In January 2008, two employees at Radius Health Care Center in Quincy, Maine, saw their co-worker Elizabeth Landry, a 25-year-old nursing assistant, slapping a man on the head with an open hand, swearing at him and calling him and obscene name. She also reportedly pulled the man out of his wheelchair and threw him into a bed. The man was a stroke victim and used a wheelchair for mobility.

Landry said the man had struck her in the face with a menu, but the incident was enough to get her fired from Radius Health Care Center. The nursing home, as it is required, reported the incident to Maine’s Executive Office of Elder Affairs. A social worker informed the man’s stepdaughter of the alleged assault two days after it occurred.

Landry was charged with assault and battery on a disabled person over 60. She entered a plea agreement in the Plymouth District Court. Based on her previous military service and lack of criminal record, the judge gave what the man’s stepdaughter considered a lenient sentence. Landry was ordered to complete an anger-management course and to stay away from the man she abused. The case will be dismissed in one year if Landry manages to stay out of trouble.

Source: Patriot Ledger

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Woman disappointed in judge’s treatment of abusive nursing aide

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The elderly nursing home resident lives in an Alzheimer’s unit at Champaign County Nursing Home in Urbana, Illinois. The nurse who is accused of attacking him had worked at the home for just a few weeks before the incident occurred. Two people at the nursing home witnessed the attack and called police. Though the victim didn’t require medical treatment, Hill was arrested and charged with aggravated battery to a senior citizen. It is a Class 3 felony, which carries a sentence of probation to two to five years in prison.

According to the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation, aggressive behavior is common among people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. According to the Foundation, “Disruptions commonly occur if a person with Alzheimer’s feels their personal space has been invaded, for example, during dressing, bathing, or a doctor’s appointment. It’s important to understand that someone with Alzheimer’s is more likely to misinterpret certain actions and respond aggressively.”

That said, those who care for individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia should be specifically trained on how to minimize aggression in patients and how to handle aggression when it occurs. For more on caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s who has become disruptive, see the alzinfo.org discussion at http://www.alzinfo.org/treatment/communicating/default.aspx#4.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Nursing home aides need training to handle dementia patient aggression

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The daughter of Millie Slatten, who has cerebral palsy, was a resident at Hillcrest Centre for Health and Rehabilitation in Jeffersonville. Her condition left her unable to walk or talk. According to a probable cause affidavit, a staff member reported seeing a male patient sitting at the end of Slatten’s daughter’s bed with his pants down and his shirt off. The victim’s undergarments were also undone. The male patient suffers from schizophrenia and had expressed to staff members previously about his desire to be close to the victim.

The male patient is charged with sexual battery. A warrant is issued for his arrest. But that news is hardly comforting to family members of the victim, who is now living at home with her parents.

“I just don’t see how they could not see that man go in that room,” Slatten told WHAS-TV.

Hillcrest Centre released a statement saying that it provided a detailed report to the Indiana State Department of Health and that “appropriate measures continue to be taken by Hillcrest Centre to ensure all residents of the facility remain free of any abuse.”

Slatten says reporting the incident just isn’t enough. She wants the home closed, and she is filing a lawsuit against the home on her daughter’s behalf.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Rape victim’s family wants nursing home shut down

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Sloan gradually began to hear the truth. CNA Karen Buck had hit and slapped Talbott numerous times in the face causing a black eye and two other facial bruises after Talbott spit at her. Sloan contends that Buck caused her mother pain while putting stockings on her sore feet.

The executive director of Williamsburg Village, now known as Golden Living Center, issued a statement saying that the nursing home had reported the situation to authorities and that the incident had been fully investigated by the state, the ombudsman, the police and the attorney general’s office. The statement claimed, “After the investigations were concluded, the alleged abuse was not substantiated, and the prosecutor has declined to pursue the case.”

However the prosecutor’s office did charge Buck with felony battery resulting in bodily injury. Battery becomes a felony offense when the victim is, among other things, an endangered adult, as was Talbott, who moved into the nursing home after suffering a stroke.

