North Carolina Nursing Home Facing Lawsuit
According to the website newsobserver.com, a nurse at a North Carolina nursing home is facing murder charges following the death of one of her patients due to high levels of morphine. The facility where the nurse worked is also facing a lawsuit from two other patients because they suffered injuries resulting from negligence on the part of the facility.
In one instance, according to the report, Dr. Marian Orlowski suffered serious injuries including a fractured left hip resulting from a fall. According to the news story, the lawsuit on Orlowski’s behalf charges that the facility was negligent in Orlowski’s care. The lawsuit alleges that facility workers failed to monitor Orlowski and did not provide him with bed rails, which inevitably led to the fall. In the incident that resulted in a patient’s death, a registered nurse faces second-degree murder charges and charges of patient abuse following the morphine-induced death of her patient, Rachel Holliday. Six other patients suffered morphine-related injuries as well.
In the report, the lawyer representing the facility stated that the personnel argued that they were not aware, and should not have been aware of Orlowski’s medical condition. However, it is common knowledge that any facility providing medical care for patients of any age should be well aware, and necessarily so, of their patients pre-existing medical conditions. A lack of knowledge, either knowingly or unknowingly, is simply unprofessional of any medical facility, especially when any pre-existing conditions or diseases can result in serious injuries to the patient.
