California Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

We blogged earlier about the $7.75 million dollar verdict a 71-year-old stroke victim was awarded after she proved to a civil jury that she was abused by caregivers in her nursing home. The lady's family decided to place a hidden camera near the bed of Maria Arellano, and caught some ghastly footage of an attendant pulling the elderly woman's hair, bending her fingers and neck, and treating her violently in the shower. Now, as expected, the defendant, Fillmore Convalescent Center, plans on appealing the verdict.

It's attorney Thomas Beach told the Ventura County Star, “We strongly disagree with the decision and will be taking all appropriate legal steps to set aside the verdict.” Strongly disagree? Of course he disagrees; he told the jury to give her nothing.

What makes this case most interesting is that the plaintiff attorney Greg Johnson made a settlement demand of $500,000 long before the trial. He had compelling video, and a great story, and not only did the nursing home ignore his demand, they never offered him a penny.

If Mr. Beach's post-trial statements are any indication of how this will play out, it's not going to be pretty. He states that the family knew of the abuse a year earlier, but didn't report it. He is now "concerned" as to why it was not reported. Maybe this is a new (risky) theory - blame the family - but if he had such concerns, why didn't he raise them at trial?

The jury has spoken. The elder abuse victim should be paid.

Source: vcstar.com

The elder abuse and neglect lawyers at the Walton Law Firm represent seniors and dependent adults who have been abused or neglected in the nursing home and assisted living setting. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free and confidential consultation.

A Ventura nursing home called Fillmore Convalescent Center, its owner, and one of its employees were hit with a $7.75 million verdict yesterday after a jury found them liable for elder abuse. It has to be one of the largest verdicts in California in a case involving nursing home abuse or neglect.

The facts are egregious. In 2006, the family of 71-year-old Maria Arellano, a stroke victim who was also non-verbal, began to notice suspicious bruising. They complained to the nursing home administration, but it failed to look into it. The family then placed a hidden camera in Ms. Arellano's room, which caught caregiver Monica Garcia slapping Arellano, pulling her hair, bending her fingers, and treating her violently. When the tape was revealed, Garcia was charged with criminal acts, and the family brought an elder abuse lawsuit against the nursing home.

The lawyer for Arellano, Greg Johnson, must have done an excellent job. He told the Ventura County Star that he offered to settle the case for $500,000, but was rebuffed. The nursing home, through its attorney Tom Beach, never offered a dime to resolve the case. "There was a lot of arrogance," said Johnson.

Ironically, Fillmore Convalescent received a five-star rating, the highest, from the Nursing Home Compare system, operated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Source: Ventura County Star

The nursing home abuse and neglect attorneys at Walton Law Firm LLP provide free consultations to individuals and families who believe a loved one has been abuse or neglected in the nursing home or assisted living setting. Cases are accepted in all Southern California counties.

California should take heed. Illinois has been housing mentally ill felons with the elderly in state nursing homes and the results have not been pretty. An elderly woman was raped by an ex-convict, a frail man had his throat slashed, and in one home a wheelchair-bound man died of massive head injuries that a doctor said it looked like he was hit with a baseball bat.

According to one report, mentally ill patients make up over 15% of Illinois' nursing home patient population, and among them are approximately 3,000 ex-felons with histories of serious crimes. Nursing home owners downplay that numbers of violent attacks, arguing they are miniscule in context to the whole, but there is a growing concern. The states largest nursing home owner's association has advocated an end to the practice, asking state officials to create separate facilities for those residents who may pose a danger to others.

While the population of U.S. residents is aging, those who can afford to do so are opting from home health or assisted living care over traditional nursing home or convalescent hospitals.

Source: Chicago Tribune

The Walton Law Firm represents seniors and dependent adults who have suffered neglect or abuse nursing home, residential care, or board-and-care setting. Cases are taken in all Southern California counties, including Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, and San Diego. For a free and confidential consultation call (866) 607-1325.

After 15 years of bouncing from nursing home to nursing home, and living with the indignities, the mother of a quadriplegic and brain injured daughter had had enough. On Sunday, September 13, Diana Harden wrote a note to a television news station exposing the problems she encountered trying to care for her daughter, then went to the nursing and shot her daughter to death, before turning the gun on herself.

In her letter to ABC news in the San Francisco Bay area, Harden spoke of the years of abuse and neglect her daughter endured in her nursing home. Yvette Harden, suffered a major brain injury and quadriplegia in a car accident 15 years earlier, and spent the last six years at the Oakland Springs Care Center. Oakland Springs is a nursing facility that had 54 complaints lodged against it in 2008 (which is an astonishing amount), and hundreds of deficiencies.

The letter attempts to explain, "the deaths of my daughter and myself." In it, Harden says that that nurses called her daughter a "big fat pig," and that they would "wash her like a car" in the shower. To punish the daughter, Harden claims, the water would be turned cold until she screamed. As a result, Harden wrote that her daughter has been "begging" her to end her life for over two years. The stress was too much.

