the facility, all three of the aides told them about the maggots. Nikenda Morton, Wanda Mosley and Latasha Bryant are seeking relief under the state’s Whistleblower Protection Act, asking for a jury trial and seeking unspecified compensatory damages for economic injury, including loss of employment, mental and emotional distress, humiliation, all attorney fees and court costs.
State Investigation Uncovers More Problems in Facility
According to the lawsuit that was filed on November 22, the nursing home also suspended and eventually fired two nursing assistants, a nurse, and a nurse manager in order to prevent them from participating in the investigation. They also tried to hide a resident’s fall and injuries that resulted from the resident’s family and state officials by telling Morton to not write a report on the incident. Despite their efforts, the investigation was completed and the state found that the Whitehall Healthcare Center failed to
“provide appropriate hygiene and catheter care to a resident whose vaginal area became infested with maggots: failed to supervise two residents in wheelchairs, both of whom were injured as a result; failed to provide a sanitary, comfortable and orderly interior; failed to adequately monitor the fluid intake and output for a patient who became dehydrated; failed to maintain complete staff personnel files and complete required certification, license and background checks.”
According to state officials, these problems have all since been corrected.
Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers in New Jersey and Philadelphia
If your loved one is a resident at a nursing home or long term care facility and you believe that the care they are receiving is negligent or inadequate, contact our professionals for a free case evaluation or consultation. Contact the Mininno Law Office by phone at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.
A very popular scam in recent years has been to call elderly adults pretending to be a grandchild, asking for money to be wired due to some emergency. This Grandparent Scam has cost people thousands of dollars all over the country. The scam has been around for several years, but it has gotten more elaborate lately. Originally, scammers would call and slowly get details from the victim through the conversation. Now-a-days, the caller will already know detailed information before they make the call. They will immediately identify themselves as a grandchild by name and give other details about their lives in order to increase credibility. Officials are warning everyone, especially the elderly, to never send money to family members or loved ones unless you can be certain you are sending it to the right person. It is easy for predators to access personal information so you must ask more than just basic information.
After a state Health Department investigation, a Minnesota nursing home is being held responsible for the death of 82-year-old Keith H. Johnson. The nursing home served Johnson a tuna sandwich on December 13, 2010 which was in violation of his doctor’s orders to only eat pureed food because of his history of eating too fast and choking. The man, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, was then left unsupervised and began to choke on the sandwich. An employee noticed that he was trying to cough and then became unresponsive and was not breathing. There were two failed Heimlich maneuver attempts to restore his breathing before Johnson was taken to the hospital. He died six days later from lack of oxygen to his brain and cardiac arrest.
At the end of October the police went to the son of 74-year-old Carol Brown’s home to find her unresponsive and living in deplorable conditions. The paramedics rushed Brown to the hospital but she died several days later. According to the officers who entered the home, they described Brown as “a rotting corpse that was still breathing.” The rescue crews had to pry her from the leather recliner because her legs had become fused to the chair. Court documents also revealed that she was sitting in her own bodily fluids and waste with a swollen ankle wound with maggots inside. According to Brown’s daughter Laura Sanders, the doctors told her “There were sores on her back the size of a man’s fist.”
Peggy Ballinger, a 55-year-old former care provider at the Alois Alzheimer Center, is facing charges after being accused of stealing pain medications from her Alzheimer’s patients. She is being charged with 
Brian Watt, a 29-year-old sex offender and former certified nursing assistant at the facility, was arrested on September 9. He was charged with 
Richard Lee Wallace, 57, is standing trial this month for charges of elder abuse and neglect of an incapacitated adult resulting in death. Paramedics found his 86-year-old mother, Elise Wallace, dead in the home they shared on April 18. They found her body on the couch of the messy home covered in maggot-filled bedsores, gangrene, and surrounded by hundreds of flies. The paramedics testified that she had been dead no more than an hour when they arrived. The cause of death was determined to be a 
According to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Diane Hallman, her mother’s death was the result of neglect by the Regent Care Center where the elderly woman was living. Rachel Mohr, 78, was found on March 4 yelling for help on the floor next to her bed. The lawsuit says that Mohr was put back in bed after she suffered head trauma and bleeding. “She was neurologically alert, coherent and in severe pain. She was placed back in bed and was later discovered nonresponsive,” the lawsuit claims. She was taken to the hospital where she died from the severe and fatal neurological injuries she suffered during the fall.
Carle has served as an advisor on a project by the GTX Corporation to develop location-tracking shoes with a GPS in the heel. They were developing the shoe for marathon runners and children when Carle “pointed out why this was an ideal technology for people with dementia who wander.” There has been GPS pocket devices, wristbands, and bracelets and pendants with names and contact numbers on the market but these were easily lost or removed. The wearer is much less likely to remove their shoes. The shoe’s technology will allow a family member to set a perimeter such as the house and yard that the wearer can move around freely, “But if he breaks the fence, Google maps pops up on my computer or my phone to show me where he is,” Carle explained. When it comes out on the market, the shoe is going to cost about $300 with a $30 to $40 monthly subscription fee.
Edna Lena Morales, 48, was arrested for the second time on Wednesday, November 9, 2011 for suspicion of