We’ve all heard about “death panels” but it seems that death panel rumors barely hold a candle to the reality of elderly abuse in nursing homes.
Previously, it was reported that a nursing home in Auburn, Colonial Healthcare was ordered to pay $28 million worth of punitive damages for the death of one of its residents in Auburn because of an infected bedsore.
Frances Tanner, 79, although suffering from mild dementia, was healthy when she got admitted to Colonial. However, within 7 months after a fall accident that broke her hip, the long-time civil servant died from a bedsore. Her daughter, Elizabeth Pao, was also awarded $1.1 million for Tanner’s pain and suffering as well as for her loss of companionship.
This time, even after the huge amount of damages awarded against Colonial Healthcare, a Los Angeles nursing home has now been fined $100,000 for an 84-year old patient’s death.
According to a report by the California Department of Public Health, the patient, who was at the center because of a fractured hip and prostate cancer, died because Hancock Park Rehabilitation Center failed to follow the proper policies and procedure.
It improperly administered a nasal feeding tube and the feeding tube apparently started to leak food into the man’s lung which caused pneumonia which led to his death last May 2008.
State health regulators imposed the $100,000 fine, the highest and most severe penalty under state laws regulating nursing homes.
But as evidenced by the continued elderly abuse at nursing homes, mostly brought about by poor management and chronic understaffing, imposing fines and even millions of dollars worth of damages has failed to deter other nursing homes from making the same mistake and abuses on their clients.
If you have a loved one in a nursing home or considering it, it would really be prudent for you to check its background and ask around about its quality of care. But in the worst case scenario that your elderly mother or father or other family members were injured or who died because of the nursing home’s negligence or failure to follow proper nursing care procedures, a fine being imposed against the nursing home by the government is just one of the remedies.
Rightfully, you may file a personal injury lawsuit or a wrongful death claim against the negligent nursing home to recover compensation for any monetary expenses or loss you and your family suffered because of their acts and omissions.
Filing a wrongful death claim or a personal injury lawsuit isn’t also just for compensation – these facilities should be held accountable for the negligence and since they put profit over people, winning a case against them will force these nursing homes to improve their standard and quality of care to avoid further litigation.
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