› $580,975,000 verdict in personal injury case
Jean Lemire was alive when police arrived at her caregiver’s home in Calais, Vermont. But she was unconscious and only partially dressed. It was obvious to police what had happened to Lemire. The 47-year-old developmentally disabled woman who was involved in the Special Olympics and worked in a restaurant, was suffering from hypothermia as a result of going without medical attention, food or drink for six days.
Episania Fitzgerald was working her nursing shift at Pine Tree Manor assisted living facility in Largo, Fla., Friday night, but she had someplace better to be. Since she was the only staff member on duty that night, she called on a resident at the home to be in charge of the other residents in her absence. Fitzgerald then walked out the doors, leaving the 21 frail and elderly residents alone.
About 1,400 nursing home residents are suing a Milwaukee, Minnesota-based nursing home chain for consumer fraud, according to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune. The class-action lawsuit alleges that Extendicare partook in deceptive marketing practices to lure deep-pocketed seniors with high-reimbursement conditions into substandard homes that were not equipped to provide the level of care the patients required.
Video surveillance from hidden cameras set up in a New York nursing home has lead to more arrests, according to the North Country Gazette.
Early last month we reported that four employees of Medford Multicare Center for Living in Medford, NY were charged with criminal neglect after investigators reviewed tapes from video cameras hidden in some residents’ rooms.