Pat McGinnis, of the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, was outraged. "If nothing else, let's heed this mother's cry and say 'let's do something not just about the people that are in nursing homes, but let's do something about keeping people out of nursing homes in the first place,'" McGinnis said.

Source: ABC7

The elder abuse lawyers at the Walton Law Firm represent individuals and families who have been abused or neglected in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free consultation.

When police came to a San Bernardino board-and-care home looking for 23-year-old Trevor Castro, they found Castro and a whole lot more. Upon arrival they found a bucket of urine outside the door, and inside found outright squalor. The discovery led to the arrest of the home's owner, 61-year-old Pensri Sophar Dalton, who is currently being held on 16 counts of felony elder abuse.

According to reports, Dalton, who was called "Mama Sophar," ran a prison-like home - which was unlicensed - for 22 elderly and mentally ill residents in San Bernardino County. The home was surrounded by cinderblock walls with barbed wire atop. Several residents lived in converted chicken coops with no plumbing. A bucket was used for a toilet.

"None of [the chicken coop rooms] were up to code," said City Atty. James Penman. "They had some with padlocks on the outside and no emergency exits, which concerned us because it could be used to lock people in as well as lock people out. The smell of urine was horrific; it permeated the entire place."

Apparently this is not the only board-and-care home run by Dalton, who had another closed down a few years ago because of code violations. Public records show that there 13 other addresses under her name, with eight in San Bernardino, two in Redlands, two in Highlands, and one home in Los Angeles. Authorities are now looking into the care being provided at the other homes.

According to a neighbor, the city had been notified of the living conditions before, but no one bothered to investigate.

Source: Los Angles Times

The attorneys at Walton Law Firm LLP represent seniors and dependent adults who have suffered neglect or abuse nursing home, residential care, or board-and-care setting. Cases are taken in all Southern California counties, including Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, and San Diego. For a free and confidential consultation call (866) 607-1325.

Aggressive behavior by nursing home residents is on the rise, and is becoming a big problem in nursing homes and residential care facilities around the country.

"Resident-on-resident aggression is substantially more common than previously thought," said Dr. Karl Pillemer, a Cornell University gerontologist. "While they are mentally impaired, they are not physically impaired. They can do considerable damage."

It is estimated that roughly half of Americans over the age of 85 suffer from Alzheimer's disease or some other form of dementia. With the population of elderly set to explode in the next 20 years - those 65 or older will make up 20 percent of the U.S. population - most experts agree that the problem is only going to get worse.

A recent incident of peer-on-peer abuse that received substantial attention occurred in an assisted-living facility outside Minneapolis last January. Former wrestling champion Verne Gagne physically assaulted a 97-year-old fellow resident at the facility where they lived. The victim, a former concert violinist who had escaped Nazi Germany, later died.

Studies have show that men suffering from age-related mental disease are more likely to be aggressive than women.

Source: Baltimore Sun

The nursing home elder abuse and neglect lawyers at Walton Law Firm LLP represent seniors and dependent adults who have been victims of abuse or neglect in the nursing home and assisted living setting. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free and confidential consultation.

Police arrested a nursing home resident after he punched a fellow resident because he thought the man was stealing his food. According to new accounts, Ardyce Nauden was charged with aggravated battery after punching 72-year-old and wheelchair-bound Andres Cardona in the face, knocking him unconscious.

Nauden allegedly stated, “He was trying to steal my food and that is why I hit him. I held onto the bed with my right hand and hit him with my left hand."

Peer-on-peer resident abuse in the nursing home setting is not uncommon. A study by Cornell University found that aggression and violence between residents is more prevalent than abuse or neglect from nursing home employees. According to the Cornell study, peer abuse is nursing home is a problem that has received little attention.

To read the Cornell study click here.

Source: WBBM News Radio

The elder abuse and neglect attorneys at Walton Law Firm LLP represent elder and dependent adults who have been victims of abuse or neglect in the nursing home and assisted living setting. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free and confidential consultation.

SANTA BARBARA - Sheriffs have arrested a 35-year-old man in the alleged rape of a 36-year-old developmentally disabled woman. Christopher Coates was arrested last Wednesday and is being held on $100,000 bail.

According to new accounts, Coates was a caregiver at a residential care facility in Santa Barbara County (the name has not been released) in June when police received information from an employee, who told police that the victim had complained of being sexually assaulted. An investigation led to the arrest of Coates, who lives in Goleta, and who was no longer employed at the facility at the time of his arrest.

Under California law, the facility could be held responsible for the sexual assault upon the disable adult. California's Elder Abuse Act applies equally to "dependent adults," who are defined as individuals between the ages of 18 and 64, and who reside in a custodial care facility.

Source: The Daily Sound

The abuse and neglect lawyers at Walton Law Firm LLP represent elder and dependent adults who have suffered abuse or neglect in the hospital, nursing home, or residential care setting. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free and confidential consultation.

One nurse twisted a patient's jaw until he screamed. Another grabbed an elderly man by the shoulders and slammed him against a mattress. Our 70-year-old client was punched in the face by an angry nurse while giving our client a bath.

