Woman charged with abusing eight residents at Bolton Nursing home

"A CARE worker has been charged with abusing of eight residents at a Bolton Nursing home.
Pamela Wolfendale, aged 53, is alleged to have abused residents while working at Bupa’s Mill View Care Home in Bridgeman Street, Great Lever.
The care home states on its website that it is “made up of six houses, each with its own unique character but all reflecting the levels of care and hygiene you would expect from Bupa”.
A police spokesman said: “The charges relate to the abuse of eight residents at a specialist nursing home in Bolton that cares for people with complex needs.
“Greater Manchester Police has been working closely with staff at the home throughout the investigation in relation to the welfare and safeguarding of residents.""UPDATED: Woman charged with abusing eight residents at Bolton care home (From The Bolton News):

Bed bug problems at York nursing home

Visitations are temporarily on hold at the Pleasant Acres Nursing & Rehabilitation Center due to an outbreak of bed bugs. The bugs were found within separate resident rooms on Sunday July 20 and Tuesday July 29.  Nursing home staff believe visitors transported the bugs into the facility within clothing brought for a resident.
Following the initial discovery on July 20, the affected resident’s room, an adjacent room and a visitor lounge used by the resident’s visitors were each vacated, isolated and treated by a pest control company. Additional bugs were subsequently found in the second room on Tuesday, July 29. The room has been isolated pending further inspection and treatment by the pest control company.
No additional bed bugs have been found within the facility."
Bed bug problems at York’s Pleasant Acres nursing home | WPMT FOX43:

Ohio Nursing Home Being Shut Down for Series of Safety Issues

Dozens of people living in a nursing home in Gahanna are being forced out after a series of safety issues.
The Bon-Ing Care and Rehab Center on James Road will be losing its Medicare and Medicaid funding because of 16 violations state officials said were not corrected.
"There were a number of altercations between residents where residents were harmed, kicked by other residents, hit in the head by other residents," said Beverley Laubert with the Ohio Department of Aging.
Laubert said there was another incident of a worker pinning a resident against the wall. "
Nursing Home Being Shut Down for Series of Safety Issues - WSYX - Columbus, Ohio Top Stories - Breaking News, Weather, and Traffic:


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Nurse accused of hitting nursing home resident

"A nurse has been accused of a string of misdemeanor assaults of nursing home residents, including hitting one man in the face.
John Murray has been asked to attend a hearing of the Nursing and Midwifery Council on Monday over nine different allegations, and could be struck off if found guilty.
Mr Murray was working for Fulwood-based NYS Nursing Agency at Walton House in Walton-le-Dale, and Priory Park Care in Penwortham, at the time of the allegations."
Nurse accused of hitting care home resident in face - Lancashire Evening Post:

Management company retained to bring nursing home into compliance - The Anniston Star: News

The Cleburne County Hospital Board voted 6-1 Tuesday to hire Preferred Health Services to help bring the Cleburne County Nursing Home into compliance with state and federal nursing home safety standards.

The nursing home had two inspections, a recertification inspection in May and one in June generated by a complaint, in which inspectors found a total 14 deficiencies. Based on May’s recertification inspection, which found 10 deficiencies, the Alabama Medicaid Agency banned the nursing home from billing Medicaid for new admissions until it came back into compliance.Management company retained to bring nursing home into compliance - The Anniston Star: News:

Deaths at Two Nursing homes show rise in neglect

Staff members at two Minnesota Nursing homes for failed to provide adequate medical care and monitoring, resulting in the deaths of two residents, according to investigation reports released Thursday by the Minnesota Department of Health.

The fatalities come amid a sharp rise in reports of abuse and neglect at homes for senior citizens across Minnesota. The number of maltreatment complaints received by state authorities involving nursing homes, home care and assisted-living facilities nearly tripled to 1,217 in 2013 from 451 in 2010, according to a report issued last month by the Department of Health.

In the latest reports, an elderly resident with dementia was not provided with any fluids, food or monitoring for more than 18 hours in May because staffers at the home, Summit Hill Senior Living in St. Paul, were unaware that the client had been transferred to the facility’s “memory care” unit. The resident was found on the toilet with multiple abrasions and died the following morning, state investigators found.

