The Guardian Blog : Arizona Nursing Home Lawyer & Attorney : Solomon & Relihan Law Firm : AZ Assisted Living Neglect & Abuse : The Guardian Blog

In 2006 Chaney decided to pursue nursing home assistant certification after feeling that the care her own father was receiving from the nursing home he resided in was inadequate. She soon received a job at Plainfield Healthcare Center where she said she had experienced racism from a patient that would not allow her to treat her because she was African American even after the patient had fallen and could not get up. The racial issue has become a legal battle over the last four years and has the potential to change how nursing homes across the country administer care. Her attorney has argued that the push to elevate patient rights has led to increasing discrimination. Chaney was later fired for using profanity against a patient, which she firmly denies, and believes that her termination was racially motivated. The attorney for the nursing home has stated that the termination had nothing to do with race and was not wrongful in any aspect. The patient that showed to have a racial bias against Chaney had put “no African American caregiver” was placed on the patients schedule of instructions in order to avoid a hostile work environment. The case will be decided on next spring. 

Discrimination of any kind should never be a part of any work experience. The challenges of working as a caregiver in a nursing home are demanding and stressful enough without adding a tolerance for discrimination into the mix. There is nothing wrong with adjusting to certain preferences for each patient, but when it has the ability to make a caregiver uncomfortable in their work environment it should not be tolerated. If you are a caregiver who was recently terminated because of a possible racial bias or is currently dealing with discrimination at a nursing home, then contacting an Arizona personal injury attorney is your best option for dealing with this situation. 

According to the police report, the two residents involved in the attack both suffer from dementia, a disorder that affects memory, thinking, language, judgment, and behavior. It is still unclear what provoked the attack. The victim of the attack was rushed to a Beverly Hospital with head and facial wounds and serious internal injuries to the liver. The accused resident is being detained at a psychiatric facility in Lynn until August 21^st so they can be monitored and undergo a complete psychiatric evaluation. Police are still investigating the cause of the incident.

Preventing resident-to-resident abuse is a responsibility of the nursing home staff and administration. Nursing homes are supposed to be the safe haven for your loved ones. You never expect that they can get injured or hurt in a place that promises their safety and well-being. In a situation like this one, the residents should have been monitored and the situation should never have reached such a dangerous level. Other factors could have played a part like if the patient was given an inappropriate amount of medication, or was provoked by the staff. If your loved one was injured in a nursing home and you suspect negligence, then contacting an Arizona personal injury attorney is your best option for compensation. 

Around 1pm the man ran outside barefoot trying to catch up to the mail carrier and when he tried to return to his home he fell and tried to crawl back on his hands and knees. Two women found him and carried him onto the grass and then into his home. The man seemed to not realize the severity of his own injuries. With the heat at over a hundred degrees in Phoenix, the pavement can reach up to 140 degrees. The man was later transferred to The Arizona Burn Center at Maricopa Medical Center suffering second degree burns on his feet. 

These situations can occur as a result of careless mistakes. In most they are only accidents that were the result of a rash decision without thinking. Yet there can be many explanations for this type of scenario. A mix up in medication could have left the man feeling disoriented, he may not have been properly monitored by a caretaker, or he could have suffered an improperly diagnosed health affliction. In those cases, there are negligent parties responsible for his burns. If you were involved in an accident that may have been caused by another person’s negligence then contacting an Arizona personal injury attorney is your best option for compensation. 

Beckerman was a bookkeeper at the facility. The report states that Beckerman forged the nursing home administrator’s name on several checks written for cash amounting to more than $14,500. Beckerman would then keep the money herself for personal use. The victims of these crimes were the Medicaid recipients residing at the Perry Oaks Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center. This incident had been occurring between September of 2006 and October of 2007. Beckerman faces sentencing on August 13^th.

Financial fraud of any sort is a very serious crime, but when it happens to someone in the care of an elder care facility, the crime seems far more disastrous. Forging checks and essentially stealing Medicaid funds from the nursing home prevents the nursing home from being able to provide the proper care for residents. It is stealing medical monetary resources that should be going to those individuals living in nursing homes and assisted living centers because they are the ones that truly need the financing for their medical care.

The suspicious banking transactions had been occurring for about a year before authorities became aware of any discrepancies. An internal audit was launched and that is when the suspicious transactions were discovered. Shane was allegedly transferring the money directly into his own account from the five customer accounts. It is unknown whether any investigation on the bank itself will be taking place or not.

For many elderly individuals living in a nursing home, it can often be difficult, especially considering the idea that their independence has been hindered or completely taken away due to age. However, some elderly individuals suffer further emotional distress due to financial abuse in a nursing home facility. Financial abuse can occur in various ways. It can leave an elderly person in financial ruin and leave them unable to recover lost financial savings. There are many signs that you can be aware of to detect financial abuse at the nursing home facility where your loved ones might be staying. If you suspect that the facility is mistreating elderly individuals living in the facility, you should report the facility to law enforcement and remove your loved ones from that situation. Your loved ones should never have to be forced to deal with the emotional toll that financial abuse can have on them. There are many ways you can help if you suspect financial abuse. You can contact an Arizona attorney who can assist you in gaining compensation for damages.

It is very important to make sure that you take notice of any missing property or unusual financial transactions in your loved one’s bank accounts. If you notice anything unusual, you should contact a law enforcement agency and notify the authorities at the nursing home facility where your loved ones are staying. A nursing home should be a safe place where an elderly person does not have to worry if they are going to suffer from physical, emotional or financial abuse from the facility’s staff.

