Florida Injury Attorney Blog

A Miami-Dade grand jury says that the state is not doing enough to fight Florida nursing home negligence. The grand jury issued its report, “ALFs: a Call for Greater Interagency Communication and a Cry for More Citizen Volunteers," earlier this month after a two month-investigation that was instigated following a series of articles in the Miami Herald called Neglected to Death. The newspaper reported that even though at least 70 frail elderly seniors have died from nursing home neglect or abuse in the last decade, almost all of the assisted living facilities where the deaths occurred were allowed to stay in operation.

The grand jury’s report blames the Agency for Health Care Administration for allowing dangerous assisted living facilities to stay open and not taking more effective action to protect nursing home patients by cracking down on abusers, rogue operators, and troubled facilities. The jurors said that seeing as there has been an “explosion” in the number of ALF’s in the last five years, the state needs to do a better job of enforcement to prevent Florida nursing home abuse and neglect.

Other recommendations by the grand jury (as reported by the Miami Herald):
• Don’t let operators that provide poor nursing care while maximizing profits stay in business.
• Find all ALF administrators with questionable histories and stop them from being able to move from one Florida nursing home to another.
• Impose hefty suspensions and fines for nursing home abuse or neglect and, when necessary, revoke an ALF’s license.
• Make it a third-degree felony if a caretaker punishes a resident for complaining to inspectors
• Toughen administrators’ educational requirements, which are currently among the lowest in the US

Our Miami nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers have seen firsthand the devastating effect that mistreatment and poor nursing care can have on a patient’s health and emotional well-being. The state must do everything possible to provide consequences so that negligent ALF operators buckle down and do a better job of taking care of our sick and elderly.

If you suspect Miami nursing home negligence, you should immediately remove your loved one from the unsafe environment and report what happened. Tell the authorities and speak with a Miami-Dade County personal injury law firm.

Florida must crack down on elderly abuse MIAMI HERALD EDITORIAL | Grand jury confirms lax oversight exposed in Herald’s series, Bradenton.com, December 17, 2011

Grand jury demands Florida get tough on ALF operators, Miami Herald, December 8, 2011

Neglected to Death

Read the report (PDF)

More Blog Posts:
Miami Nursing Negligence Lawsuit Claims Paraplegic Patient Was Sodomized in His Home, Florida Injury Attorney Blog, November 16, 2011

St. Lucie County Wrongful Death Lawsuit Claims Florida Nursing Home Negligence Contributed to Woman’s Fatal Drowning, Florida Injury Attorney Blog, August 4, 2010

Broward County Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Home Care Provider Alleging Elder Financial Fraud and the Murder of 89-Year-Old Woman, Florida Injury Attorney Blog, July 1, 2010

Agency for Health Care Administration

Continue reading "Miami-Dade Grand Jury Calls on State to Fight Florida Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect with Tougher Penalties " »

A private nursing patient is suing A.S.A. Home Care, Inc. for Miami nursing negligence. A private nursing patient is suing A.S.A. Home Care, Inc. for Miami nursing negligence. The patient, who is a paraplegic, claims that a male home health care nurse assaulted him.

The plaintiff, known as John Doe, says he rebuffed the nurse’s sexual advances right away. Yet, per the Miami personal injury complaint, the nurse persisted, showing the patient porn and giving him a sex toy.

The plaintiff says the nurse would take longer than the other nurses to replace his bandages when treating a wound on his back close to his buttock. Although he couldn’t feel or see what was happening, the plaintiff said he felt unusual sensations in the genital area. John Doe also says that the nurse sodomized him in 2008.

Per the Miami nursing negligence lawsuit, when confronted the nurse begged the patient not to report what happened. The plaintiff is accusing ASA of failing to properly supervise or investigate complaints made about the nurse and not providing a patient with a secure and safe environment. The plaintiff is claiming severe physical, mental, and emotional injuries, humiliation, and shame. He is seeking over $5M in Miami, Florida personal injury damages.

Sexual Assault of Nursing Home Patients
Unfortunately, nursing home patients, both those receiving private care and assisted living facility care, are vulnerable to abuse and neglect from caregivers. It is the job of assisted living facilities and home care companies to carefully screen the people that they hire to minimize the chance of Miami nursing abuse occurring.

