Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog

A recent nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit was settled just days before the trial was set to begin. The lawsuit charged that the nursing home resident suffered fractures, infections, bruises, skin tears, and verbal abuse during his stay at the facility.

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A state district court has ruled that a nursing home’s arbitration agreement was unenforceable because it was unconscionable. The nursing home, in response to a lawsuit alleging deprivation of a resident’s rights and wrongful death, sought to compel arbitration pursuant to a provision contained in the facility care contract.

However, the court regarded the nursing home’s actions as an unconscionable way to avoid liability. Without explaining any substantive provisions or discussing the arbitration agreement, the admissions director at the facility deceptively had the deceased patient’s daughter sign a 37 page document in less than five minutes. Further, the facility never informed the patient’s daughter that she did not have to sign the contract for her father to receive care, nor did they provide a copy of the contract once it was signed. It appears the facility’s primary objective was simply to avoid litigation at any cost, regardless of its general failure to provide adequate care to its residents.

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Steve Levin and Michael Bonamarte of the law firm of Levin & Perconti recently settled a nursing home lawsuit for $532,000.000 on behalf of the family of an 83 year old nursing home resident who died from injuries she sustained during a fall.

The resident, who had lived at the Woodbridge Pavilion Nursing Home for approximately 3 years, had fallen several times at home. The Defendant nursing home knew she was a risk for falls. Despite this knowledge the Defendant nursing home failed to ensure that the resident was appropriately monitored and supervised.

As a result of the negligence of the Defendant nursing home and the failure on the part of the staff the resident wandered through an exit door and fell down a flight of stairs. The fall resulted in a bleed in her brain which caused her death a week later.

The nursing home was cited by the Illinois Department of Public Health for violations of the Illinois Administrative Code and OBRA regulations.

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A Louisiana jury recently awarded the family of a 84 year-old man $1 million in damages stemming from a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit . Shortly after entering his nursing home, the 84 year-old had to be taken to a hospital because of infected pressure sores, weight loss, malnutrition, and dehydration. The 84 year-old died six days later from the infected pressure sore, one of which was so advanced that it went to the bone.

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A $1 million verdict was reached recently on behalf of the family of an 84-year-old man who died of infected pressure sores as a result of nursing home abuse and neglect. The man, who had lived at his daughter's home without complications up until his stay at the nursing home, developed stage IV pressure ulcers, weight loss, dehydration and malnutrition after only 26 days at the facility. The man was admitted to the hospital and died 6 days later as a result of those symptoms including a pressure sore so infected that it went to the bone and was infected with his own feces. The plaintiff was awarded $250,000 in survival damages, $500,000 in wrongful death damages, and an additional $250,000 for the nursing home's medical malpractice and neglect.

The families of all 23 nursing home residents who died during their evacuation from Hurricane Rita in a bus explosion have settled their lawsuits against the nursing home. Terms of the settlement were confidential.

Two years ago, a Texas nursing home bussed residents north as Hurricane Rita approached. A rear wheel of the bus caught on fire on a freeway near Dallas and within minutes, the vehicle was engulfed in flames and smoke. Those who died in the fire were too frail to escape the bus on their own.

Victims and relatives of victims last year reached an $11 million settlement with the bus company.

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In a recent wrongful death case, an Arkansas jury has returned a nursing home neglect verdict against national nursing home chain, Beverly Health Care. The case was filed by the family of an elderly man who was moved into the Beverly Healthcare of Camden nursing home after a shoulder injury. The man, who was independent and otherwise healthy before his injury, died of pressure ulcers, malnutrition, and other symptoms of nursing home abuse and neglect.

Continue reading "Arkansas jury returns $2.2 million verdict against Nursing Home chain" »

The family of a 46-year old disabled woman will received a $600,000 settlement from the nursing home that caused her death. Chicago law firm Levin & Perconti represented the mother of the 46-year-old disabled woman who died as a result of the neglectful treatment she received while in the care of Alden Wentworth Rehabilitation and Health Care Center.

The woman was admitted to the facility in Fall 2000. In only five weeks in the facility, the woman developed severely infected bedsores and became malnourished and dehydrated. She was hospitalized for sepsis before her death. The family’s attorneys alleged that the nursing home abused and neglected the woman, failing to provide the care and treatment necessary to prevent the development of bedsores and failing to treat the bedsores once they developed.

Specifically, Alden failed to keep the woman from developing pressure ulcers by not performing daily skin checks or turning and repositioning her. Her nutritional status
was also allowed to decline which caused her wounds to worsen.

Click here for the Press Release

An $800,000 settlement was reached on behalf of a cerebral palsy patient against Riverside Foundation, an intermediate care facility, for neglect of residents by Levin & Perconti. In addition to the developmental disability, the patient was also diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder which manifested in a behavior involving stealing food items and stuffing them whole into her mouth. The Riverside staff was aware of the resident's habit and was alerted of the need to provide one-on-one supervision of the patient at each meal in the dining room. The extension of the dining room procedures to outings outside the facility was not made. On a group trip to a pizza restaurant, the patient grabbed a piece of pizza and stuffed it whole into her mouth which caused her to choke and ultimately led to her death. Even though the staff was aware of the patient's tendency, they failed to extend supervision beside the explicit dining room procedures instructed, resulting in this tragic incident.

