When 94-year-old Maria Cobian left the Palomar Heights Care Center in Escondido, she was wearing an ankle bracelet that was supposed to alert staff at the facility that she was leaving the premises. With the kind of negligence that was prevalent at the facility, it’s no surprise to anyone that the bracelet either didn’t function, or there was no diligent staff around to hear the alarm, even if it did go off. The result was that the woman, who has been described by her family as “sometimes” not being aware of her surroundings, walked right off the property and onto the road. She was hit by a car, and died instantly. The crash was the first sign that staff at the facility got that one of their own residents was in trouble.

Her family has now filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the facility. The lawsuit claims, quite rightfully, that the facility failed to provide safety and security for her, and failed to supervise her to the extent she needed to be. This was a woman who had problems earlier with leaving the premises. In fact, on the day of the tragedy, she had tried to escape the facility, and had been prevented by the staff from doing so. We wonder at the kind of nursing home neglect that could allow a 94-year-old woman, who was prone to dementia, to walk out of the nursing home and right onto traffic, without the slightest awareness from the staff. Then, we begin to look at the history of Palomar Heights, and it all begins to make perfect sense.

Palomar Heights has had a colorful history as Sunbridge Care and Rehabilitation Center. In 2004 it was cited twice for nursing home abuse, and in January 2004, a sting operation conducted by the state attorney general discovered extreme nursing home neglect and abuse of elders. The exposé led to at least 12 of the employees being accused of elder abuse. The charges were later dropped, and the facility changed hands and became the Palomar Heights Care Center.

Like old wine in a new bottle, Palomar Heights seems to have continued with the legacy begun by the facility under its former name. Last year, the nursing home received the very worst citation that the California Department of Health Services can give – the AA citation. That citation came after a 66-year-old resident at the nursing home was left alone on a patio smoking a cigarette, while he was connected to an oxygen machine. The fire that resulted burned the man for close to six minutes, singeing his face, arms, legs and torso. The man died, and the state ruled that nursing home neglect contributed to his death.

Now, this new elder neglect scandal threatens to be the final nail in the coffin. These nursing homes act as second homes for elders in our society, a place where they can live out their final years in dignity. What do they do with all the funding they receive if they can’t even make sure that their residents don’t leave the facility unsupervised? It is hard to imagine.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of nursing home abuse. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

When Mary Terry was moved from her home to a Florence hospital, the 62-year-old woman weighed less than 115 pounds, and her body was covered with bedsores. Hospital authorities later estimated she had not been fed in more than 30 days. The house she was living in was covered with human and rat feces, and reeked of urine and filth. Mary didn’t live long after being removed from her horrendous living conditions. She died in the hospital. At the time of her removal from her home, her son, Timothy Sims, and a nephew were caring for her. Both of them have been charged with elder abuse.

Now, a wrongful death lawsuit has been bought forth by Mary’s brother, Clarence Sims, against employees of the Department of Social Services. They claim that DSS workers who arrived at Mary’s home to provide care for her 82-year-old mother neglected to report the abuse and neglect that was taking place.

The DSS has been responsible for Mary’s care since 2001. Tim took over as his mother’s caregiver in 2005. The DSS failed to stop him, even after it was known that he had a history of alcoholism, battery and domestic violence.

The lawsuit names DSS caretaker Lisa Gibson and social worker Ada Antoine who were assigned to Mary’s case. They allege that the women, who visited the home at least 11 times in the 75 days before Mary was taken to the hospital, neglected to report that Mary was in a state of near death. Her son and nephew were effectively starving her. The lawsuit outlined a number of points that reveal the pitiful state of Mary Terry’s last hours. The stoves were not operational, and there was feces and filth all over the place. The DSS has stoutly denied any allegations of neglect.

Laws that relate to reporting when a case of abuse and neglect is taking place are there to provide extra protection for the vulnerable, like the elderly. When Mary Terry’s own son was failing in his duty to protect her, it fell upon the DSS to remain vigilant and look into any chances of possible elder abuse taking place under its own nose. How is it possible that the two caregivers could visit Terry’s home and care for her old mother, and never once notice Terry’s state? If the abuse had been reported on the first visit to the house, there are chances that Terry could have been removed from that offensive house, and put in a hospital as quickly as possible. She could have made a full recovery. When she was a bought to hospital, she was half dead.

The DSS has much to answer for, and frankly, we don’t think the answers are going to hold much of water.

If you have a loved one who has been the victim of nursing home abuse, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury attorney. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

Patients at Texas’ psychiatric hospitals face a grim reality, and an even grimmer future. Tales of abuse have been rampant across the state’s 10 mental hospitals, and as many as 70 employees have been fired in the last three years alone for abuse of mental patients. Apart from the ones who have had their services terminated, hundreds more have been suspended for abuse of patients. Many of the abuse cases are sexual in nature, while overmedication, restraining with padlocks and plain simple negligence are also widely reported.

According to an analysis by Dallas Morning News, abuse has even taken on the form of violence and beatings. One patient was manhandled by an employee, and dragged by his hair and feet. Another female patient was sexually abused by an employee.

The state’s mental hospitals, as well as the juvenile centers and disabled people’s homes, are all suffering from a malaise that covers all forms of neglect and abuse. As expected, there are plenty of fingers pointing in all directions, most notably the lack of funds. State run hospitals have suffered from chronic lack of funding, insiders say, resulting in the pathetic state of the hospitals. Sadly, the first persons who get dropped from the priority list when cash begins to get tight are the mental patients and the disabled, the most vulnerable of our society. It’s a cold reality.

The abuse at the state’s mental hospitals is even more disturbing than abuse of disabled persons or juveniles because these people very rarely have a strong support system of friends and family. They are usually not in very close contact with their family. Their mental status also makes it hard for them to remain on the radar of public consciousness. Their families have in many cases given up on them because of the chronic cycles of homelessness and incarceration that these people experience. Left to the mercy of the staff, many patients are coming to the stark realization that life within these walls is far from safe and comforting. It’s in many ways crueler than the realities outside.

Mental health advocates complain of the lack of funding. Over the past few years, at least $100 million in mental health funding has been cut in the state budget.

The parents of Jason Evans are looking for reasons for their son’s death, since lack of funding is a poor excuse. The 34-year-old bipolar disorder patient was found dead at a hospital a few days after he checked himself in. The cause of death is supposedly “natural,” but his parents suspect an intentional overdose on the part of the staff.

Lack of funding is a problem across health institutions in many parts of the country, but we cannot use that as an excuse to neglect and abuse mental patients. Because workers are over stressed or over burdened is no reason to take their frustrations out on helpless patients. Many of these incidents border on torture – one patient was hit on the head with a clipboard, and then kicked repeatedly. Another was tackled to the floor and had injuries to his face. We would cause a hue and cry over the treatment of animals in this fashion – it would be shameful if we maintained a frozen silence when human beings are treated this way.

If you have a loved one who has been the victim of abuse or neglect at an assisted living facility, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury attorney. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

It took extreme negligence to cause Donald Lee Bass’ death outside the Peachtree Manor assisted living facility in Winnsboro, South Carolina. This was a man who, despite having lost a leg and being confined to a wheelchair in his later years, was full of life. He had been a professional pool player, and he lifted weights. He planned on living life to the fullest, except that he hadn’t reckoned with staff at the residential home that he was staying at to be so grossly negligent.

On that fateful day in 2006, Bass’ nephew received a call from the facility that his uncle had been hit by a truck outside the facility, and he had died. It’s easy to imagine the utter confusion the family felt. What was their uncle, a wheelchair confined invalid, doing outside, and where were staff on that shift who were supposed to take care of him? Bass’ nephew, Joseph, asked the staff this question, but was given a cryptic “we can’t really say at this point” answer.

The answer, as it turns out, was shocking. Apparently one of the other residents, a man with psychological problems that the facility was aware of, had pushed Bass out into the highway. He had watched quietly as a truck hit the helpless man in the wheelchair causing his death.

Shocking as it was that another resident had done this to Bass, the family still sought answers to that same question - where were the staff members? How was a mentally unstable man able to push a wheelchair-confined Bass out on the highway without a single staff member being around to stop him?

WIS News 10 has covered the disturbing events at Peachtree Manor for a while now, and when you go through accounts of the events at the facility, you begin to feel a sense of dread for the other members living at the facility, and the outlook for them. According to the report, employers were constantly found sleeping on the job, and as they slept, residents swallowed razor blades and put themselves through other kinds of harm.

Not that you can blame any of the residents for wanting to mutilate themselves. Conditions at the facility, the report says, are horrendous to say the least. One resident apparently broke a window trying to flee what she called the inhumane treatment of the staff. Residents don’t get their medication on time, and are not fed well. The environment is depressing, and the facility constantly reeks of urine and feces. The expose uncovered at least 30 complaints from residents who were desperate to leave the facility.

For now, the facility‘s license has been revoked. Joseph Bass is currently looking at the possibility of suing the facility. Peachtree Manor’s owner, David Donnelly, insists that the whole world, including residents at his own facility, is lying.

It’s the sign of a society in decline if we allow such atrocities against its most vulnerable members to go unchecked. All people ask for when they enter an assisted living facility is to be able to live out their days in peace and dignity. At Peachtree Manor, it seems that is a little too much to ask for.

If you have a loved one who has been the victim of nursing home abuse, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

A grand jury has indicted nursing home rapist John Riems on 10 charges of abuse against patients in his care.

John Riems was a nurse at the Concord Care and Rehabilitation Center in Sandusky. The story of his abuse broke when a friend of one of his victims alerted the authorities. The victim was a 55-year-old blind and paralyzed man, and like many of Riems’ victims was unable to speak. And herein lies the despicability of his acts and the hindrance to making a case against him. With most of his victims either dead or unable to speak because of physical conditions like strokes, there’s no way to get witness testimony, making the case against Riems’ very hard indeed.

What’s worse is that Riems confessed to prosecutors that he had been abusing patients in his care for over twenty years! There is obviously a trail of abuse this man has left, and now investigators are trying to piece together the sordid tale which, it is now clear, has more victims.

Reims has admitted to at least 100 more such victims, and the number could be higher. He has worked at 13 facilities since the eighties, and now investigators are trying to locate other possible victims. If the patients there have the same health conditions as those at Concord Care that Reims preyed on, that is, unable to speak or express themselves, there will be more hard work for investigators.

When news of Riems’ depravity and abuse broke out, the nursing home Concord Care was quick to disassociate itself with any responsibility for what Reims did. They were as shocked as everybody else, they claimed, and admitted that Riems had been charged with inappropriate touching of his patients.

Well, being shocked just isn’t good enough. When you don’t have a problem charging patients and their families exorbitant fees to look after them, there can be no excuse for not following the most stringent verification checks before hiring an employee who would have such intimate access to patients. This was a man with a history of abuse by his own admission. It stands to reason that there must have been someone at the facilities he served at before he came to Concord Care who could have alerted them to Reims’ character.

Staff at Concord Care has confirmed that Riems was brusque with patients and quite impatient at times. In one instance, he reportedly neglected to send one of his charges for his regular dialysis session. He was also fond of mocking patients at the facility, staff says.

What one doesn’t understand is that if this man displayed all these tendencies, why was no action taken against him and why was he allowed to be around patients who were so fragile?

Concord Care has much to answer for, and they’ll have a chance to provide answers very soon. The facility has been cited by the Ohio Department of Health for violations including pressure sores on a resident, improper use of physical restraints and improper hydration of a resident. The facility also failed to provide care to patients who are fed through naso-gastric tubes, and failed to meet other accepted standards of care for residents.

If you have a loved-one who has been the victim of nursing home neglect or abuse, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

When the 71-year-old unidentified woman was admitted to Pacific Coast Manor, a 99-bed skilled nursing facility, she was in a fighting spirit determined to beat the breast cancer that had spread to her spine. With no family members for support, the woman probably assumed that with the help of the skilled staff at the facility, she would be able to look cancer in the eye and tell it to take a walk. Staff members said she was determined to return home after her stint at a hospital rehab program.

That’s not exactly how it turned out, however.

Just three days after being admitted, the woman became combative, staff says. The doctor advised a fentanyl patch, and morphine for the pain. The fentanyl patch was placed on the woman on September 15. The next day, she was in a coma and responding only to pain. She died barely a day after the fentanyl patch was placed.

According to investigators, fentanyl is a potent medication with a high potential for abuse. It should never be proscribed for someone intolerant to opiate substances. The woman it now appears, was taking methadone tablets twice a day since she arrived at the facility, which alone should have been enough indication to staff that she was opiate intolerant.

Thankfully, the California Department of Public Health has jumped in swiftly to hold the facility accountable for the woman’s death. According to the San Jose Mercury News, Pacific Coast Manor has been slapped with a $100,000 fine and has been given a severe AA citation, the worst possible citation under state law. The verdict concluded that the woman received insufficient monitoring for her response to the medication.

This is far from a first-time incident for Pacific Coast Manor. Two years ago, it was found to be deficient in assessing residents, and in fact, investigations reported that this deficiency had the potential to harm residents.

It’s unfortunate that these findings had to be proven with the death of a frail and sick woman under their care.

If you have a family member that has suffered or has passed due to the negligence or ineptitude of an assisted-living facility, contact an experienced California personal injury lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

For 83-year-old Rita Kittower, the only thing that helped ease the pain of her husband’s loss was the knowledge that he died a peaceful death at the assisted living facility he had been housed in over the past year. Or at least that’s what she thought.

A few days after burying her spouse of 49 years, Rita received information that turned her world upside down – an anonymous caller told Rita her husband Elmore hadn’t died peacefully in his sleep, but had been beaten to death by a member of the staff at Silverado Senior Living in Calabasas, California, the facility where Elmore had been living. The attacker, the caller said, hit Elmore in the eye, and attempted to suffocate him with a towel.

At first too horrified to contemplate the truth, Rita then contacted the Los Angeles Sheriff Department who asked for permission to exhume her late husband’s body. On November 14, Elmore Kittower’s mortal remains were exhumed from his grave and taken to a coroner’s office for an autopsy. The results, according the Los Angeles Times which carried this report, were inconclusive, but sources say that there did appear to be some trauma to his body that indicated some form of assault.

Already, detectives have been investigating the case and have even arrested one suspect, a staff member at the nursing home who had been suspended from duty recently. Silverado Senior Living denies any charges of wrong doing by staff members and said that the suspect had been terminated for some other offence and not for abusing assisted living residents.

Although it might still be too early to draw any conclusions from the tests, one hopes that the truth will come out quickly, so Rita Kittower can finally lay her husband to rest.

If you have a loved-one who has been the victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, contact the California personal injury lawyers at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.