Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog

The Illinois Nursing Home Care Act protects the rights of residents in long term care facilities relating to privacy, freedom from neglect and abuse, and self-determination. Under the Act, a long term care facility is any place that provides personal care, sheltered care or nursing for three or more persons not related to the facility owner by blood or marriage. These facilities are required to comply with the Act and are responsible for preventing nursing home resident abuse and neglect.

Some of the major residents’ rights protected under the Act include:

• The right to wear your own clothing and have a safe, secure storage place for your personal property
• The right to privacy of your bedroom space, including not sharing a room with someone of the opposite sex unless the person is your spouse
• The right to choose your own doctor and make decisions about your medical care
• The right to be free from restraint or confinement without consent
• The right to communicate through phone and mail and receive visitors
• The right to manage your own financial affairs
• The right to be free from abuse and neglect
• The right to discharge or transfer to a different facility at your request
• All of your rights as a U.S. citizen, including freedom of speech, religion, and the right to vote

The Illinois Department of Public Health (“IDPH”) enforces the Act throughout Illinois. If a facility has violated any of your protected rights, your options include 1) filing a complaint with the Long-Term Care Ombudsman; 2) filing a complaint with the IDPH; or 3) consulting an Illinois nursing home abuse attorney about filing a private lawsuit. The Long-Term Care Ombudsman is required to investigate your complaint and can ask the facility to voluntarily comply with the Act’s requirements. If the facility fails to address the violation, the IDPH can investigate and impose fines and other penalties for any violation it finds, up to and including revoking the facility’s license to operate.

In addition to submitting a complaint to the Ombudsman or IDPH, you can also pursue a private nursing home lawsuit. The Chicago nursing home abuse attorneys at Levin & Perconti have handled hundreds of complex nursing home cases involving injuries arising out of Illinois Nursing Home Care Act violations. These cases include securing a record $2.9 million jury verdict against a suburban Homewood nursing home for the family of a deceased resident who suffocated due to the home’s negligent care of her tracheostomy tube.

Continue reading "What The Illinois Nursing Home Care Act Means for You and Your Loved Ones’ Rights" »

For many families, nursing home abuse is a topic that only arises in conversation after they discover that their loved one has fallen victim to its insidious occurrence. The process of sending an elderly relative to one of these facilities is typically a tough decision but one made with the specific purpose of ensuring that their relative is healthy and safe. Unfortunately, when nursing home neglect occurs, the opposite is true—the facility itself causes the health consequences.

Lawyers and Settlements recently provided some context to the scope of the nursing home abuse problem. Specifically, the Illinois Department of Aging reports that most victims of elder abuse are subjected to more than one type including physical, sexual, and emotional abuse; confinement, financial exploitation, neglect, and willful deprivation. The most common form of abuse allegations involves financial exploitation, constituting 58% of all elder abuse claims. This is likely true because it is the one form of elder abuse that most directly benefits the abuser.

Each of those neglectful actions constitutes violations of the basic care guaranteed to residents under the law. The victim and their family may have a legal case against the facility when any of these occur, often irrespective of the intent of the abusers.

In nursing homes, the perpetrators of the abuse are varied, from nurses and administrators to aides and other residents. No matter who is the direct cause of the conduct, however, it is often difficult for a resident to find justice. In many cases embarrassment and shame prevent seniors from coming forward with information about the problem. For others, they may not be able to physically or mentally do anything to stop the misconduct or report it.

Continue reading "Illinois Nursing Home Abuse More Prevalent Than Many Imagine" »

Over the past several months on this blog we closely followed the nursing home lawsuit against Skilled Healthcare. We reported on the mammoth $677 million verdict against the conglomerate following their years of inadequate staffing and care. That award was then converted into a $63 million settlement before the appeal on the original verdict was heard. In addition, the 22 nursing homes managed by Skilled Healthcare were required to abide by the nursing staffing requirement in the future. 42,000 other patients were all part of the nursing home lawsuit against Skilled Healthcare which failed to provided the 3.2 nursing hours per patient per day as required by state law.

Yesterday the Contra Costa Times talked with residents and nurses involved in the suit to get a different perspective on the suit, including information about the lives affected by the poor care given to the vulnerable seniors at the facilities. For example, one 71-year old widow found herself at one of the facilities living in what she described as a living hell because of the chronic understaffing and poor treatment provided by the facility.