Nursing patients require specialized care because they need help. This places them in a very vulnerable position when their well-being is being entrusted to others. While many nurses are dedicated to doing a good job, there are those that have been known to exploit their position to inflict intentional harm on patients. Sexual assault, rape, molestation, physical assault, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, and harassment are some intentional acts of violence that an abusive nurse might inflict upon a patient.

Because of their disabilities and injuries, many nursing patients are too sick, frail, or unable to report the incidents of abuse or neglect. Some may be too frightened to speak out.

If you suspect Miami nursing home abuse or neglect, you should remove your loved one from the dangerous situation immediately and report the incident to the authorities. If the person is a hired home nurse, you should keep him/her away from the patient.

The victim may be entitled to Miami nursing home negligence damages for the harm he/she suffered. In Florida, plaintiffs have four years from the date of injury to file their Miami personal injury complaint. Also, the statute of limitations for Miami medical malpractice against medical professionals is within two years of the date of injury or two years from when the injury was/should have been discovered—unless fraud or misrepresentation or concealment involved—in which case this time frame may be extended.

Lawsuit Claims Nurse Assaulted Paraplegic Man, NBC Miami, September 22, 2011

Nursing Home Guide, My Florida.com

Nursing Home Watch List, AHCA

More Blog Posts:
St. Lucie County Wrongful Death Lawsuit Claims Florida Nursing Home Negligence Contributed to Woman’s Fatal Drowning, Florida Injury Attorney Blog, August 4, 2010

Broward County Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Home Care Provider Alleging Elder Financial Fraud and the Murder of 89-Year-Old Woman, Florida Injury Attorney Blog, July 1, 2011

Florida Nursing Home Resident Charged With Molesting Female Patient, Florida Injury Attorney Blog, May 12, 2009

The daughter of a woman who drowned in the bathroom of a St. Lucie County residential treatment center is seeking damages for her Fort Pierce, Florida wrongful death. Sharon Bronowicz died in January 2009.

According to Renee Hill’s St. Lucie County wrongful death complaint, Bronowicz, who was severely depressed, bipolar, and suffered from suicidal tendencies, was left unattended in a locked bathroom for over 45 minutes. While her cause of death was at first listed as suicide, it was later changed to accidental drowning.

Hill’s Stuart, Florida wrongful death lawyer says that Bronowicz’s drowning could have been prevented if only residential care treatment workers hadn’t been negligent. Although 59-year-old patient had reportedly became increasingly disturbed in the days leading up to the Florida drowning accident, they still left her alone in a locked bathroom.

South Florida nursing homes, residential treatment centers, long-term care facilities, and assisted living facilities are supposed to properly supervise their residents, and inadequate supervision resulting in serious injuries and death can be grounds for a St. Lucie County nursing home negligence case. Depending on a patient’s health issues and mental state, he/she may require closer supervision and nursing attention than others. Failure to constantly monitor a resident that should not be left alone for too long can prove catastrophic, such as when the resident gets hurt after wandering off the premise, during slip and fall accident, falls off the bed, forgets to eat, doesn't take his/her prescription medication, or causes injury to others.

It was just last month that a 51-year-old woman drowned at another nursing home. Jean Engstrom, who was mentally ill, was found in a bathtub with the water running.

It can take a few moments for someone submerged under water to drown. Many Florida drowning accidents could have been prevented if only other parties hadn’t acted so negligently or carelessly. While bathtub drownings are normally associated with child victims, adults can drown in bathtubs too if they stay submerged under the water for too long. Also, an adult may fall ill while in the bathtub or fall into the water during a St. Lucie County slip and fall accident.

Treatment center facing wrongful death lawsuit after drowning, Sun-Sentinel, July 14, 2010

Bathtub drowning investigation, Chicago Tribune, July 5, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Florida Nursing Homes, Nursing Home Info

Drowning, eMedicine

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

In Florida, a 72-year-old nursing home resident at the Rehabilitation Center of St. Petersburg has been charged with molesting another patient. Christopher McDermott was charged with lewd and lascivious battery on a disabled person.

