Justia Lawyer Rating for Robert D. Kreisman

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A federal jury in North Carolina entered its verdict in favor of the families of three nursing home residents who died at Blue Ridge Health Care Center.  The lawsuit filed for the wrongful deaths claimed these deaths were caused by the callous neglect of these and other nursing residents.

The jury awarded both compensatory and punitive damages in the case. The suit alleged that the nursing home’s medical staff chose not to properly monitor the patients, allowing them to remove their own breathing tubes without proper safeguards in place. The families alleged in these wrongful death lawsuits that the patients all required ventilator or tracheotomy tubes, which the residents were able to  remove on their own.  There was claimed to be little or no medical staff intervention to prevent residents from removing their ventilators or tracheotomy tubes.

The jury entered the verdict in favor of the families of the nursing residents — Baird, Jones and Kee — compensatory damages of $50,000, $300,000 and $300,000, respectively, and punitive damages to each family in the amount of about $1.5 million.

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Julio Reyes Concepcion, a 73-year-old nursing home resident of the Royal Suites Health Care & Rehabilitation facility, had a number of different medical and health problems after he suffered a stroke.  He required tube feeding at the nursing home. After a feeding, a nursing staff worker noted that he had vomited.  The nursing home staff did not notify his treating physician.  About five hours later, he was transferred to a hospital suffering from respiratory distress and aspiration pneumonia. Unfortunately, Reyes Concepcion died two days later.

His family sued the nursing home, claiming that its nursing staff negligently chose not to elevate his bed 45 degrees before or after the feeding and chose not to timely respond to signs of respiratory distress.

The jury in this case concluded that the nursing home had been negligent but determined there had been no pain and suffering. The jury’s verdict was for $250,000, which the trial judge later vacated for “excessiveness.”  The case is being retried on damages only.

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A state appellate court had held that a nursing home’s alleged failure to prevent a nursing home resident’s injuries by raising bedrails was a triable issue of fact. The case centered on whether this choice — made by the nursing home  — was a departure from the standard of care.

Rosalia Petralia, 88, suffered from dementia. She lived at the Glengariff Health Care Center. She was a fall risk and formal fall precautions were noted in her chart. She fell out of bed and suffered serious injuries.  Later, she  sued the nursing home, and her son was substituted as the plaintiff when his mother passed away.

The lawsuit maintained that Glengariff Health Care Center was negligent and also alleged medical malpractice for the nursing home’s choosing not to have Petralia’s bedrails raised before her fall. The nursing home moved for summary judgment. The trial court granted the motion, holding that the nursing home had shown it had not departed from the acceptable nursing and professional practice standard.

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Doris Green was 79 years old when she was discharged to HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Gadsden for a two-week stay following her hospitalization for gastroenteritis. About a week after her admission, a nurse discovered that she was in an unresponsive mental state; the physician ordered that she be transferred to a nearby hospital.

At the hospital, she underwent a CT scan of her brain and it was negative. She was then rehydrated and returned to HealthSouth.

Three days later, Green became unresponsive again with an oxygen saturation level of just 70%.  She was returned to the hospital in a coma. Doctors believe she had been given opiates. The doctors ordered two urinalyses, which were positive for opiates.  The hospital staff administered Narcan and Green responded favorably over the next few days. Although her condition stabilized, she did suffer brain damage resulting from lack of oxygen or hypoxia to the brain. She died several months later.  She was survived by her adult daughter.

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The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services has adopted an amendment to the Medical Assistance Programs reducing personal need allowances for residents of assisted living facilities. The amendment to 89 Ill. Adm. Code 120 (eff. Aug. 2, 2016), Section 120.61 is entitled “Long Term Care,” which has application to the residents of long term care facilities or state-certified, licensed or contracted residential programs.

A condition of residency at one of these long term facilities is that residents must pay all of their income to the facility unless there is an exception listed in the regulations. One of the allowed deductions is an individual’s personal needs allowance. This is a part of a resident’s income that is reserved solely for the resident to use in any way he or she wishes. The rest of the person’s income is applied to the costs for the resident’s care at the facility. The state or government will pay the rest of the full costs of the residency.

