South Carolina Nursing Home Lawyer Blog

After two careful days of deliberation, citizens in Ventura County, California determined that stroke victim Maria Arellano had been harmed profoundly - so profoundly that they measured the harms at $7.75 million dollars. Mrs. Arellano was nearly seventy years old, when she entered the Fillmore Convalescent Center for care, after she had suffered a debilitating stroke.

During a visit with her in 2006, Mrs. Arellano's family members noticed that she had unexplained bruises. Alarmed, they notified the administrators of the nursing home. The nursing home, however, decided not to investigate at all, according to reports. Still concerned, the family set up a hidden camera on a side table, to capture what was happening when they could not be there. You see, Mrs. Arellano could not speak because of the stroke.

What the family saw shocked them.

Nursing home employee Monica Garcia was seen slapping Mrs. Arellano. Garcia bent back her wrists and fingers. She pulled Mrs. Arellano by her hair. Garcia was violent and cruel in her treatment of her helpless patient.

What's worse is that the nursing home knew there was a problem with Garcia, but they allowed her to work with the residents anyway. At the trial, the jury saw evidence that a number of families had complained about potential abuse inside the nursing home, and at least one other family had named Garcia in writing.

The Arellano family offered to settle their legal claims for $500,000 - but the Fillmore Convalescent Center offered them nothing - not a penny - to settle the case.

Continue reading " Hidden Camera Evidence Helps Jury Measures Damages at $7.75 Million Dollars " »

In yesterday's New York Times, Alex Berenson reported on an under-appreciated threat to thousands of vulnerable patients in our country. More than 400 long-term acute care hospitals have opened across the country in the past quarter century. Just like the majority of nursing homes, many of these long-term care hospitals are owned by for-profit corporations, whose profits can increase dramatically when the facility is understaffed. The article focuses on the biggest player in the long-term care industry: Select Medical Corporation, a Pennsylvania based, for-profit corporation which owns 89 long-term care hospitals.

Berenson examined government inspection reports, evidence from lawsuits, and federally-mandated reports, before he concluded that there is reason for concern about the care being given to the patients in Select Medical Corporation hospitals, and in other long-term care hospitals around the country. For example, according to the article, Select hospitals were cited nearly four times more often for Medicare violations than the rate for regular hospitals in 2007 and 2008. Also, long-term care hospitals have a significantly higher rate of bedsores and infections than the rate in regular hospitals. These problems, according to the Times, can be traced directly to the understaffing of these hospitals.

Not enough staff creates poor care. It's that simple.

In our area, Select Medical Corporation owns facilities in Atlanta, Augusta and Savannah, Georgia; Durham and Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Bristol, Knoxville and North Knoxville, Tennessee.

Select Medical's biggest competitor is another for-profit, publicly-traded company, Kindred Healthcare. Kindred Healthcare has facilities nearby in Charleston, South Carolina; Atlanta, Fayetteville, Marietta, and Savannah, Georgia; and in Chapel Hill, Durham, Gastonia, Graham, Greensboro, Kinston, Lincolnton, Monroe, Raleigh, Rocky Mount, Scotland Neck, Wilmington, and Zebulon, North Carolina.

Whether it is a nursing home or a long-term care hospital, when there is a high turnover rate, and a long-term understaffing problem, patient care will inevitably suffer, and preventable injuries and deaths can occur.

Continue reading " Problems in Long-Term Care Hospitals are Common - and Dangerous " »

The mistreatment of John Danzy was so bad that it made history in the State of New York. His case was the first in New York State where a jury decided that punitive damages had to be awarded against the nursing home that neglected him.

John Danzy was 76 years old, and an Alzheimer’s patient who was placed in the care of the Brooklyn Queens Nursing Home in Brooklyn in 2002. According to the Danzy family, when he was admitted into the nursing home, he was walking without assistance, and he weighed almost 250 pounds. His condition rapidly changed as the nursing home began to "care" for him. After only nine months Mr. Danzy could no longer walk, he lost 100 pounds, and twenty bedsores riddled his body.

When his family discovered his condition, Mr. Danzy was transferred to another facility, but it was too late. He unfortunately succumbed to infections in the bedsores. To make matters worse, when Mr. Danzy’s family expressed concern over the treatment that Mr. Danzy had endured, the nursing home reportedly altered their records to make them appear that they were giving Mr. Danzy the attention and care that is required by law, according to reports. An FBI specialist who examined the records testified that over one hundred alterations were made to the nursing home records before they were provided to Mr. Danzy's family. The good citizens of New York who served on the jury did not appreciate the nursing home's apparent attempt at creative writing. Mr. Danzy’s estate was awarded $3.75 million for the pain and suffering Mr. Danzy endured at the end of his life, and to punish the nursing home for its egregious conduct, the jury added an additional $15 million.

Continue reading " New York Citizens Value Damages to Nursing Home Resident at $18.75 Million " »