› $580,975,000 verdict in personal injury case
Hazel Earll, a 65-year-old mentally challenged woman, was doing well in rehab at Great Plains Regional Medical Center in Nebraska, after a total replacement of her right hip. She was soon able to bear weight on her right side. Days later, on Nov. 22, 2006, she was transferred to North Platte Care Centre for further rehabilitation. But instead of improving, her condition got considerably worse, according to the North Platte Bulletin.
Brent P. Dellarma was a practicing physical therapist employed by Genesis Rehabilitation at Sandy River Center for Health Care in Farmington, Maine, for nearly a year between 2007 and 2008, until management suspected something was awry with his paperwork. The man had worked as a physical therapy assistant and then as a physical therapist at Sandy River Center. He had documentation filed with the Board of Examiners in Physical Therapy in the state’s Department of Professional and Financial regulation. However, an investigation found that the paperwork Dellarma filed was bogus and that he had misrepresented his qualifications, according to the Morning Sentinel.
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.
On March 3, the Des Moines Register reported that in 2007 the state fined 23 Iowa nursing homes $10,000 or more for providing substandard care. Some of those homes were also hit with federal fines and sanctions against their state licenses.
As for people with family in nursing homes, Kathleen Sadlier says to be careful. “If you have someone there, really keep an eye on everything to see what is going on. Don’t just think they are being taken care of, because they might not be. I feel sorry for those in nursing homes who don’t have family members to watch over them. More people need to speak out about this.”
