Inadequate Care Results in Death of Dementia Patient in Delray Beach, Florida
It is not always abuse that causes deaths in nursing homes. Many times, it is simple neglect. People place their loved ones in nursing homes so that they will receive medical treatment and because they are unable to care for them and be there for them at all times as in a nursing home. Unfortunately, however, many times some nursing homes are not the safest place for the elderly.
The victim in this Florida nursing home case was 72 years old at the time of his death. Two days before he had been transported via ambulance to Delray Community Hospital after he fell from his wheelchair and hit his head on the floor. As a result of this fall, he sustained a laceration to the right forehead and a right subarachnoid hemorrhage with left inferior occipital area hemorrhage consistent with contrecoup and a laceration to his forehead.
An investigation indicated that the nursing home not only consistently failed to provide adequate protective and supportive services for this gentleman, but that the facility knew and documented his cognitive losses in short and long term memory and periods of delirium with his mental function varying over the course of the day. He had also had previous falls and had tried to climb out of bed. The nursing home records reflect that from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. he had a private sitter with him. The family had hired a private sitter as they were told by the staff that they couldn’t watch him continuously. His wife, who was 70 years old, tried to be with him the other 12 hours of the day. At one point the nurses have documented that the patient was placed in a wheelchair up by the nurse’s station as the patient had tried to get up and walk alone several times.
On the morning of the incident in question, the patient was found on the floor of his room with no apparent injuries noted.
Unfortunately, despite the facility’s knowledge of the victim’s dementia, memory loss and confused state, it did not see fit to use any type of safety device to prevent him from getting out of his wheelchair. Also, the medical records reflect that the employees of the nursing home did not keep the head of this victim’s bed elevated to 45 degrees as required of a patient getting G-Tube feedings, nor did they do the other preventative measures which were the standard.
The wife of this victim was a frequent companion to her husband while he was at the nursing home and he was the light of her life. Since his death, she has been depressed and cannot understand how a nursing home such as this could ignore her husband to the extent that he could fall out of a wheelchair and sustain blunt head trauma. They had been married 50 years.
The medical examiner performed an autopsy and listed aspiration pneumonia as the cause of death with blunt head trauma as a significant contributing cause.
The widow contacted Attorney Richard D. Schuler to assist her in pursuing a case against the nursing home since the nursing home had the obligation to provide adequate and appropriate care for this victim, and did not fulfill its responsibilities in this case.