The report states that all the patients suffered from dementia and were unable to defend themselves. All six workers were fired from the nursing home and face several charges against them including injury to elder or dependent adult, battery committed while on hospital property and conspiracy among other charges. The report states that bail for all six former nursing home workers has been set at $7,500.

It is one thing to pull a good-natured prank or joke on a friend or co-worker but it is an entirely different thing to physically abuse another individual in the process. The nursing home residents in this incident may not have suffered any physical injuries but this incident could have been much worse. The residents could have been seriously injured, especially when they were covered with a slippery substance, which could have caused the workers to drop them. The fact that all the residents suffered from dementia makes this incident even worse because they were defenseless and could not protect themselves in any way. Nobody should ever be a victim of this sort of abuse, especially when the nursing home workers act completely unprofessionally and use the residents to prank other co-workers.
 

The woman was taken to a medical facility in critical condition suffering a blood infection and severe bedsores. According to the report, one of the sores was deep enough to expose tendons in the woman’s body. Police found the woman passing in and out of consciousness on the recliner where her family had left her. The woman’s daughter, son-in-law and three of her grandchildren were all arrested on charges of elder abuse.

When someone suffers from elder abuse at the hands of a stranger, it is a terrible thing. When that person suffers elder abuse from their own family, it is much worse. People always think that family members are there to protect you and take care of you in your time of need. Nobody ever suspects that a family member will put them in any sort of danger. Nobody should ever be in a situation where their own family knowingly neglects them and leaves them to waste away. An elderly individual should never have to suffer the way this woman did. This case demonstrates that even family members can be extremely cruel and cold-hearted to one another.

The inspections were not taking place as a result of budget limitations and as a way to save money. There have been at least 15 outbreaks of food borne illnesses since 1995. Experts have stated that people who reside in nursing homes are the most susceptible to food borne incidents.  Day care centers were also feeling the result of the budget problems, but the Department of Children and Families have temporarily taken over the task of inspecting the food preparations in day care centers. The decision to end the inspections was a result of a lack of funding from the federal government and their decision to give more inspection authority to the states. Before the cuts, the health department had inspected the nursing homes and hospitals four times a year. The governor’s spokesperson has stated that they are working together with multiple agencies in order to re-examine the cuts they made for next year. 

When you entrust a loved one in a nursing home or hospital your suspect them to uphold a high standard for care. While some nursing homes and hosptials take pride in the cleanliness and the quality of food in the hospital, there are some nursing homes that fall through the cracks and are responsible for the unnecessary suffering of hundreds of patients and residents. If your loved one has fallen victim to food poisoning caused by hospital or nursing home food, then contacting an Arizona personal injury lawyer can help bring these negligent parties to justice. 

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.

The autopsy determined that Engstorm died from drowning, yet the manner of death (suicide, accident, or homicide etc.) is unknown. At around 8:40pm the Police were called to Warren Park Nursing Pavillion located on 6700 block of North Damon Avenue. The staff of the nursing home found Engstrom unresponsive in a bathtub with the water still running. She was immediately taken out of the tub where staff attempted to revive her. Unfortunately the attempts were unsuccessful and paramedics were called to the scene. She was later pronounced dead. Belmont area detectives are still investigating the death. 

These types of accidents should never occur at a nursing home. While the cause of this unfortunate accident is unknown, there are many possibilities. Defective products or even an adverse reaction to medication can be responsible for this horrific accident. The staff of the nursing home can also be held accountable for negligence if they were responsible for checking on their residents frequently, or if they were aware of their residents instability. Regardless of the situation, when a family is grieving because of a loss of a family member it can be difficult to know the right course of action to take. Contacting a professional is the best option for your family to receive compensation if another party is at fault for the accident.

Gould had a history of disappearing, having once incident of going missing for ten days then being found in Providence, R.I.   Gould has several medical conditions that require medications.  After checking several previous addresses and family members, police were still not able to locate Gould.   Anyone with information is asked to contact the Norton police at 508-285-3300.

Unfortunately, there are many cases like Thomas Goulds.  Rest homes have the responsibility to take care and monitor their residents, especially when they have a history of wandering.  There are a variety of dangers that can happen.  For instance, your loved one could be injured, robbed or suffer severe emotional distress and disorientation when they wander off.  Without medications, the risk of death can also occur.  When you trust a rest home with the care of your loved ones, you expect them to uphold the best standards possible and to not put your family in a traumatic situation of having your loved ones lost.  During the summer there are many incidents like these in rest homes because families tend to visit less during the summers because of vacations and other priorities.  Regardless, this type of incident should never occur and contacting a professional is your best option for receiving the help your family deserves through this difficult time.

For more information on nursing home abuse, visit Solomon & Relihan's Nursing Home Advocates website. 

According to local TV station WTVD, 42-year-old Michael Brodie is the worker accused of the assault.  Brodie had prior charges on his record and a background check was performed, but his record did not preclude him from working at the nursing home.  For more information, you can see WTVD's report below. 

This story illustrates that, though states require background checks for nursing home employees, this does not always keep all criminals out.  Sexual assault is one of the most horrific crimes imaginable and we must all work to prevent it.  If you have a loved one who is in a nursing home, please pay attention for physical and emotional signs of abuse.  These can include:

Bruising on inner thighs

Sexually transmitted diseases

Difficulty walking or standing

Pain and/or itching in the genital area

Scared or timid behavior

Depressed, withdrawn behavior

Sudden changes in personality

Fear of certain people or of physical characteristics

If you suspect abuse, you should contact an Arizona nursing home abuse attorney immediately.  You should also consult the Arizona Department of Health Services website for more information on quality of nursing home care.

For more information on nursing home sexual abuse, visit the Nursing Home Advocates Sexual Assault information page.