Another resident explained how the lack of sufficient nursing employees made it difficult to get even the most basic assistance. When she needed to use the bathroom she pressed a button on the side of her bed. But the nurses were always later and later to arrive. She explains, “I went through hell every night just trying to get a bedpan. If you don’t hold it, well there goes your dignity.”

Continue reading "Victims Share Their Story Following Major Nursing Home Lawsuit" »

Nursing homes are charged with providing complete care to vulnerable elderly residents. That means that nursing home employees must provide physical care (like helping residents get in and out of bed) as well as medical care. While advanced medical care requires the expertise of hospital professionals, nursing home staff members often still perform more routine tasks, like controlling resident medications.

Severe harm and even death often results when the employees are negligent when administering patient drugs.

That is exactly what happened according to a new nursing home lawsuit filed against the Woodland Care Center according to About Lawsuits. The wrongful death suit stems from the death of a resident at the facility caused by an overdose of a pain patch known as fentanyl. The medication was intended to handle the resident’s pain during his recovery from bone cancer. The fentanyl gel in question is 100 times stronger than morphine.

The medication is administered through a patch that is supposed to be applied once every three days. However, the nursing home staff caregiver failed to follow that directive. Instead three pain patches where used on the resident’s neck at once. As a result of the medication error the victim suffered cardiac arrest. He was found on the floor of his nursing home room and transferred to a local hospital where he died six days later.

Continue reading "Medication Patch Overdose Leads to Wrongful Death Lawsuit" »

WKBT News recently discussed the latest lawsuit filed following a string of abusive conduct at the Evangelical Good Samaritan Society of Albert Lea nursing home. This is the 7th lawsuit filed which charged the nursing home with failure to properly monitor its employees, leading to abusive behavior by several nursing home assistants.

An investigation in May of 2008 revealed the abuse carried out against dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. One of the abusers has already been sentenced to three months in jail while another is awaiting sentencing.

The abuse was carried out unabated over the course of four to six months. It included sexual groping of the residents and repeated physical beatings. The teenage assistants also went so far as telling one particular resident that the facility was actually a prison in an attempt to confuse and torment the mentally impaired elderly victim.

Dementia and Alzheimer’s patients are often particularly susceptible to physical and sexual abuse because of their impaired mental awareness. Their vulnerability makes it vitally important that all employees working with these residents are screened to ensure they have no ill motives. It is unacceptable for a single facility to have created a culture in which several assistant felt free to commit these repeated examples of elder abuse. Administrators must ensure that employees are properly trained and closely monitored so that that no abuse or neglect occurs. Their failure to do so can have devastating effects.

Continue reading "Seventh Lawsuit Filed Against Abusive Nursing Home" »

The Orchard Court Nursing Home in Jonesboro, Illinois was ordered closed recently by Illinois health department officials. WSIL News reported on the closing which will send 15 residents to new facilities in the area.

The nursing home will have 90 days to surrender its license, pay $12,000 in fines, and move its residents to other accommodations. These actions were required following a new report by the Illinois Department of Public Health which documented numerous failures at the facility in resident protection and safety. Specifically, the facility was found to have allowed certain residents to abuse other residents. One resident at Orchard Court, an 18 year old man, physically abused several others at the facility, including one attack that sent a 62 year old blind resident to the hospital.

The facility was attempting to be ac care facility for severely disabled residents who had been turned away from other nursing home. Management at the facility claim that the business simply did not have the funding to properly ensure that facility complied with all state laws. The facility was unable to properly maintain an individualized care plan to ensure the safety of each resident.

An official with the state health department explains, “License revocation is not very common and for this to happen we definitely felt there were issues with continued care and operation with this facility.”

Our Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti know that many nursing homes are similar to Orchard Court in that certain residents are not provided adequate protection against other abusive residents—physical, sexual, and mental abuses abound. However, we also know that examples of state department intervention are all too rare; instead the nursing home abuse often goes unchallenged. It is for that reason that we work directly with victims and their families to seek redress and force these facilities to improve the care they provide.

Cynthia Wims entered the Willows Nursing & Rehabilitation Center for what was supposed to be a brief recovery period following elective hip replacement surgery. Unfortunately, she would never leave the facility alive. The Cap Times recently published a detailed story on Cythnia’s struggle.

