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Lebanon Nursing Home Sued Over Fall

An Illinois nursing home is being sued by a man who fell at the facility, suffering head and face injuries.

The nursing home fall lawsuit was filed by Stephan A. Baldovski earlier this month in St. Clair County Circuit Court. It names Petersen Health Network as the defendant. The company manages the Lebanon Care Center where Baldovski was a resident. According to the lawsuit, Baldovski fell while he was a resident because there were no side rails. He sustained head and face injuries and suing for pain and suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life, according to a story in the Madison Record.

The lawsuit charges the nursing home with negligence because it failed to protect his safety and provide him with proper supervision.

March 27th, 2012 | 0 Comments |

Prison For Man Who Robbed Alabama Nursing Home Residents

A former Alabama nursing home employee has been sentenced to more than a year in prison for stealing from residents.

Joseph James Feagin, 33, plead guilty to nursing home abuse charges, admitting he stole more than $115,000 from residents at Wetumpka Health and Rehabilitation. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison earlier this week by Judge John Bush in Elmore County Circuit Court, according to a story by the Montgomery Advertiser.

Feagin allegedly accessed residents’ accounts and changed payee information, then submitted refund requests and had the money sent to himself and friends. He is already serving a two-year sentence for an unrelated theft conviction.

March 21st, 2012 | 0 Comments |

Illinois Nursing Home Sued After Patient Assault

A nursing home neglect lawsuit has been filed against an Illinois long-term care home for failing to protect the elderly under its care from a resident with a history of attacks.

The lawsuit was brought by the family of William A. Kahle, 47, after discovering that a resident who allegedly burned Kahle in September had attacked others in the past. According to the lawsuit, Hillcrest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center failed to protect Kahle from the abusive behavior of a 26-year-old resident who has allegedly attacked at least 23 other residents.

State records indicate that the man had sexually abused residents of both genders, urinated on people and had used illegal drugs while in the nursing home, according to various news sources. He also threatened the lives of those he assaulted if he reported his crimes, the lawsuit claims.

March 21st, 2012 | 0 Comments |

Ohio Nursing Home License Endangered After Fire

A Warwick nursing home may lose its license after being the scene of a fire believed started in a room believed to have been housing a meth drug lab.

Ohio has begun the process of taking the operating license from Park Haven Home following the March 4 fire that killed a 31-year-old man who was neither a resident nor an employee, according to a story by WSYX ABC6. Four others were hospitalized in the fire and police say that they plan to press charges against two men injured in the blaze.

The decision to revoke the home’s license came following an inspection after the blaze that found seven violations. The nursing home was cited for 18 violations last year. The facility has been cited for nursing home neglect and failing to investigate possible nursing home abuses.

March 14th, 2012 | 0 Comments |

Man Charged With Fire At Minnesota Retirement Home

A man who allegedly set fire to a Minnesota nursing home has been charged with arson.

William Gerald Kelly admitted to setting a fire on February 5 at Valley View Board and Lodge, according to police who were on the scene that night. He allegedly claimed to have set his clothes on fire in a closet, then pulled the fire alarm and left the building. A police officer on the scene says that Kelly even gave him the lighter he used, according to a story by KARE 11.

The fire did more than $200,000 damage to the facility, but caused no injuries. Kelly faces up to 20 years in prison and a $20,000 fine if convicted.

March 14th, 2012 | 0 Comments |

Cleveland Nursing Home Fire Started By Meth Lab, State Says

State investigators say a fire that killed one man and hospitalized four people at an Ohio nursing home on Sunday was caused by a mobile meth lab.

Shaun Warrens, 31, died Monday due to injuries sustained in the fire, which started in a resident’s room in Park Haven Home in Ashtabula, near Cleveland. Warrens was not a resident of the nursing home.

Two men burned in the fire are expected to be charged, police say. Mobile meth labs are portable drug kits for making methamphetamines. They can be as small as a backpack.

The nursing home was cited for 18 violations last year, according to a story in the Chillicothe Gazette. The facility has been cited for nursing home neglect and failing to investigate possible nursing home abuses.

March 6th, 2012 | 0 Comments |

Missing Ohio Retirement Home Resident Found Safe

An Ohio nursing home resident was found safe after having been missing since Sunday. Continued

February 28th, 2012 | 0 Comments |

Rhode Island Ombudsman Calls for Retirement Home Shutdown

A state official is calling for a Rhode Island nursing home to be shut down or taken over by a third party due to continuing problems.

The Pawtuxet Village Care and Rehabilitation Center has been on a federal list of worst performing for 15 months due to numerous nursing home neglect incidents. Kathleen Heren, the Rhode Island long-term-care ombudsman is reportedly asking the state’s health department to shut the facility down or put someone else in charge, according to a story in the Providence Journal.

On Friday the state ordered the nursing home to stop taking patients due to neglect problems. The 131-bed facility is on the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) list of Special Focus Facilities; a list reserved for facilities that have a history of persistent poor quality of care.

February 27th, 2012 | 1 Comment |

Supreme Court Upholds Nursing Homes’ Right to Force Arbitration

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that nursing homes have the power to force the families of victims of nursing home neglect into arbitration instead of a fair trial.

In an unsigned decision, the Supreme Court overturned a ruling by the West Virginia Supreme Court which said that state law prevented elderly care facilities from using arbitration to avoid nursing home wrongful death lawsuits and personal injury claims and was not preempted by a federal law to the contrary. The state high court had ruled that the Federal Arbitration Act did not preempt state laws and said that it was never intended to be applicable to personal injury or wrongful death lawsuits, even though the families had to sign a clause allowing arbitration to get their families a bed in the facility.

West Virginia law says that a nursing home cannot force the family of a victim of nursing home neglect to forgo trial for arbitration, which many say heavily favors nursing homes, in cases of injury or death due to negligence.

The Supreme Court opinion said that the West Virginia court misinterpreted federal law, which they said still allowed arbitration even in cases where an elderly resident possibly died due to negligence. The decision will send the case back to the West Virginia Supreme Court for reconsideration, according to a Sunday Gazette Mail story.

February 22nd, 2012 | 0 Comments |

Elopement Death Leads to Illinois Neglect Lawsuit

An Illinois nursing home is facing a wrongful death lawsuit from the daughters of a 75 year old resident who died after walking out of the facility.

The body of Aubrey Giles was found in mid-January in a wooded area near Midwest Rehabilitation and Respiratory Care assisted-living center two days after he disappeared. He had a heart condition and required daily medication. The cause of death was determined to be hypothermia. His death sparked a state investigation.

The nursing home neglect lawsuit over his death was filed on Tuesday in St. Clair County Circuit Court by Terri Dancy and Linda Woods. The two women have accused Midwest of negligence and say that they violated state nursing home regulations by failing to take proper precautions against potential nursing home elopements. The lawsuit names Midwest and its management company, Senior Healthcare Management, as defendants, according to multiple news sources.