According to recent news reports, a nursing home was given the largest California citation by the California Department of Public Health last Friday for the overmedicating of one of their partners. This Lincoln nursing home was fined $100,000 for their mal-treatment of their patient, which eventually lead to her death. An 82 year of stroke patient died in 2011 while in the care of the facility therefore an investigation was conducted. The CDPH deemed that the Lincoln Meadows Care Center deserved a Class AA citation because of their actions.
After the investigation they came to discover that this stroke patient was given an extremely high amount of a blood thinner called Coumadin. the patient originally came into the home for car about a year following their heart attack, which led them to partial paralysis on their left side in 2005. Because of this care facilities action, the family of the victim filed the complaint against the home in order to seek justice. Carole Herman, with the Foundation Aiding the Elderly (who represents the family) claims that after a fall in 2011 the victim should have been immediately taken to the hospital, due to the extensive bruising on his face and the impact on his head from the fall.
The home did not end up taking him to the hospital until 4 days after the fall when they started noticing lowered blood pressure as well as organ failure in multiple areas and a subdural hematoma. After being taken into the hospital, the doctors recorded that he had about 18 times the necessary dosage of the blood thinners in his body. After being treated, the old man was taken to another nursing facility. He died in 2011 at this other care home.
According to Herman with the elder foundation, the parent company of the Lincoln Meadows center, Horizon West Healthcare, was hit with an extremely large elder abuse lawsuit back in 2010 for the wrongful death of another patient, the case settled for $29.1 million in damages. At this time there is little else discussing the legal process of this specific situation.
In the event that a loved one of yours is being neglected or abused in their nursing home, contact Morris & Dewett Injury Lawyers today for the Shreveport injury lawyer you need on your side. Our legal team has years of experience fighting for those who are unable to fight for themselves, who have been so neglected and mistreated that they were made more ill or died as a result of their wrongful care in their facility. Nursing home abuse should never be tolerated, contact our firm today to begin fighting for those you love!