Talbott died less than three months later. Attorneys hired to represent Talbott’s estate claim that the brutal and savage assault and beating Talbott suffered at the hands of Buck, and the nursing home’s negligence, resulted in serious complications that ultimately led to Talbott’s wrongful death.

Golden Living Center has a four-star rating by the federal government, which his based on inspections, staffing levels and quality measurements.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › CNA punches, slaps nursing home patient in face

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Last week, Riems entered an Alford plea to four counts of sexual battery and one count of gross sexual imposition. According to AP, an Alford plea is one in which the defendant does not plead guilty but does admit there is enough evidence against him for a conviction. Riems was sentenced Friday to 12 ½ years in prison.

According to earlier reports from Fox News/AP, Riems was accused of raping and assaulting a paralyzed patient. Coworkers reportedly complained nursing home management that he had a temper and had verbally abused patients. One former coworker of Riems said she saw him go into patients’ rooms for long periods of time. When questioned what he was doing in the rooms for so long, he would say “This is none of your business,” according to Fox News/AP.

Riems was videotaped last year admitting that he had abused about 100 patients at nursing homes since the 1980s. His attorney argued that the testimony was coerced and fought to keep the videotape out of trial. The judge ordered that the tape would be allowed in court, which led to Riems’ plea agreement just days before he was to stand trial.

The sentencing offers some closure for the heartbroken family members of the victims. ”I don’t think that anyone knows the hurt and the anger that I am holding for you,” AP reported Bilgen saying to Riems during the sentencing hearing. “It’s something that I will never forgive you for.”

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Ohio man sentenced for sexual abuse of nursing home patients

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Bixby police arrested Marshall and charged him with making a lewd proposal and sexual battery. He was transported to Tulsa jail where he was held on $27,000 bond. He was released Saturday.

“There might be nothing to this, but we felt the authorities must make that call,” said Scott Pilgrim, the nursing home owner. “Because our resident safety and well being is what we stand for, we took this action.”

Cases of nursing home abuse and neglect are not uncommon. In Oklahoma alone, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, the Oklahoma Department of Human Services recorded 160 referrals of abuse, neglect or exploitation. Forty-four – or 70 cases – were verified by caseworkers, according to a related story on Tulsa television station Fox23.

Wes Bledsoe with the advocacy group A Perfect Cause who spoke with a reporter about the case says that the nurse who walked in on Marshall did the right thing, adding that all cases of suspected of abuse or neglect of nursing home patients should be immediately reported to law enforcement and the state Department of Health.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Oklahoma man accused of sexually abusing nursing home patient

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While she was away, a 47-year-old disabled woman had a heat stroke and seizures. She was found around 5 a.m. by another resident who called 911. The woman who had fallen ill was rushed to the hospital, according to the story.

An investigation found that the air conditioning had been out for days at the facility and the temperature in the room in which the woman was found was extremely high, according to an affidavit.

A housekeeper at the home told investigators that Shaw said she was headed to the beach. Another report said she was heading home to get medication. Regardless, she never returned. One resident said that Shaw had played the disappearing act before in her 10-year career at Personal Care II.

An investigation into Shaw’s past revealed she had a history of mental health problems, including bipolar disorder. She, too, had been a resident in an assisted living facility for a decade. She also has previous convictions, one in 1991 for retail theft and 1994 for assault and battery.

Shaw was arrested and faces up to five years in prison for a charge of neglect of a disabled adult, a third-degree felony.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Caregiver leaves 16 unattended at assisted living facility

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According to a report in the Senior Journal, the Government Accountability Office estimated in a July 2004 report that automatic sprinkler systems can decrease the chance of fire-related deaths by 82 percent. In March 2005, CMS began requiring all long-term care facilities that did not have sprinklers to install battery-operated smoke alarms in all patient rooms and public areas, the publication reports.

By 2013, all nursing homes will have to have sprinkler coverage in areas including resident rooms, kitchen, dining and activity areas, corridors, attics, canopies, overhangs, offices, waiting areas, closets, storage areas for trash and linen, and maintenance areas.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Lifesaving: not an option

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