The victim, a 54-year-old woman, has a 5-year-old’s mental capabilities. Nursing home workers had reportedly warned McDermott numerous times not to have any contact with the resident. On the afternoon of April 30, however, McDermott was seen touching the female patient’s breast.

Sexual abuse of any kind, whether between adults or an adult and a child is a crime and a cause of serious personal injury. If your loved one was sexually abused by another nursing home patient, a nursing home worker, or a visitor to the long-term care facility, you may be able to hold both the perpetrator and the nursing home liable for civil damages.

Nursing homes are supposed to take care of residents and protect them from becoming the victims of violent crimes. Failure to provide this care and protection can be grounds for a Florida nursing home neglect lawsuit.

Many elderly and sick nursing home patients have a hard enough time taking care of themselves let alone fending off a sexual assailant. Unfortunately, the victim may be too scared or is unable to voice his or her fears or report the incident.

Signs that a Florida nursing home resident may have been the victim of sexual abuse:
• Sexually transmitted disease
• Bruises on the inner thighs
• Pain or bleeding or itching in the anal or genital areas
• Depression
• Personality changes
• Fear of certain people
• Timid behavior
• Making comments about sexual behavior

Man charged with molesting fellow nursing home resident, TBO.com, May 5, 2009

Elderly Often Unrecognized Victims of Sexual Abuse, Senior Journal, November 9, 2004

Related Web Resources:
National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care

Nursing Home Guide, AHCA

Continue reading "Florida Nursing Home Resident Charged With Molesting Female Patient " »

In Florida, the Department of Children and Families is investigating whether the smothering death of Chrisanto Beltran, a 72-year-old male resident at a Southwest Florida nursing home may have been partially caused by nursing home neglect. Beltran died at the Hidden Oaks Retirement Center last January during an altercation with another resident, 87-year-old Kenneth Knauf. The two men were both Alzheimer’s patients.

According to police, they were fighting over a blanket. While the medical examiner determined that Beltran’s cause of death was asphyxiation by smothering, questions are being raised as to whether inadequate patient supervision contributed to the elderly man’s death. According to the Department of Children and Family’s local spokesperson, one of the patients was supposed to be supervised every 15 minutes.

Not only must US nursing homes make sure that they provide each resident with the proper medical care and attention that they need, but nursing workers are responsible for making sure that patients are not a danger to themselves or others. This may mean providing additional supervision, as well as separating certain patients from the rest of the resident population. When failure to execute these responsibilities leads to injury or death, the Florida nursing home can be held liable for nursing home neglect or wrongful death.

Unfortunately, the deadly incident involving Beltran and Knauf is not that uncommon, especially as findings indicate that there are more mentally ill patients living in US nursing homes today than there were several years ago. Elderly patients are particularly at risk of getting hurt when they are around younger, stronger residents that may not be aware of what they are doing and cannot be held responsible for their actions.

Examples:
• In 2003, a 23-year-old mentally ill nursing home resident was accused of starting a fire that caused the deaths of 16 other patients. She was found incompetent to stand trial.

• In 2006, a 77-year-old male nursing home resident died after his roommate, 62, allegedly beat him with a bathroom towel bar. He too was found incompetent to stand trial.

Deadly nursing home fight may have been result of neglect, News-Press.com, March 13, 2009

Suffocation ruled cause in deadly nursing home fight, NaplesNews.com, January 21, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Nursing home patients endangered by mentally ill, Boston.com, March 22, 2009

Nursing Home Compare, Medicare.gov

Continue reading "Elderly Florida Nursing Home Resident’s Smothering Death During Fight with Other Resident May Have Been Caused by Nursing Home Neglect" »

The family of William T. Fain, 80, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Westside Regional Medical Center. Fain was admitted to the hospital’s ER on Super Bowl Sunday in 2006 after having a seizure. Hospital doctors told nurses to take him to the intensive care unit and to make sure that he didn’t fall off the bed. The nurses were ordered to lower the bed, install bedrails, and frequently check on him.

The agency nurse monitoring Fain did not follow these orders. Soon after kissing family members goodbye for the night, Fain was found on the floor after falling off the bed. He sustained brain damage from hitting his head and died two weeks after the fall.

