Massachusetts updates in category: Nursing Home & Elder Abuse

There was some good news in a 2005 study from the National [Nursing Home] Ombudsman Reporting System ("NORS"). Complaints involving physical abuse in nursing homes decreased from 5,426 in 1998 to 4,137 in 2005. According to the report, complaints of nursing home physical abuse ranked 19th out of 128 categories of complaints relating to nursing home conditions.While any decline in numbers of...

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Corporate nursing home officials who bank on jurors discounting residents' injuries from nursing home abuse, because of their age or pre-existing illness, may think again after a $160 million dollar verdict in Texas. The victim of the abuse was an 81 year old resident of the Comanche Trail Nursing Home in Big Spring, Texas. Nursing home personnel assigned him a new roommate who was mentally ill...

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Once again, a case of sexual abuse of disabled persons by a caretaker, is in the news. Wayne Albert Bleyle, pleaded guilty in San Diego, of molesting brain damaged children at Rady's Children's Hospital, where he had worked as a respiratory therapist. Bleyle had been charged in early 2006, and has been in jail since, on $5 million bail. The prosecutor, Laura Gunn, described the case as 'one of...

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A significant settlement in a disturbing case of nursing home neglect, was reported in this week's Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. A generally healthy, active, older women (exact age unspecified in the report), entered the nursing home for rehabilitation after a compression fracture. Darvocet, which the woman was taking for pain, has a known side effect for many people, of constipation. Despite...

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Identifying just how much abuse occurs in nursing homes, is difficult. Victims are often unwilling or unable to speak up. Perpetrators may be nursing home staff, who have ongoing contact with the victim, and whose presence alone, may be intimidating. Nursing home assaults can be committed by a resident, when staff supervision is inadequate, lackadaisacal, or uncaring. It is almost certain,...

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Newspapers are printing an advance overview of a GAO (Government Accountability Office) report, due out next week. The GAO investigated nursing homes receiving Medicaid/Medicare payments, to see if incidences of nursing home abuse had lessened since a 1998 GAO report, targeting such disgraces. The new report is not encouraging. Even homes in which instances of shocking abuse occur, receive...

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It's not often discussed outside of professional settings, but the issue of sexuality and developmental disability, poses ethical dilemmas. In fact, a book on the subject, bears that exact title: Ethical Dilemmas: Sexuality and Developmental Disability, Dorothy M. Griffiths, Ph.D., et al., ed., NAAD Press, Kingston, NY 2002. Professionals who work with individuals with developmental...

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Cases of nursing home abuse are profoundly depressing. The saving thought for families forced to move a loved one from their home is that they will receive the care and the protection that they need in the home. Nursing home neglect or abuse is a betrayal of trust. Those facing the necessity of placing a family member in a nursing home can take some comfort from the realization that competent...

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The Florida InjuryBoard law firm partner of Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, P.A., just took on a case of an autistic young adult who was sexually assaulted while in the care of a group home. The obligation of organizations providing day and residential care for people with disabilities, to keep them safe from sexual assault, is undeniable. Sexual assaults on the disabled are...

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Anyone who has seen an elderly loved one living in a nursing home, may think that falls are an inevitable part of aging with frailty. That perception is inaccurate. While some nursing home falls may be inevitable, many can be prevented. Doing everything feasible to prevent falls is a primary obligation for nursing homes. Falls can begin a downward spiral leading to complete dependence or death....

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Pressures sores, also known as "bed sores" and "decubitus ulcers," are a risk for anyone confined to bed for long periods of time with limited mobility. They can become a dangerous problem in nursing homes, especially in residents already frail from age and other diseases. Pressure sores can kill as they can provide the conduit for deep systemic infection. Certain residents are at highest risk...

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Previous blogs on this site have touched on nursing home abuse of residents by staff. Unfortunately, cases are increasingly coming to light of abuse and assault of nursing home residents by visitors and fellow residents. An elderly woman in a Minnesota home was the victim of a sexual assault by another resident of her home who had been in prison and had a long history of committing sex crimes....

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Any regular readers of this blog site know that two of my primary concerns are medication errors and nursing home negligence. The two areas are not entirely unrelated. Medication errors often harm the most vulnerable - children and infants, people weakened from the illness that is being treated, elderly patients. Nursing home negligence always harms those who are vulnerable. Tragically, the two...

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It is frightening to think about the vulnerability of seniors in nursing homes. Stories of nursing home abuse and nursing home neglect show up with alarming frequency in the news and some sources claim that these incidents are increasing as funding decreases across the healthcare system, leading to the staffing problems that create situations for abuse and neglect. Many of the instances of...

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Juries continue to show their appreciation of the sanctity of life even for older and ill individuals. A Middlesex County jury awarded $285,000 ($441,665 with interest) to the family of an 80 year old nursing home resident who suffered severe burns from uncovered and excessively hot radiators. The woman died subsequent to her injuries. While the jury did not believe that the resident's death was...

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