Cynthia’s health seemed to deteriorate each day that she was at the facility. Her surgical wound never improved as expected, and she instead developed a staph infection. Staph infections are rarely life threatening, and doctors are usually able to treat it without too many complications. However, Cynthia never got treatment, because not one of the rehabilitation employees at the facility took any steps to take care of the medical problem. A doctor was never called, her wounds were never treated, and Cynthia’s husband was forced to take her clothes home to wash every day because drainage from the wound soiled them.

Less than a month and a half after arriving at the negligent nursing home, Cynthia died. She left behind a husband of fifty years, several children, and many grandchildren. Cynthia’s husband filed a nursing home lawsuit following her death, and recently settled the case for over $2.25 million. The settlement was reached with the large nursing conglomerate that owned the facility.

Our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti have helped many families in similar circumstances win settlements and awards following deaths at nursing homes. It is important for all those who have suffered a loss that could have been prevented to contact nursing home lawyers to learn about the rights that they may have. We may never be able to put an end to all negligent nursing home conduct. However, with each new family that comes forward and fights for their right to proper treatment, more facilities are forced to improve the care that they deliver on a daily basis. In that way, each new legal victory is another step closer toward ensuring that current nursing home residents do not fall victim to abuse and neglect.

Please Click Here to read more about the troubling case of nursing home negligence that killed Cynthia Wilms.

The Montgomery County Courier published a story yesterday on the tragic death of a beloved community member. Attorney Don Brown had devoted his life to helping his less fortunate neighbors. As a criminal defense attorney he volunteered hundreds and hundreds of hours helping those who couldn’t afford legal services. In one high-profile case, Brown helped saved the life of an innocent man who was sent to death row.

Don Brown was always ready to help those who were vulnerable around him. Unfortunately, he was not afforded the same care when he entered a nursing home following several heart problems. He entered the Willis Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in mid-August because he needed close care following complications from congestive heart failure and a broken hip. He assumed that the facility would provide the optimal location to recovery following a surgery. The nursing home offered long-term acute rehabilitation and skilled nursing care.

But Don did not receive the care to which he was entitled. Virtually as soon as he arrived, staff members put him on a medication regime that was far stronger than necessary. He received anti-psychotic drugs and large doses of Vicodin. As a result, Don had trouble eating and eventually suffered from kidney failure. Besides the overmedication, employees failed to treat his infections and bedsores. The mistreatment was so severe that part of Don’s tailbone was protruding from his skin.

Only a few weeks after arriving at the facility, Don was sent to a nearby hospital with pneumonia. He died from complications three days later.

Our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti work each day to help eliminate the abuse and neglect that takes the lives of innocent residents at many facilities. The first step in improving the care is to ensure that a spotlight is shone on the problem, forcing problematic nursing homes to make changes to their substandard care. If you know of any similar mistreatment, please contact a nursing home lawyer today.

The Chatham Daily News published a story last week about the problems of elder abuse. An educational workshop was recently in the area held which sparked discussion about the ways in which seniors are exploited, neglected, and abused.

One speaker, legal scholar Robert Solomon, explained that many protections are in place to help vulnerable seniors but they are not well known. He emphasized that the law does protect at-risk elderly community members in all sorts of situations, from exploitation by predatory salesmen to neglect by nursing home staff members. Yet, all too often these seniors and their families are unaware of the legal options that they have to fight the abuse.

To help combat the problem, the professor suggested expanding public bodies that work to investigate allegations of abuse. Also, the agencies charged with the task need to develop better “user-friendly” processes that are less intimidating to the average person.

Another speaker at the workshop emphasized the scope of the problem of elder abuse. There remains an element of embarrassment among many seniors following their abuse or being taken in by scams. That leads to severe underreporting of the problem. She explained, “It is something we all need to work together to recognize and stop and report.”

Our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti encourage anyone who suspects that their loved one may have suffered at the hands of inadequate, negligent, or abusive care to contact a nursing home lawyer. The first step in ensuring that future seniors are protected is to hold the past abusers accountable for their bad acts.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a shocking story on Friday of a tragic example of nursing home assault.

The victim was an elderly dementia patient at the Golden Living Center. Late last week the resident was resting on a couch in the common area of the nursing home. While she was there, another resident, 65- year old Gary Dettlinger, walked into the room. Dettlinger was a registered sex offender, having raped a child in 1993.

Alone in the common room, Dettlinger attacked the victim, sexually assaulting her until someone else walked into the common area and broke it up. Dettlinger admitted to the assault while at the facility and is currently scheduled for arraignment.

It is unclear exactly how nursing home employees allowed the attack to occur in the common area.

Our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti are well aware that one of the most common problems at nursing homes involves the abuse of one resident by another. Many observers fail to consider the consequences of this type of nursing home problem. But the fact remains that one of the most important jobs incumbent upon nursing home employees is the protection of weaker residents from those that are aggressive. Unfortunately, too often nursing home staff members fail in this task, allowing the worst sort of assaults.

No nursing home should ever create an environment where this abuse is possible. Employees can do better. Administrators should know better. We all have an obligation to report troubling conditions at these facilities so that no resident is forced to suffer because of neglect. Please contact a nursing home lawyer if you have suspicions of similar problems at a nearby nursing home.

The Seattle Times conducted a troubling new investigation which explained the hidden problems of neglect and abuse that go unreported at many nursing homes.

For example, 68 year old Audree Hopkins was a resident at a facility for only 6 months before a lit cigarette ignited her oxygen tank. As a result of the explosion, Audree’s face was painfully seared. Both of her earlobes were burned off as was the end of her nose. Hopkins was partially blind and was unable to lit a cigarette herself, and it is suspected that a nursing home employee actually lit the cigarette that led to the explosion.

Shockingly, following the tragic accident, nursing home officials attempted to cover-up the incident. When police detectives tried to investigate the incident they discovered that nearly all evidence related to the accident have been destroyed only five days after it occurred. In fact, when first questioned all nursing home employees claimed that Audree was not smoking or hooked up to an oxygen tank at the time. It wasn’t until forensic evident on the melted wheelchair and oxygen tank was returned that authorities were able to conclusively determine the cause of the accident.

It now appears as if nursing home employees had jointly concocted a cover-up story in an attempt to hide the truth.

These cover-ups are not rare. The problem is so severe, that an investigation in that single state alone revealed that an astounding 357 nursing facilities had hidden evidence of abuse or neglect, even those involving death. From forging medical records and threatening residents to lying to investigators, many staff members are willing to do whatever it takes to brush over nursing home mistakes and hide the truth.

Our Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti are committed to both vindicating the rights of the abused as well as exposing the often hidden problems of neglect at these facilities. Every effort needs to be made to ensure that these vulnerable residents remain safe and that nursing home administrators are held accountable for their attempts to cover up the errors.

Please Click Here to read more about the troubling cover-ups of nursing home abuse.

Surprise inspections are one method state officials use to monitor the quality of care provided at nursing homes in Illinois. By showing up unannounced, these visits allow regulators to see exactly how these facilities are kept and how residents are treated on normal days. This year the Illinois Attorney General’s office has conducted many of these investigations in a project known as “Operation Guardian.” Thus far there have been 17 raids, resulting in 20 arrests of residents with outstanding warrants.

However, yesterday the Chicago Tribune reported on a possibility that the latest facility to be raided was tipped-off about the nursing home investigation.

On July 22 investigators conducted what was supposed to be a surprise sweep on Grasmere Place—a nursing home in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. Upon arriving at the facility, however, the administrator was waiting for the state officials. She asked them, “What took you so long?”

Conveniently, on that day the facility was bustling with painters and carpenters improving the facility. But about three weeks later, in a second surprise visit, the nursing home was nowhere near as clean and organized as in the first raid. One official taking part in both investigations explained, “What we experienced was literally night and day.”

Grasmere had a history of troubling incidents—several residents have been convicted of felony drug charges, theft, and other crimes while at the facility.

Our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti remain extremely concerned about the possible breach of the surprise visit inspections. The concern about the possible tip-off cannot be overstated. These unannounced visits remain the hallmark of safety enforcement at these facilities.

But if the surprise element is compromised, than the effectiveness of the checks is entirely sacrificed. Individuals could be treated poorly each day of the year, and so long as the facility appears in good order on the one inspection day, nothing would be done about it. Nursing home abuse must be stamped out wherever it is found. To help identified where it occurs, state officials must ensure that these inspections remain unannounced so that they are able to get an accurate gauge of the day-to-day conditions under which these vulnerable residents live.

A troubling scheme was recently uncovered involving the swindling of elderly nursing home residents and their families out of tens of thousands of dollars reports the Clarion Ledger.

The plan involved an ex-nursing home social worker who told residents and their families at the Belhaven Senior Care Center that they needed to pay money to ensure that their Medicare benefits were maintained. Ponchie McCollough, one of the perpetrators, would demand checks ranging from $400 to $2,500 from the unsuspecting victims. Of course many families and residents trusted the word of the supposedly honest workers at these facilities to guide them through the process of receiving Medicare benefits. When McCollough demanded money to ensure that the aid was provided and care was continued, many of these families believed her and paid.

The families would make the checks out to McCollough’s co-conspirator, an administrator at the facility who would then cash the checks and the two would pocket the funds. Two other co-conspirators were also involved in parts of the scheme, helping McCollough funnel the money from the unsuspected elderly victims.

To make matters worse, nursing home staff members failed to report the abuse even after it was uncovered. In particular, two employees were indicted by authorities for assisting in the elder abuse by failing to report any of the criminal acts. An operations director and a billing director at the facility have been charged as “accessories” following the theft. They both attempted to help McCollough avoid getting caught and having to return the money. Both of those employees worked for the consulting firm which owned Belhaven.

Our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti continue to be disgusted and disappointed in the lengths that many of these employees go to take advantage of their position when they are supposed to be aiding these vulnerable residents. When six different employees are involved in a scheme that seeks to break the law and harm residents, there is clearly a fundamental nursing home problem. Unfortunately, every day new reports flood in about employees abusing residents in different ways. None of the abuses should be tolerated. Please report any incident of neglect or abuse at nursing facilities near you and help put an end to the problem.

A troubling story was recently reported in the Berkshire Eagle discussing elder abuse at the Springside Nursing Home. Two nursing home employees were fired in the latest incident which occurred last week. A third employee was fired earlier this month following a different incident of resident abuse. As our Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti are well aware, many nursing homes seem to repeatedly hire problematic employees. A culture at a nursing home which tolerates even the smallest misconduct often leads directly to repeated examples of nursing home residents being abused, humiliated, and neglected.

At Springside, the latest incident involved the abuse of a 72-year old blind resident who suffers from dementia and uses a wheelchair. The resident had soiled herself and was crying to a nursing home aide, Jodi LeBrake, for help getting clean. Instead of doing what she is paid to do, however, LeBrake repeatedly told the elderly resident to “shut up.” Following that she took a sock and shoved it into the resident’s mouth. Another nursing assistant was in the room when it all happened; the other woman did not stop it, admonish LeBrake, or report it as required.

Three weeks before that incident, another resident at the facility was abused at the hands of a nursing assistant. Former Springside employee Sandra Yankey was seen pulling the hair of an 81-year old resident when she was supposed to be providing care. Yankey actually had a previous criminal background before she was even hired by the nursing home.

As is typical when a nursing home is found to have allowed multiple abuses of their residents, officials claim that the incidents were “isolated and unrelated.” Of course experience and common sense suggest that a nursing facility has an inherent problem that is not isolated when they hire multiple employees that continue to provide abusive care. The more that these facilities tolerate even minor elder abuse, the more likely that the staff members will allow the conduct to continue and the more residents will suffer. We strongly encourage anyone who suspects any negligence or abuse at a nearby facility to contact a nursing home lawyer immediately to help hold these abusers responsible and improve the lives of vulnerable seniors.

The Foster’s Daily Democrat wrote this week about developments in a case involving nursing home theft. A former nursing assistant at the Riverside Rest Home was denied bail recently after being arresting for stealing medication from patients at the facility.

Twenty-four year old Alesha Neault worked at Riverside until her arrest this June. Her role was to provide a variety of basic care to the elderly residents, assisting licensed nurses with medically-based tasks. Part of that work involved handling medication for some of the residents. As authorities eventually uncovered, she abused her position at the facility to support her own illegal drug habit.

Specifically, Ms. Neault was found to have stolen Fentanyl patches that had been prescribed to two patients at Riverside. This was a particularly egregious theft of medication, because it was not only an illegal theft, but it directly deprived the patients to whom it was actually prescribed. Medical care professionals are often found to have stolen medication from hospital storage. While illegal, that conduct does not directed harm patients to who need the medication. In this case, Neault was not only willing to break the law to support to addiction, but had no qualms about allowing her theft to deprive patients of medication who actually had ongoing pain that needed control. They were forced to suffer through the pain.

