Articles Posted in Nursing Home Abuse/Neglect

The family of a man who died four years at a Georgia nursing home have been awarded $1.25 million after a DeKalb County jury concluded that nursing home neglect was responsible for the man’s death. Tucker Nursing Center allegedly provided inadequate care to the man when he was admitted in 2002 at the age of 67. Nine months later, he had to be hospitalized for a bedsore that infected his left buttock to the bone, said his attorney, and ultimately put him in a death spiral. He died in June 2004.

Elderly people are entitled to basic safety, respect and dignity. If you or someone you love is a victim of elder abuse or nursing home abuse, you have the right to hold the abuser responsible in court. The Louthian Law Firm has represented injured South Carolinians in elder abuse lawsuits and other personal injury suits since 1959. With our firm on the case, you can rest assured that you’ll get the extensive experience and personalized attention you deserve. For a free consultation, call our Columbia office today at 1-866-410-5656.

Nursing Home Neglect Verdict

A new federal report found that nine of every 10 nursing homes were cited for violating federal health and safety standards last year. For-profit homes were more likely to have problems than other types of nursing homes, according to the report. Problems included infected bedsores, medication mix-ups and poor nutrition. About one-fifth of the complaints verified by federal and state authorities involved the abuse or neglect of patients.

Elderly people are entitled to basic safety, respect and dignity. If you or someone you love is a victim of elder abuse or nursing home abuse, you have the right to hold the abuser responsible in court. The Louthian Law Firm has represented injured South Carolinians in elder abuse lawsuits and other personal injury suits since 1959. With our firm on the case, you can rest assured that you’ll get the extensive experience and personalized attention you deserve. For a free consultation, call our Columbia office today at 1-866-410-5656.

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A lawsuit that was filed against a nursing home by twenty-three families who had lost loved ones when a bus transporting patients exploded was settled on Tuesday, September 25th, according to an Associated Press Report.

In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina ravaged the South, killing more than 18,000 people and causing more than 80 billion dollars in damage. So when Hurricane Rita threatened the residents of Brighton Gardens, a Houston-area assisted living community, a month later, the decision to flee the area seemed a wise choice. When the bus that was evacuating the nursing home patients exploded, however, the families of the 23 patients who lost their lives were left to question the decisions and methods of evacuation the home chose.

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According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report the New York Times reported that nursing homes with repeated safety compliance problems usually face only minimal penalties from the federal government.

Congress established “stringent” standards for nursing homes in 1987, but a 1998 GAO report found that nursing homes that repeatedly harmed residents were not being sufficiently penalized.

According to the new GAO report, which is scheduled for release next week, nursing homes with a long history of harming residents still are not held accountable for the poor care they provide and some of the homes which repeatedly harmed residents over a six year period remain in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

The report, which focuses on nursing homes with a history of compliance problems, used a California nursing home as an example. In that home a patient choked to death in part because a machine needed to save his life was broken. The facility, which was cited for more than 170 serious deficiencies, was still open in late 2006.

The GAO report went on to state that the Bush administration rarely denies federal payments to nursing homes with compliance problems and typically imposes fines that are much smaller than the maximum fine of $10,000 per day.

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