Nursing Home Blamed For Patient Death | TriCities

Nursing Home Blamed For Patient Death TriCities: "BRISTOL, Tenn. – Ninety-eight-year-old Anne Brightwell died in a hospice bed June 16, family members said, after months of screaming over a fractured left femur that would not heal.
Her upper leg bone shattered Feb. 6, when a hammock sling, used by Cambridge House nursing home staff to hoist her from a bed to a wheelchair, snapped. A medical examiner listed the broken femur as the cause of death on Brightwell’s death certificate.
Daughter Ruth Countiss said the fall could have been prevented, and accuses the nursing home of regularly using aging and tattered slings, but throwing newer equipment into use only when Tennessee Health Department inspectors arrived.
Three former Cambridge House employees say administrators hid daily-use equipment from inspectors, only to later pull it out after tucking away the newer items until the next state visit.
On Monday, Countiss filed a $2 million personal injury lawsuit in Bristol, Tenn. General Sessions Court arguing that Cambridge House “knowingly, intentionally and recklessly placed the safety of its residents .... in harm’s way to save money.”"

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