Deaths at 2 senior homes highlight sharp rise in abuse, neglect | Star Tribune

Jury awards family $14 million — largest payment in at least a decade — for Danvers nursing home negligence - Health & wellness - The Boston Globe

Jury awards family $14 million — largest payment in at least a decade — for Danvers nursing home negligence - Health & wellness - The Boston Globe: "By the time Genevieve Calandro was rushed to the hospital after falling out of her wheelchair at a Danvers nursing home, doctors found a festering pressure sore on her back, acute appendicitis, a urinary tract infection so severe it had invaded her blood stream, kidney failure, uncontrolled diabetes, and severe dehydration.

Despite treatment, the infections prevailed, and the 90-year-old woman died a month later, in August 2008.

Now a Middlesex County jury has decided that the care Calandro received at the nursing home, Radius HealthCare Center, was so grossly negligent, that this week it awarded Calandro’s family $14 million. It is the largest nursing home-related verdict in Massachusetts in at least the last decade, according to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, which tracks jury awards.

Calandro’s youngest son, Garry Calandro, said Wednesday that no amount of money could compensate the family for his mother’s pain, suffering, and death, but he hoped the large amount would capture the attention of the nursing home industry.

“That is the only way to send a message, or to punish people, and somebody in that business certainly needs to look at it with a more serious manner than just as a big money-making business,” he said.

Most of the award, $12.5 million, was for punitive damages, with the jury indicating on Tuesday that the “gross negligence” was a “substantial contributing factor” in causing the woman’s death.

Lawyers said it was highly unusual for a jury in Massachusetts to award punitive damages in nursing home lawsuits.

Calandro said his mother was a happy woman who devoted her life to family and seldom complained, yet they could tell she was not feeling well in June 2008, and kept asking staffers at the nursing home about their concerns. They were repeatedly assured there was no problem.

“They were telling us that there was a virus going through the nursing home, that’s why she had a fever, and that everything was under control, that they were on top of everything,” he said."



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Staffing Shortages jeopardize patient care in nursing homes

The national study on long-term care, released June 19 by AARP, the Commonwealth Fund and the SCAN Foundation, show problems with the quality of care provided to residents of New Jersey’s nursing homes.
According to the report, New Jersey ranks second-worst in the country for the percentage of high-risk nursing home residents diagnosed with pressure ulcers, or bed sores. This ailment, which is the result of prolonged lying or sitting, can often be prevented by regular turning of the patient and proper positioning. In nursing homes, this work is typically done by certified nursing assistants — or CNAs — who are responsible for most direct, bedside care.
It’s no coincidence that New Jersey’s nursing homes are failing to prevent bed sores at a time when CNA staffing levels are significantly below national standards. NJ received an “F”; in this area from Families for Better Care, a nonprofit citizen advocacy group and industry watchdog. The organization found that “New Jersey nursing home residents may be hard pressed to locate a caregiver when needing help as the state ranks near the bottom in direct care staffing hours.”Staffing crisis jeopardizes patient care in NJ nursing homes: Opinion | NJ.com:

Family says hospital ignored Father causing death

"The family of an 84-year-old man who died after contracting a badly infected bedsore may sue a public hospital that they accuse of gross negligence.
Staff at the Yan Chai Hospital in Tsuen Wan neglected a small wound on Yuen Chung-kun's back, his children say.
They say it developed into a tennis ball-sized ulcer with a bacterial infection that caused his death."

Dead man's family says hospital ignored him | South China Morning Post:

Iowa nursing home fined for resident’s fatal fall

An Iowa nursing home where a former school teacher suffered a fatal head injury after falling from a mechanical lift is now facing a $31,525 fine.
In June, the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals cited North Lake Manor of Storm Lake for failing to protect residents from harm and failing to provide adequate care. Workers at the home told inspectors they were overworked and had no time to give residents their baths or tend to some of their medical needs.Storm Lake nursing home fined $31,500 for resident’s fatal fall:

Grandfather abused by a nursing home worker

Our older adults in our community are targets for elder abuse. More than 33,000 elderly Mainers are abused each year, according to Maine Council for Elder Abuse Prevention. That isn't limited to financial exploitation, physical or sexual abuse.
The Marro family believe their grandfather was sexually abused in 2006 at a nursing home. Their grandfather's dementia was setting in and clogging his thoughts. As his health declined, they felt a Brunswick nursing home located in their neighborhood would be a safe place for him to live. That is where the sexual abuse occurred they believe. See\ Grandfather abused by a nursing home worker:

Nursing home aide convicted of raping 92-year-old woman

A former Cincinnati nursing home aide convicted of raping a bed-ridden 92-year-old resident has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.
A prosecutor's spokesman says a Hamilton County judge sentenced 22-year-old Samuel Onyenweaku on Monday. The West Chester man was convicted earlier of rape, felonious assault and patient abuse.
Authorities said he raped an elderly woman in her bed at the Amber Park assisted living facility in November. They say the victim was a widow and former school teacher who was bed-ridden and unable to communicate.     Nursing home aide convicted of raping 92-year-old Ohio woman gets 11-year prison sentence - Daily Journal:

Massachusetts Nursing Home Neglect Victim awarded damages as Jury finds nursing home at fault

Attorney Bernard J. Hamill is pleased to announce that our client has achieved justice from a Civil Jury in a Nursing Home Negligence case on July, 2014 in Middlesex Superior Court, Massachusetts.

The estate of Genevieve Calandro who died after a fall and weeks of neglect at a Danvers nursing home has won a $14.5 million verdict in a wrongful death and negligence case. A Middlesex Superior Court jury awarded the estate of Genevieve Calandro $1.4 million in compensatory damages and more than $12.5 million in punitive damages, plus interest.

In 2009, Genevieve's son Garry consulted with me after believing that his mother had needlessly died from a lack of basic care in the nursing home he had entrusted for his mothers care. Garry was dedicated son and determined to achieve justice for his mother.

The Law Office of Bernard J. Hamill in Quincy is the Attorney of record in this action who felt strongly from the outset that Mrs. Calandro's death was unnecessary and caused by clear negligent care by the Nursing Home. Reading Attorney David J. Hoey represented the plaintiffs at trial. The nursing home, Radius HealthCare Center, at 56 Liberty St., changed ownership and management last October.

Calandro was 90 years old and suffering from dementia when she was admitted to the nursing home in December 2007, according to our lawsuit filed on her behalf. She was neglected over a period of weeks, if not months, leading up to the first week of July 2008, “with multiple brewing infections, uncontrolled glucose levels and a worsening, infected” bed sore.

After she fell out of her wheelchair in the dining room, she was taken to Beverly Hospital and found to have a number of complications due to her condition. She died of congestive heart failure on Aug. 16, 2008.
which often develops after other conditions, such as severe infections (pressure sores), have damaged or weakened the heart.

The complaint said financial decisions and corporate greed contributed to the neglect of residents, including Calandro, who could not care for herself. It charged that Radius failed to properly train and hire competent staff, and that the corporation overseeing Radius did not comply with state and federal regulations to protect patients. The defendants have vowed not to pay but to appeal the Jury's findings.

Bernard J. Hamill recently set a record Massachusetts Nursing Home Jury verdict of $2,014,000.00 in December of 2013 representing a victim of an claimed sexual assault against Kindred Healthcare.

by Bernard Hamill
July 27, 2014

Click here to see the Jury Court Finding

see article Court finds Danvers nursing home at fault » SalemNews.com, Salem, MA

Suspended former nurse admitted not knowing what asprin was used for

Suspended former Orchards nurse admitted not knowing what asprin was used for | Western Gazette: "A FORMER worker at a care home in Crewkerne did not know what aspirin was used for, a competence hearing was told.

Fanus Coleasa Dragomir was called to appear before the Conduct and Competence Committee of the Nursing and Midwifery Council at the Old Bailey on July 7.

In a statement he admitted failing to demonstrate the standards of knowledge, skill, and judgement required to practise without supervision as a First Line Manager – Registered Nurse, at The Orchards nursing home on 20 occasions between September and December 2012."



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Trial in nursing home sex assault case starts

A trial for a man accused of sexually assaulting two women in a nursing home is set to start today.


The cases involve two elderly residents at a Co. Skilled Nursing during the accused employment at the facility. The defendant has pleaded not guilty. Trial in Broomfield nursing home sex assault case starts today - Boulder Daily Camera: