San Francisco Injury Attorney Comments on Murder and Abuse in Nursing Homes

Just the other day, we brought up the subjuct of Nursing home abuse as it pertained to an incident, and today we have different incident to discuss. According to newsobserver.com, Britthaven, a North Carolina nursing home, faces charges in civil malpractice lawsuits related to serious injuries of two residents, and a nurse at the home faces murder charges in the morphine related death of her patient. According to the complaint in one of suits, Dr. Marion Orlowski, a former professor of pharmacology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and previous nominee for a Nobel Prize in 2004 for his pioneering drug treatment for blood-plasma cancer, was found on the floor of his room with a hip fracture and other serious injuries. The suit accuses the nursing home of negligence, which includes failure to monitor Mr. Orlowski’s dementia and not providing a bed with side rails. The nurse accused of murder faced charges of second-degree murder and patient abuse related to the death of a patient and the morphine-induced injuries of six other residents.
Last year, Britthaven was ordered to pay $216,400 in fines because it was out of compliance with Medicare requirement. Those penalties stemmed from the case of Mary Lou Barthazon, a 95-year old who broke thigh bones, when a nursing assistant dropped her while trying to lift her from a chair to her bed. The nursing home’s lawyer had tried to dismiss the lawsuit, denying that they had a duty to supervise or control the clinical care, treatment or judgment of any healthcare provider. Their motion to dismiss also denied that either state or federal nursing home standards, policies, regulations or standards of participation establish the standards of the health care applicable to the nursing home. The motion also states that even if the staff were negligent, the alleged but denied negligence was not a proximate cause of any injury or damage to Barthazon. Here at the Brod Law Firm we find this type flagrant disregard of elders’ rights by the nursing home, as well their denial, truly unconscionable. If you have question regarding elder rights and the laws surrounding nursing home, please contact our firm. Or if you would like to discuss a potential elder abuse case, please call to set up a free consultation.