Obviously these examples of nursing home abuse are appalling, and the offending employee should be punished to the full extent of the law. However, as our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti are well aware, these cases of individual lawbreaking are often indicative of larger problems with the management of nursing facilities. When staffing decisions are made quickly or with lax standards, negligent and abusive employees like Aslesha Neault are invited to wreak havoc on the lives of residents. That should never be allowed. Please contact a nursing home lawyer if you have had any experience with unqualified nursing staff members.

The Illinois Nursing Home Care Act is the guiding law that sets standards of care for residents in nursing homes in the state. The law is intended to ensure that the vulnerable patients in these facilities receive a certain quality of care at all times. However, as our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti have experienced first-hand, many homes fall far short of the standard obligated by law.

Recently, a group that advocates for the rights of Illinois nursing home residents protested in front a facility that has repeatedly failed to provide the basic care to its residents demanded by the law. As Chicago’s Breaking News Center reported, the group, Progress Center for Independent Living, demonstrated in front of the Crestwood Terrace Nursing Home. The facility, located southwest of Chicago, is claimed to have been particularly negligent in meeting its obligation to ensure that resides retain a sense of dignity in their living conditions.

Complaints at the facility include a wide-range of breaches of care. Some resident are not given their medication on time (or at all), some are denied visitors, and personal mail is often opened by staff members. Even the ability the walk around the grounds is often denied. One resident reports that other residents were allowed to steal his belongings—his dentures, hand brace and clothing—and nothing was done to replace them for months. A spokesman for the group organizing the protest claimed, “There are so many violations regarding basic rights of the patients at this home, it is beyond comprehension.”

As CiteHealth notes, even the self-reported care given to residents at Crestwood is failing. The amount of daily care time that a resident receives from certified nursing assistants, vocational nurses, and regular staff members are all much lower than the average at Crestwood.

The advocacy group also notes that the facility makes it virtually impossible for a resident to save up enough money to live on their own. With Social Security checks going directly to the facility, each patient is ultimately given only $30 out of that check for their own purposes. This extreme limiting of personal income creates a dependency on the facility that a resident is unlikely ever to break.

If you know of any similar abuses at a facility near you, please contact a nursing home attorney to help put an end to the negligent treatment.

A nursing home has been cited by state officials for failing to prevent and properly report the tragic sexual abuse of one resident at the facility by another resident.

The Lexington Herald-Leader is reporting on the incident. An 88 year old Alzheimer's resident at the facility, Mae Campbell, was in her room when a male resident entered and refused to allow her to leave. When nursing aides finally found Ms. Campbell in her room, she had semen on her and the male patient's privates were exposed.

The state has issued several citations against the facility, noting, ""The facility failed to protect residents from unwanted sexual contact, failed to report the allegations to appropriate state agencies and failed to thoroughly investigate the allegations of sexual abuse."

Alzheimer's patients at nursing facilities across the country are often treated by both staff members and other residents in a disturbing, dehumanized manner. It is incomprehensible for any of our elderly friends and family to have their dignity abused as they suffer mental and physical health problems. Our nursing home abuse attorneys at Levin & Perconti have waged countless battles against all those who take advantage of these vulnerable community members. Elder abuse will not be stopped unless all those who witness the conduct report it and take action.

The family of Ms. Campbell came forward with their story in order to shed light on the problem. Ms. Campbell daughter explained, ""It is my hope that today's charges send a message to nursing home operators and administrators that they have an obligation to notify authorities if a resident is abused while in their care,"

Our lawyers encourage friends and family of nursing home residents to pay close attention to the care provided at their facility. All too often no one speaks up for these abused, suffering seniors -- not even the nursing home workers in charge of their protection.

To read more about nursing home abuse, please Click Here.

The Los Angeles Times reported on a tragic act of inadequate nursing home care that has led to the death of a resident at the Pilgrim Haven Health Facility.

The doctor for the 85-year old victim was very clear when he explained to nursing home officials that the patient had a heart condition and diabetes which required his walker be nearby at all times. In addition the doctor explained that the resident would require supervision at all time while walking or attempting to walk. However, even those simple, direct commands were too much for the negligent nursing home staff to handle.

The resident first fell in early October attempting to get out of his bed. His walker was not within his reach. An employee found the man, claims he only suffered a small scratch and failed to check-up further. Two months later the elderly resident fell yet again. A quick neurological examination after the second fall did show any major problems, but that same night the man began looking pale, listless, and started vomiting.

