The Louisville Courier Jornal reported the jury’s verdict in a recent two week nursing home neglect trial against Treyton Oak Towers. The jury awarded $8 million in damages to the estate of a retired surgeon whose legs were broken becuase of neglect. Dr. David Griffin died less than two months after he was improperly transferred from a chair into his bed causing fractures. The plaintiffs claimed Griffin was transferred without a lift and by only one nursing assistant, in violation of the nursing home’s care plan, which required two assistants.
The worse part is that Defendants tried to cover up what happened. Employees were ordered to change medical records to cover the incident up. This happens all the time in nursing homes.
The verdict was returned after the jury deliberated for about two hours and included $2 million for pain and suffering, $1 million for violating the state nursing home statute and $5 million in punitive damages.
Tags: Verdicts/Settlements, bones, broken, cover, damages, fractures, improper, punitives, transfer, up, verdict
Article source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/SouthCarolinaNursingHomeBlog/~3/Ws2cNMsjFKc/
Levin Perconti’s Illinois Nursing Home blog had a great article on the value and need for video cameras to prevent abuse and neglect in nursing homes.
“Our Chicago nursing home abuse lawyer John J. Perconti was quoted this week in a Chicago Daily Law Bulletin article on the role that video cameras are playing in the courtrooms. The article touched on the effect that the increased use of surveillance cameras might have on the strategies of both plaintiff and defense attorneys. As local residents are aware, Chicago’s use of camera technology to monitor its corners and streets is growing rapidly. It is hard to go anywhere without being recorded by some sort of video device. In fact, while our city has certainly taken advantage of the surveillance tools as of late, we are actually a bit behind the curve. Other large cities (particularly international ones) have been using video cameras in more intrusive ways for years.
Not only is the city itself using these cameras, but many private businesses similarly monitor their surroundings as a safety tool. The captured footage is often crucial evidence when it records the incidents that at the heart of injury lawsuits. For example, our Illinois injury attorney John Perconti discussed a nursing home neglect case of ours involving a resident who fell outside of a senior center, suffering severe injuries that ultimately killed him. Attorney Perconti explained how the video camera mounted by outside an adult day care center caught the entire event.
The recording shows the senior using a walker, walking down a ramp toward a bus. Perconti explained, “He caught the side slope of the ramp and this causes him to fall sideways, striking his head on the pavement.” Perconti went
Article source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/SouthCarolinaNursingHomeBlog/~3/aBkzW0t7ihA/
Nursing home residents with dementia who use average doses of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are three times more likely to have an injurious fall than similar people who don’t use these drugs. The association can be seen in people who use low doses of SSRIs and the risk increases as people take higher doses. The results are published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. Falls are a major health problem in nursing home residents with dementia. In nursing homes one-third of all falls result in an injury.
Many nursing home residents with dementia are treated with antidepressants. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are generally considered the treatment of choice. “Our study also discovered that the risk of an injurious fall increased even more if the residents were also given hypnotic or sedative drugs as sleeping pills,” said lead author Carolyn Shanty Sterke, who works in the Section of Geriatric Medicine at Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. ”Physicians should be cautious in prescribing SSRIs to older people with dementia, even at low doses,” says Sterke.
The incident reports showed that 152 of the 248 residents (61.5%) sustained 683 falls. This corresponds to a fall incidence of 2.9 falls per person-year. Thirty-eight residents had a single fall, but 114 fell frequently. Two hundred twenty falls resulted in injury or death. Of these 10 were hip fractures, 11 were other fractures and 198 were injuries such as grazes, open wounds, sprains, bruises, and swellings. One person died after falling.
“Staff in residential homes are always concerned about reducing the chance of people falling and I think we should consider developing new treatment protocols that take into account the increased risk of falling that occurs when you give people SSRIs,” says Sterke.
See also story at USAToday.
More information: Dose-response relationship between Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors and Injurious falls: A study in Nursing Home Residents with Dementia. Carolyn S Sterke, Gijsbertus Ziere, Ed F. van Beeck, Caspar W. N. Looman Tischa
Article source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/SouthCarolinaNursingHomeBlog/~3/jajeg26p9OM/
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Article source: http://rss.justia.com/~r/PennsylvaniaNursingHomeAbuseLawyerBlogCom/~3/DCJQpJdjClY/find-heart-disease-early-let-m.html
Depression is not usually associated with the older generations. Yet elderly folks have the highest suicide rate in comparison to younger age groups. Every 90 minutes one elderly individual commits suicide. The reasons of suicide among the elderly vary. Loneliness, deteriorating health, loss of jobs or deaths of family members are just a few of the reasons why suicide rates are so high.
It is important to watch out for the signs even if you think your loved one is not at risk. If your family is aware, you can help prevent your family from suffering a devastating loss. Our senior family members often do not want to admit when they are struggling with depression or thoughts of suicide. The warning signs to look out for include: change in sleep patterns or eating habits, increased prescription drug use, stockpiling medications, social withdrawal, rushing to complete a will, elaborate goodbyes and declaring statements about hopelessness can all be warning signs. Along with the warning signs, there can also be outside factors that can affect your loved one or make their depression worse. Your loved one can suffer from abuse, certain medications that can result in depression, suffering a conflict, substance abuse or other personal problems. The older your loved one gets, the more likely they need someone to look in after them. If you are concerned that your loved one is suffering from depression, consulting a professional can possibly save their life.
Article source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/TheGuardianBlog/~3/ZAOLUkzbing/
Folk find it hard to look after themselves. This may occur slowly or due to a sickness or accident. In most situations, this occurs after they have stayed for sometime in a hospice. Many of us may just be able to stay at home with the help and help of their families or buddies as well as with the help and support from social care services like the NHS or home care visits from the district nurse. It might not appear to be suitable to bring up money as you're feeling this is something you wish to do for your deeply loved on however it is critical that your aged relative doesn't become a fiscal burden.
This is often a major determining aspect. Even after all this is decided there must be other plans ready. What occurs when your old relative becomes too fragile or unwell for you to resume care? Then the care home option will have to be considered. There are numerous issues in selecting a retirement home for your old relative. Tell them that you lack enough visitors in the daytime and you would like somebody from the church or synogogue to just come and visit with you now and then. This could let your infirmary, surgery or retirement home know that you aren't alone and that there are more folk nervous about the treatment that you receive. Remember, when you're in nursing houses and in bad rehab and care centres, one of the very finest guarantees for your well-being reason and contentment is your capability to stay identifiable, stay heard and to have as many visitors as you may have in any specific day or week.
They are going to put a sensor in the shower so that they will know if mom has fallen down, there'll be one next to the can to make certain she is not having difficulty getting up. Keep up the pace, and attempt to always have visitors. There’ll be one on her bed to make certain she gets up at the correct time, and there'll be one on each door to the house to warn you when she is going out. What about the tablet taking program that each old person must have help with? That is where the Philips Medicine Dispensing Service comes in. You can stock it up with sixty batches of tablets, and the machine will talk out when it is time to take them.
If the tablets are not taken after a reminder, the device will get on the telephone and alert you. If you can plan in advance for the kind of senior care you would like and be conscious of the expenses, you'll make the method of finding care go much smoother. The service costs $75 a month. It depends. While you can be unable to forecast what health problems you'll experience as you start to age, you can at least ensure the process of finding and stumping up for care goes smoothly, if the requirement appear. If you have got some monetary assets, you'll be secretly paying up for long term senior care.