This amendment returns the allowance amount from $60 per month to $50 per month for residents of Community Integrated Living Arrangements and $30 per month for residents of Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities. These changes reduce the allowances back to the 2014 level.

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Maria O’Brien was 84 years old and lived at Good Shepherd Health Center. Over a two-and-a-half-year period, she fell eight times at this nursing home facility.

On the day of her last fall, she was left unattended in front of her bathroom sink despite a care plan calling for constant supervision. She fell, suffering a fractured vertebra, which in turn led to immobility and pressure sores.

O’Brien died from dehydration about a year after the last fall. She was survived by her four adult children.

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Jacob Saul was born prematurely with neurological deficiencies. He was later transferred to Cambridge Pediatrics Nursing Home for rehabilitation.

Jacob remained at the nursing home. At eight months of age, he was found unconscious and in respiratory arrest. It was later revealed that Jacob’s tracheostomy tube had dislodged and that his pulse oximeter machine had been turned off.  As a result of this situation, Jacob suffered profound brain damage that led to his blindness, a seizure disorder and deafness. Jacob is now 8 years old.

Jacob’s parents individually, and on his behalf, sued the nursing home alleging that it had negligently cared for Jacob by, among other things, choosing not to ensure that his medical equipment was properly connected. The Saul family’s expert asserted that, but for the improper connection of the equipment and his resulting brain damage, Jacob would have been able to walk with braces and eat without assistance even given his prematurity and neurological injuries.

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Contaminated syringes have been associated with the outbreak of bacteria that infected nearly 150 people since August 2016. Fifty-two of those cases were in New Jersey. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), “the majority of these cases occurred in patients residing at long-term care or rehabilitation facilities who were receiving intravenous (IV) fluids and/or antibiotics through central venous catheters.”

The outbreak of the bacteria from the IV syringes may be linked to six deaths in New York and Pennsylvania. Of the 58 total nursing home facilities that had been affected, the most were located in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. There were several reports of similar outbreaks in Delaware and Maryland.

The bacteria is usually referred to B. cepacia. In most cases, the infections were caused by a pre-filled saline flush syringe, which the manufacturer voluntarily recalled on Oct. 4, 2016. The CDC announced on Nov. 9, 2016 that all nursing homes and other medical facilities should stop using the items, sequester any items in the facility and report all infections to local and state health authorities.

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An appeal was taken from an order entered on June 18, 2015 that denied the motion of the defendants, Manor Care of Carlisle PA, LLC, etc., for reconsideration after the circuit court judge denied their motion to compel arbitration in this nursing home abuse case. It is well-settled that “denial of reconsideration is not subject to appellate review.”

On Dec. 13, 2012, Mary J. Churlick, in her capacity as executrix of the estate of Mary J. Yohn (hereinafter the “decedent”) filed a lawsuit against the defendant nursing home and its parent company. The complaint contained claims in negligence and negligence per se as well as claims under the survival statute and wrongful death statute.

On Sept. 6, 2013, the trial judge overruled the defendants’ preliminary objection and the nature of the motion to compel arbitration. That order was an appealable order.

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Life Care Centers of America, which operates 200 locations and is based in Tennessee, will pay $143 million to settle a False Claims Act (FCA) litigation in which it was alleged that the corporation had billed Medicare for excess treatment. According to the report of the case, this was a record FCA settlement for the nursing home industry.

The consolidated cases arose because of two whistleblower cases as well as an unjust enrichment lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against the owner of Life Care. The two former employees will share $29 million in the settlement payout.

This settlement was reported to be the largest in the Justice Department’s history involving a skilled nursing home chain. The size of the settlement was based on Life Care’s ability to pay this amount.  The government, which joined in the FCA cases in 2012, alleged excessive treatment of seniors in order to maximize Medicare reimbursements.

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