Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog

A Northern Idaho jury has awarded $18 million in punitive damages to relatives of an 86-year-old man who sued the nursing home where he died in 1995, claiming he had been abused and overly medicated.
The staff committed more than 700 violations of federal nursing home regulations and eventually caused the man’s death with repeated dosages of Haldol, a powerful anti-psychotic medication they used to control him after he tried to leave the home.

For the full article:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_ID_Abuse_Award.html

A woman was awarded $800,000 in damages by a Webster District Court jury for negligent nursing care. The claim alleged neglect resulting in dehydration and a pressure sore on the woman’s hip. The suit alleged 2 claims, each resulting in $400,000 awards: one for malpractice, and one for violation of the Louisiana Nursing Home Residents' Bill of Rights.

For the full article:
http://www.ktbs.com/news/local/2814766.html

A settlement was reached in a case involving 23 nursing home patients who were killed by a bus explosion during the Hurricane Rita evacuation process.

Global Limo, the owner of the bus, and BusBank, which hired the bus company for the nursing home, have agreed to pay the maximum coverage of their insurance policies.

The $11 million will be divided among the 21 survivors and the families of the 23 people who died.

For the full article:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3858468.html

A jury awarded the family of a Lexington, Kentucky man with $20 million in a nursing home wrongful death suit. The 82 year old man died at the home in March 2002 of a heart attack after staff ignored repeated calls from the man of abdominal pain.

The suit alleged that nurses ignored repeated calls for help from the man, and that the home was chronically understaffed due to company cost cutting initiatives.

For the full article:
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/14501712.htm

A Wisconsin man rendered a paraplegic by heart surgery won a $2.75 million verdict against Milwaukee-based Extendicare Homes, which was doing business as Lakeside Nursing & Rehabilitation in Chippewa Falls.

The man was admitted to Lakeside in 2002 after his heart surgery. The claim included improper care procedures that led the man to develop bedsores. The same home was cited for 76 federal violations in the three years ending May 31.

For the full article:
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/14492057.htm

The family of a woman who died in a St. Louis nursing home in April 2001 was awarded $275,000. The woman died during a heat wave at the Leland Health Care Center when the air conditioning was not working at the home.

Three other women died during the heat wave and their families reached settlements for undisclosed amounts.

For the full article:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/DCA29771CFF319648625715B002094F7?OpenDocument

A Lynchburg, VA jury awarded $75,000 in compensatory damages to the family of a 95 year old woman in a wrongful death suit.

For the full article:
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http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=LNA%2FMGArticle%2FLNA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137835526774&path=!news!archive

A jury awarded $1.1 million to the family of a 62-year old man who died in 2002 from an infection in his leg at North Macon Health Care in Macon, Georgia.

The wrongful death suit alleged lapses in care including poor staffing, preventable falls that contributed to the infection and subsequent death of the stroke victim.

For the full article:
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or
http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/14391983.htm

California’s second-largest nursing home chain, Pleasant Care, has agreed to pay $1.3 million to the state to settle civil allegations of negligence. The Department of Health Services cited more than 160 violations in the past 5 years including but not limited to dehydration, malnutrition, inadequate care for pressure sores and improper administration of medication.

Another term of the settlement requires Pleasant Care to hire a government-appointed independent monitor to ensure the home follows the law. The home must also hire more nurses.

For the full article:
http://www.californiahealthline.org/index.cfm?Action=dspItem&itemID=119320&ClassCD=CL104

An 81-year old man was severely beaten by his roommate at Comanche Trails Nursing Center in San Antonio in 1997. On February 22, 2006, testimony that a nurse knowingly paired the frail, 81-year old man with a mentally ill roommate caused a jury to respond in a nursing home lawsuit with a $160 million verdict.

The man suffered severe physical and emotional trauma when he was beaten with a water pitcher, a glass and the abuser’s fists.

For the full article:
Download file

A major and often troubled nursing home chain, Beverly Enterprises, reached a settlement with the Attorney General yesterday in a nursing home negligence case. In Little Rock, Attorney General Mike Beebe announced at the Residents Rights' Rally that his office has reached a settlement with Beverly Enterprises, resolving 26 investigations by the Attorney General’s Office involving 12 Beverly-operated nursing homes. The investigations centered on allegations of mistreatment and neglect of residents in those homes

Under the terms of the settlement, Beverly has paid $1,000,000 into the Arkansas Medicaid Program Trust Fund. In addition, Beverly has agreed to invest a minimum of $500,000 to improve their nursing homes in Arkansas. The settlement requirements include programs to recognize, treat and prevent pressure sores and other patient-care injuries, to reduce falls among residents, and to prevent narcotics abuse by staff members. Under the terms of the settlement, Beverly does not admit or acknowledge any violations in their Arkansas nursing-home facilities.

Georgia based Mariner Health Care settled a lawsuit with a nursing home patient's widow and family a week before the case was supposed to go to trial. The patient died from shock due to hundreds of ant bites at Atlantic Shore nursing home, one of Florida's largest nursing homes. This is the second Florida ant bite case in the past six years; in 2000 a nursing home settled for an undisclosed amount with the family of an 87 year old woman.

Source: http://www.mcknightsonline.com/content/index.php