On behalf of Jeff Antin of Antin, Ehrlich & Epstein, LLP, Attorneys at Law posted in Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect on Thursday, January 24, 2013.
Many ailments affect the elderly such as Alzheimer’s, forms of dementia, strokes and other medical conditions that prevent prevent from being able to care adequately for themselves. This can be trying for many families in Manhattan, generating discussions of whether the afflicted family member would receive better care in a nursing home. Unfortunately, the act of moving a loved one into a nursing home does not guarantee that they will receive the best care and could actually expose them to nursing home abuse.
One state began receiving complaints that a patient was being abused at a nursing home in 2007; the allegations claimed a patient was being forcibly injected with a psychotropic drug. These complaints led to an investigation and the state’s justice department filed charges against the nursing home director and other people. The investigation revealed that the director ordered psychotropic medication for 23 of the home’s residents in order to keep them under control.
Now the former director has been given a prison term of three years in a state facility for her negligent behavior, which contributed to the deaths of three of the patients. The overmedication that was administered to the patients caused adverse physical reactions in each of them, according to the authorities. The state’s attorney general called the director’s actions malicious and dangerous. Apparently patients who caused any kind of disturbance or who made complaints about their conditions were given the drugs at the director’s order.
While three years may not seem a lot to the families of the victims, they do have the option to seek further justice against the nursing home director via a lawsuit.
Source: Visalia Times-Delta, “Calif. woman gets prison for nursing home death,” Jan. 10, 2013