The family alleges that the fact that agency nurses are unfamiliar with or do not follow hospital procedures is an issue at Westside Regional. The hospital has responded to this accusation by stating its confidence in the care that the nurses at the hospital provides. Nightingale Nurses is the staffing agency that provided the agency nurse to the hospital.

Agency nurses are being used more often to staff hospitals because of the shortage of full-time nurses. In two hospital surveys conducted in 2007, results showed that 10% of nursing posts are vacant. This does not take into account the fact that many hospitals reportedly wish that they could hire more nurses than the number of posts that their budgets allow.

About 1 out of every 8 nurses working in Florida is a fill-in nurse. The Florida Hospital Association has acknowledged the downside of employing someone who is only a temporary worker and not a permanent part of an organization. It also, however, noted that hiring a temporary nurse is better than being understaffed. The use of agency nurses is reportedly an even more common practice at hospices and in the home health service.

Problems that can arise with fill-in nurses include:

• They may be unfamiliar with the facility, its policies and procedures.
• Because they don't always work with a patient regularly, they may not notice when there has been a change in the patient's condition.

Groups who represent Florida nurses are supporting bills that would obligate Florida hospitals to report staffing levels, including nurse-to-patient ratios. They are hoping that such a mandate would improve work conditions for nurses and provide better care for patients.

Our Florida personal injury law firm handles wrongful death cases as well as claims and lawsuits involving medical malpractice.

Lawsuit over man's death puts use of agency nurses in spotlight, Sun-Sentinel, March 10, 2008

Measure would require hospitals to divulge nurse staffing levels, Naplesnews.com, March 9, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Westside Regional Medical Center

Nightingale Nurses

Continue reading "Florida Wrongful Death Lawsuit Focuses on Use of “Fill-In” Nurses in Hospitals " »

An 82-Year-Old World War II Veteran and nursing home resident had nine maggots in one eye, bedsores, a fever, and an infected breathing tube when he was admitted to Florida Hospital DeLand on November 7 for respiratory problems. At the time, Anthony Vincent Digiannurio had been a patient at the University Center West nursing home in DeLand, Florida.

Digiannurio’s daughter, Laura, says that hospice workers placed her father at University Center West because he couldn’t use his legs and he had lung problems. In May, Anthony hurt his head during a fall when a nurse left him to take care of another patient.

Diagiannurio was awarded the Purple Heart in 1988 for his participation in the European Theater of Operation on September 8, 1945. He also is the author of nine books.

Nursing Home Abuse
Nursing home abuse and negligence is a serious problem in the United States. There are some 1.5 million people living in about 17,000 nursing homes throughout the U.S. Unfortunately, there are nurses and nurse’s aides at these homes that are unqualified, overworked, and/or underpaid.

Elderly residents, who make up over half of the nursing home resident patient population, are especially susceptible to nursing home abuse because they tend to be physically weak and emotionally vulnerable—especially the ones who are very frail and unable to articulate that they are being abused.

If you suspect that someone you love is a victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, you should take immediate steps to remove your loved one from the nursing home. You should also contact an experienced Florida nursing home abuse lawyer right away to determine if your loved one has grounds to file a nursing home abuse claim or lawsuit.

Signs of nursing home abuse or negligent include bedsores, unexplained genital disease or injuries, overmedication, sudden weight loss or weight gain, broken bones, bruises, loss of possessions, sudden financial withdrawals from a resident’s bank accounts, and unexpected changes to a resident’s will.

Nursing home abuse can be physical, verbal, emotional, or mental. Nursing home abuse is against the law.

Patient in nursing home investigation vet with Purple Heart, Daytona Beach News-Journal, November 17, 2007

Signs of Nursing Home Abuse, Elder Abuse Foundation

Related Web Resources:

Florida's Nursing Home Liability Statute

National Center on Elder Abuse

National Citizen's Coalition for Nursing Home Reform

Continue reading "Florida Nursing Home Patient Admitted to DeLand Hospital Had Maggots in His Eye and Bedsores" »

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

Continue reading "Palm Beach County Nursing Home Worker Arrested for Elder Abuse in Florida" »