CASE PORTFOLIO

DISCOVERING NURSING HOME ABUSE FROM A DISTANCE — OVER MEDICATION
Mrs. Sievers may have been improperly or overly medicated to keep her quiet. This violates nursing home resident rights and is often due to short staffing.

I CAN NEVER SEE A DOCTOR WHEN I REQUEST ONE
"Maybe he was calling out, but they just weren't responding"... "You mean the nursing home staff?"

NURSING HOME MEDICATION ERRORS
“But for that dosing error… Mom would still be with us." ... "maybe the home didn't have adequate staff to do the monitoring and to notify the doctor if something was wrong with the levels so they could make adjustments."

UNEXPLAINED NURSING HOME RESIDENT WEIGHT LOSS
"A feeding tube? You've got to be kidding!" If a feeding tube is recommended for your loved one, it may be because the nursing home does not have enough staff to help the residents eat.

PHYSICAL ABUSE: NURSING HOME AIDES WERE ROUGH WITH DAD
"I'm starting to think that these injuries weren't accidental." ...What caused the injury? Was there a fall? Where and when did this happen?

NEGLECT IN NURSING HOMES LEADING TO FALLS AND OTHER INJURIES
"I think this fall, the one the hospital says proved fatal, could have been avoided. I'll bet you anything that she had to go to the bathroom and nobody came to assist her when she rang the call bell."

INJURIES IN NURSING HOMES CAUSING INCAPACITY OR DEATH
"She seems to have suffered some sort of fracture" ... "How could this have happened?" asked Ms. Salmon. "How could Mom get a fracture in a nursing home?"

UNEXPLAINED INJURIES IN NURSING HOMES
"We think the bruising she suffered last week was caused by a staff member," Nate told his wife. "You're joking, right? This is a nursing facility. They're like, regulated and all that."

BED SORE MALPRACTICE CASES
"It began with the bruising. It progressed to bedsores (bed sores) so severe that hospitalization was necessary." ... "And things just got horribly worse from there."

NURSING HOME FALLS
"'On April 9, Mr. Alvarez was admitted to St. Timothy's Memorial Hospital with -- get this – a diffuse traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage, a skull fracture, orbital fracture, and a rib fracture.'" ..."Three falls like this . . . it's indefensible."

WRONGFUL DEATH IN A NURSING HOME
"I'm sure that she fell while she was in the nursing home. And the nursing home should never have allowed this to happen. When I asked about the bruise, I couldn't get a straight answer."