Florida Injury Attorney Blog

Gary Uretsky, a Fort Lauderdale resident, is suing home-care provider Almost Family for Broward County wrongful death. Uretsky’s 89-year-old mother died while under the care of home-care nurse Dina Taylor. The plaintiff is alleging gross nursing negligence, elder financial fraud, homicide, multiple thefts, inadequate supervision, and negligent hiring.

According to Uretsky, between November 2006 and into the summer of 2008 Taylor stole over $215,000 from his sick mother’s savings. He contends contends that after his mother discovered the Florida elder financial fraud, Taylor disconnected the elderly woman’s oxygen tank and left the patient to die of asphyxiation. The nurse has since disappeared.

In his Broward County elder abuse complaint, Uretsky claims that he attempted to see his mother on the day that she passed away but that Taylor wouldn’t let him. He claims that Taylor was covering up the fact that she had murdered his mother.

Uretsky says that after his mother’s death he found 37 forged checks and a number of bogus withdrawals that had emptied out her savings account. $50,000 in gems and jewelry has also allegedly disappeared. Uretsky says that some $18,000 was charged to his mother’s credit cards. Uretsky says that his mother did not feel comfortable with Taylor but that his requests to the home-care company that she be replaced with another nurse were ignored.

Nursing homes and home-care providers can find themselves the defendants of a South Florida wrongful death lawsuit if negligent nursing care, inadequate supervision, medical mistakes, nursing abuse, nursing neglect, or other negligent acts by employees causes a patient to die.

Home Care Firm Accused of Theft and Worse, Courthouse News, June 25, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Wrongful Death Claims, Nolo

Elder Financial Abuse, NCPEA

Elder Abuse and Neglect, HelpGuide.org

Phillina Anderson, a Palm Beach County resident, has been arrested for allegedly abusing an elderly nursing home resident at a South Florida facility.

Law enforcement officers with the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit apprehended Anderson after a witness reported seeing Anderson strike an 89-year-old Alzheimer’s patient across the face.

At the time of the alleged assault, Anderson was working at the Glades Health Care Center in Pahokee. A witness said she heard Anderson tell the patient to shut up and then she slapped the elderly woman in the face so hard that the victim cried out. Anderson’s supervisor reported the attack to authorities.

Anderson is charged with one count of abuse of an elderly person. She could face up to 5 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

If you think that your loved one is a victim of nursing home abuse, you should look into the situation immediately. Often, a person is at a nursing home because he or she is ill or physically weak and needs the help and care of others. If your loved one is being abused, he or she may not be able to even speak out about what is happening.

Some common symptoms of nursing home abuse and neglect:

• Extreme agitation by the victim
• Rocking, biting, or sucking
• Not wanting to be around people
• Unexplained bruises, scratches, or broken bones
• Extreme and quick weight gain or weight loss
• Dehydration
• Bedsores
• Malnutrition
• Wrongful Death
• Sepsis

Abuse at nursing homes and of the elderly can consist of physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect.

Abuse of the elderly where the victim has grounds to file a claim or lawsuit does not always have to occur at a nursing home. It can even occur at the elderly person's home. Elder abuse is a growing problem in the United States.

Nursing Home Employee Charged in Patient Abuse, North County Gazette, September 11, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Elder Abuse Prevalence and Incidence, Elder Abuse Center

Nursing Home Abuse Resource

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