However, because of short staffing levels, no registered nurse was on duty the night the patient began having these problems. Because of that, nursing home employees basically ignored the symptoms for several hours. Employees only acted the next morning, transferring the man to the hospital where he died very shortly after arriving. Doctors at the hospital immediately discovered that head trauma had caused bleeding in the man's brain, but by the time he arrived at the hospital it was too late to save him.

Following the incident state health officials have cited the nursing home for its abuse and negligence. They are required to pay a $100,000 fine and improve its fall monitoring. Regardless of their failure to having proper nursing staff on hand, and inability to effectively monitor the movement of a known-fall risk, the nursing home officials still claim that they acted properly. They are appealing the decision.

Nursing home negligence like the failure to prevent falls, occurs at facilities big and small in all parts of the country. Unfortunately, any time that a facility stands to lose money because of their bad acts, they resort to all he legal maneuvers in their arsenal to avoid paying. That is where our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti come in. Our attorneys have decades of experience fighting for the friends and family of victims similar to the resident in this case. We are committed to standing up the large nursing home companies and asserting the legal rights of those injured by their mistakes and abuses. If you need help standing up to an abusive nursing home, please contact our offices and explain your story.

Law.com is reporting on an important decision that will affect nursing home lawsuits in Pennsylvania. In Scampone v. Grane HealthCare Co., the Supreme Court of the state found that nursing homes were similar to hospitals in the care they provide, and therefore they should be treated by the law in a similar manner.

The case rose to the state Supreme Court after a jury held Grane HealthCare corporately liable for the death of a resident of one of its facilities. The jury determined that Grane’s nursing homes were chronically understaffed, providing substandard care to the plaintiff, Madeline Scampone. Ms. Scampone died of a heart attack, caused in part by the negligent actions of the nursing home staff at the facility.

The decision will allow future victims of nursing home negligence and abuse an easier avenue to achieve justice. In the past, nursing homes and the companies that run them were difficult to sue, because the state courts had not ruled on the relationship between these companies and the residents who depend on their care. However, now nursing home victims will be able to point to this ruling in advancing their claims that the corporations who own nursing home are responsible for the care at those homes.

Judge Mary Jane Bowes explained in the ruling, “Clearly the degree of involvement in the care of patients of skilled nursing home facilities is markedly similar to that of a hospital and bear little resemblance to the sporadic care offered on an out-patient basis in a physician’s office.”

Justice requires that nursing homes and their corporate backers be held responsible for the care provided to residents at their facilities. They should never be allowed to hide behind nuanced legal definitions to avoid paying for their mistakes. Our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti understand the importance of this nursing home law ruling. We have seen time and again how nursing home companies cut corners and sacrifice standard care in order to end up with more money in their bank accounts. Nursing homes residents and taxpayers foot the bill for the care of these facilities, and they deserve proper treatment for their payment.

One of the largest elder abuse verdicts ever handed down was upheld this week according to the Sacramento Bee. A Superior Court judge recently kept intact the $29 million verdict against Horizon West HealthCare resulting from the 2005 death of one of its residents.

Frances Tanner had retired from a life of public service with both the FBI and IRS before arriving at Horizon in 2005. While at the facility, Ms. Tanner suffered a fall that broke her hip. The broken hip went undiagnosed for days. Eventually, after being bedridden and receiving highly inadequate care, she died of an infected bed sore. Pressure sores are almost always preventable and the result of negligent nursing home care.

At trial evidence revealed that Horizon chronically understaffed its facility, violating state law which mandated a minimum number of care hours. Horizon clearly did not prioritize the care of its residents, instead sacrificing their health to operate in any way that was cheap and easy. As the opinion upholding the $29 million verdict commented, Horizon’s operation was “based, time and again, predominantly on concern for the bottom line.”

The jury awarded included $800,000 for pain and suffering and nearly $28 million in punitive damages. The punitive damage award is intended to punish the horribly inadequate, harmful, abusive conduct of Horizon. The purpose is to discourage the company (which runs 33 other nursing homes) from acting is such a harmful manner in the future.

Horizon had claimed that the award was too high. The Superior Court judge shot that idea down, noting that, “this was an overwhelming case. It does not deserve to be retried. That would be a travesty.”

Our nursing home abuse attorneys at Levin & Perconti have fought many battles on behalf of many innocent victims like Ms. Tanner who have been abused by big nursing homes chains. All residents and their family and friends need to be extra vigilant to ensure that these corporations provide appropriate care to the patients depending on them.