A Connecticut nursing home is being fined $75 a day because it is unable to pay a $228,000 nursing home abuse lawsuit settlement to the family of a 74 year-old Hartford man who died there in 2003. The 130-bed facility did not carry medical malpractice insurance at the time that the death occurred.

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A $228,000 nursing home abuse settlement has gone unpaid to the family of a 74-year old man who died at the home in 2003. Haven Healthcare Center of West Hartford reported that the facility was unable to pay the settlement agreed upon during mediation last February. The Judge has imposed a $75/day penalty upon the home for each day the settlement is not paid.

The settlement was based on the wrongful death of the man at the nursing home that occured when the home failed to follow a physician’s order to lower the man’s elevated potassium levels.

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The family of a man who died after choking on food that was given to him at an area nursing home has reached a $250,000 settlement of a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit filed against the facility and several other defendants. The victim was admitted to a nursing home and immediately placed on an all liquid diet. Despite that directive, a nursing home employee gave the victim a small amount of food that caused him to choke.

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An $825,000 settlement achieved by John Perconti and Patricia Gifford of Levin & Perconti was reported in the July 2007 issue of the Illinois Jury Verdict Reporter. A resident of Manorcare at Oak Lawn was admitted for dementia with a history of wandering. Due to nursing home neglect and lack of supervision, the resident left the facility in the winter without shoes or a jacket and was not found until over two hours later. The resident suffered from hypothermia before dying the next morning. The Illinois Department of Public Health cited and fined ManorCare for this incident.

A nursing assistant at a Washington nursing home was sentenced to nine months in jail due to the abuse and neglect of a 73-year-old woman, resulting in her death. Two other nurses remain charged with manslaughter and criminal mistreatment. The emergency room doctor said that the causes of the woman's death were dehydration, starvation, and lack of medication resulting in a coma, kidney failure, and ultimately death. The nurse who was sentenced to jail time pled guilty and admitted that she was "reckless" and withheld the basic necessities of life. The owner of the home was aware that the resident had behavioral problems but assured the family that the nursing home was equipped to provide adequate care. The family of the victim reached a $400,000 settlement in a wrongful death civil lawsuit.

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An 82-year-old woman recently died at a Lemont nursing home due to abuse and neglect. Steven Levin of Levin & Perconti is bringing a lawsuit against the Lemont facility. The suit alleges that the facility failed to properly administer care and supervision to the 82-year-old high risk fall victim. The Chicago Sun-Times recently published the story, please Click here to view the full article.

The family of a victim of extreme nursing home neglect and wrongful death was awarded $54 million in a recent verdict against ManorCare Inc., one of the largest nursing home corporations in the country. The daughter of the 78-year-old victim alleged that when she arrived at the nursing home within three hours of being informed of her mother's death, staff members had already crammed the victim's belonging into boxes and that money was missing. Lawyers discovered that a nursing aide found the woman lying in soiled, bloody sheets which staff members quickly removed, leading to the allegation that ManorCare had destroyed evidence. Although charting errors are frequently discovered in nursing homes, the victim's charting was so inadequate that it showed that she had been given insulin over two hours after her death.

ManorCare has been cited for many instances of neglect, such as patients repeatedly being discovered in fecal- and urine-soiled bedding, improper restraints and improperly trained staff. For instance, Levin & Perconti has handled numerous cases against ManorCare in Illinois in which the nursing homes were found to have very serious examples of abuse and neglect.

The vast majority of the $54,000,000 award against ManorCare in a wrongful death case was for punitive damages. Lawyers for the family stated that they hoped that the nursing home neglect lawsuit would ensure that the types of neglect that the New Mexico nursing home resident suffered would not happen again. Lawyers for the woman's family indicate that staffers knew about her intestinal bleeding for several days. And yet, they did nothing about it. Then, when a staffer found the woman dead in her blood soaked bedsheets, the nursing home cleared and cleaned up the area, even though the doctor who performed the autopsy testified that these materials should have been sent to the Office of the Medical Investigator along with the body. The epitome of ManorCare's negligent care for its residents is the fact that charting procedures were so inadequate that the woman was given an insulin injection two and a half hours after her death.The attempted cover-up and the resident neglect were nothing new for New Mexico ManorCare facilities. At trial, lawyers presented evidence that ManorCare had previously been reported as having improperly trained staff, using improper restraints, and neglecting its residents.

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A New Mexico jury has recently awarded $54,000,000 to the family of a woman who died at a ManorCare nursing home. Lawyers for the deceased nursing home resident stated that the ManorCare nursing home failed to follow its own procedures in sending residents to the hospital. As a result, the woman bled to her death. The jury awarded $4,000,000 for the wrongful death and $50,000,000 in punitive damages.

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