Charles Ornstein of the LA Times is out with an article today about problem nurses. He highlights a very troubling fact: It sometimes takes years for a formal complaint against a nurse to be addressed by the California Board of Registered Nursing. As Ornstein writes:

It's a high-stakes gamble that no one will be hurt as nurses with histories of drug abuse, negligence, violence and incompetence continue to provide care across the state. While the inquiries drag on, many nurses maintain spotless records. New employers and patients have no way of knowing the risks.

The LA Times investigation examined the case of every nurse who faced disciplinary action from 2002 to 2008, and made some troubling findings:

• It took more than three years on average to investigate and act on complaints;

• The Board gave probation to hundreds of nurses, the failed to crack down as many of the nurses landed in trouble again;

• The Board failed to use its authority to immediately stop dangerous nurses from practicing;

Most troubling, the Times investigation found more than 60 nurses who were disciplined for "serious misconduct" since 2002 had worked in three facilities before action was taken.

Here at Walton Law Firm, we have been told that the nurse who punched our elderly client in the face continues to work at a different facility. Something needs to be done.

The entire LA Times story can be found here.

The nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at Walton Law Firm LLP provide free consultations to individuals and families who believe a loved one has suffered from abuse or neglect in a nursing home or residential care setting. Cases are accepted throughout Southern California.

When Doris Weaver saw her mother's black eye at the local hospital emergency room where she had been taken from a nursing home, she was stunned.

"She had a bruise from her temple all the way down to her lower earlobe," said Weaver. "Her eye was black and was swollen."

Weaver demanded to know what caused her mother's injury, and even filed a police report, but to date she has gotten now answers...from anyone, even her mother, who cannot speak. [Read the entire story here]

Like elder abuse victims all over the county, Weaver's mother is unable to tell her story because of her advanced dementia. Because of memory impairment problems caused by dementia and Alzheimer's disease, many aging Americans under professional care are unable to communicate, and unable to tell family members when they are subjected to abuse or neglect. Our firm has one such case right now, involving a non-communicative Alzheimer's disease patient who was struck in the face by nursing caregivers, but unable to tell her horrible story.

Any unexplained incidents of bruising or dramatic changes in mental status should be reported to the resident's physician right away, and the local ombudsman office.

The elder abuse and neglect lawyers at Walton Law Firm LLP represent seniors and dependent adults who are victims of neglect, abuse, mistreatment, and malpractice in the nursing home, assisted living, and residential care setting. All case consultations are free and confidential.

There is a short but solid article in a New Jersey paper today addressing the signs of elder abuse. New Jersey attorney Victoria Dalton lays out the real world signs and symptoms of elder abuse, which she defines simply as taking advantage of the elderly.

Physical Abuse

Physical abuse is simply the use of physical force which causes bodily injury, pain or some other type of impairment. It can also include hitting, shaking, slapping, kicking, or pinching. The signs to be aware of include bruises, broken limbs, welts, cuts, burns or marks.

I would add neglect to this list. Neglect is the failure to provide case and often reveals itself in incidents of malnutrition and dehydration, pressure sores, untreated infections. In realty, any unexplained injury, infection, or death can be a sign of physical abuse or neglect.

Financial Abuse

Financial abuse is more subtle, and is essentially the improper use of the senior's funds, property or assets. A common indicator of financial abuse is when the elder's contribution to household services is disproportionately high when compared to an adult child living in the home. Another tell-tale sign is a change in banking habits. Be aware of any large withdrawals by a person accompanying the senior.

Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse typically includes intimidation, humiliation and harassment. Degrading remarks, or treating the elder like an infant, giving the older person the silent treatment, are also examples of emotional elder abuse.

Elder abuse can be stopped, Dalton writes, if we are simply more vigilant.

The nursing home malpractice lawyers at Walton Law Firm LLP provide free consultations to individuals and families who believe a loved one has suffered from abuse or neglected in a nursing home or residential care setting.

In the news today is an article from the BBC about a nursing home nurse who was found guilty of assaulting an 80-year-old patient who suffers from dementia. According to the article (found here), the perpetrator "twisted the hand" of the resident, causing the resident to scream and cry. The assault was witnesses who reported the offense, leading to the prosecution and deportation of the caregiver.

But that was in Britain. Do we have such abuse in Southern California nursing homes? The answer is a resounding yes. Is it an epidemic? No, but there is enough of it to raise concerns. Our firm currently represents a San Diego nursing home resident who suffers from dementia, and who, while resisting care (something people with memory impairment diseases sometimes do), was punched in the face by a caregiver. Immediately after the battery, there was an attempt to cover up the abuse, but thankfully witnesses stepped forward just as they did in the case in Britain.

We advise family members and caregivers to be aware of sudden changes in condition of the patient, and to look for unusual marks or bruising that might indicate abuse. Sadly, many cases go unreported because either the resident cannot complain because of advanced disease, or will not, because of fear of retribution. If an assault and/or battery is suspected, the authorities must be contacted right away.

The elder abuse and neglect lawyers at Walton Law Firm LLP provide free consultations to individuals and families who believe a loved one has been abuse or neglected in the nursing home or assisted living setting.