Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

A California nursing home has been ordered to pay the largest fines allowed under state law following the death of a patient. For us here in Oregon this nursing home neglect and abuse case, though it comes from out-of-state, serves as a powerful reminder of the important role courts and regulators play in keeping watch over those charged with helping vulnerable seniors.

According to a report in the Orange County Register the case stems from the death of 93-year-old Donald Bodkin, who, the paper reports, “died in September from an undetected ruptured intestinal ulcer and infection.” Bodkin was not a long-time resident of the home but, rather, had checked in only a few weeks earlier for a temporary stay while recovering from hip surgery.

The paper reports that the state believes the home did not assess Bodkin’s condition properly, failed to tell his doctor once the symptoms became obvious and ignored warnings from both family members and an occupational therapist “that he was lethargic and in pain.” The nursing home has expressed regret for Bodkin’s death but said in a statement that it does not believe the actions of any of its staff “caused or contributed to this unfortunate event.”

This tragedy is a reminder of how important it is for state governments to supervise nursing homes and for our courts to enforce the rules and regulations government puts in place to protect our seniors. When Oregon nursing home neglect or abuse take place and the people charged with helping our loved ones through their final years fail to perform their jobs, an Oregon nursing home abuse attorney can help families and other loved ones win justice.

Orange County Register: Nursing Home fined in Patient Death

A circuit court ruling issued at the end of last month has the potential to offer significant protections for Oregon families considering wrongful death claims related to Oregon nursing home abuse and neglect or medical malpractice.

The case, formally known as Bradley v Sebelius, turns on a wrongful death claim in Florida. After Charles Burke died in early 2005 his ten surviving children sued the nursing home where he had lived prior to his final hospitalization claiming that the nursing home’s negligence led to the infection that eventually killed their father. The case was settled out-of-court without reaching trial, with the nursing home’s insurer agreeing to a claim of $52,500 – the maximum that the home’s liability insurance policy would allow.

At that point, however, Medicare stepped in demanding that around half of the total settlement be remitted to the government to reimburse Medicare’s expenditures for Burke’s hospital care prior to his death. A probate court ruled against Medicare, deciding that it was entitled only to a share of the wrongful death settlement and awarding the government $787.50. Medicare took the case to federal court and won at the district level. That decision has now been reversed by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 11th Circuit covers Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Technically speaking the ruling is binding only in those states. Federal courts throughout the country, however, are bound to take notice of it – and the ruling offers Oregon wrongful death attorneys a powerful precedent they may cite when arguing similar Oregon nursing home abuse and neglect claims in our own courts.

Situations like this are examples of exactly the sort of complex legal issues that a Portland wrongful death attorney can sort through on clients’ behalf. If you have been forced to surrender a substantial portion of a Portland wrongful death settlement to Medicare, Medicaid or another government agency to reimburse costs they incurred while your loved one was still alive the government’s math is not the only thing that counts. A Portland wrongful death attorney can examine your case and advise on the best way to protect your rights.

Link to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals opinion: Bradley v Sebelius

Three years after Ruby Larson wandered away from the assisted care home in which she was living, a Multnomah County jury this week awarded her family $875,000 in damages, finding Oregon negligence in the way the facility cared for her.

According to a report in The Oregonian, Larson’s family contended that the retirement community and its parent corporation were guilty of Oregon nursing home abuse and neglect, contending that the facility “failed to provide adequate care for Larson and prevent her from repeatedly wandering off.” The defendants replied that Larson was “a fiery, spirited and sometimes stubborn woman” who, in the words of the company’s attorney, “lived the life she wanted to live.” Apparently, that included regularly wandering away from the facility – including three times in the month before her final disappearance.

Though she disappeared in 2007, Larson’s body was not found until May of this year. According to the newspaper, a 4 year old searching for a lost cat discovered her skeleton, still clothed except for her shoes, in some bushes only a quarter-mile from the retirement facility.

Such cases of Oregon nursing home neglect cry out for justice. It is not sufficient for management to claim that dealing with elderly patients suffering from dementia is difficult – if they accept responsibility for our loved ones then they also assume obligations for their safety and well-being.

If you believe a loved one has suffered because of negligent Oregon nursing home care, it is important to make contact with a Portland personal injury attorney with specialized knowledge of Oregon nursing home abuse, neglect and wrongful death law. When you entrust the care of an elderly relative to a retirement or assisted living facility you have every right to expect that your loved one will receive the respect and professional treatment they deserve. When the unthinkable happens and our seniors are not treated properly an Oregon eldercare abuse and neglect lawyer can help you decide on your best course of action.

The Oregonian: Jury awards $821,000 to family of 74-year-old who wandered away from Molalla care facility and died

The death last year of a patient at the Oregon State Hospital has led to reprimands for five hospital employees. According to the Salem Statesman-Journal a state official and “hospital leaders” decided that reprimands were a sufficient punishment for the five employees. The legal system, however, has yet to have its final say on this serious situation. Oregon wrongful death and Oregon medical neglect lawsuits remain a possibility.

The reprimands were occasioned by the death last fall of 42 year old Moises Perez. Perez died of coronary artery disease, according to The Oregonian, but “lay in his room across from the nurses station for several hours before his body was discovered.”

The paper reports that three nurses and two aides have now had letters of reprimand placed in their personnel files following an investigation by the OSH’s human resources department. The reprimands are not accompanied by any loss of pay or suspension from work. The Oregonian reports that one of the nurses failed to make monthly nursing summaries on Perez’s chart from June until the patient’s death in October. One of the aides was disciplined for failing to alert nurses when Perez did not “show up to take his 3:30pm medications” on the day of his death. A separate investigation of a doctor, being carried out by a medical board, is still under way.

Patients in a mental hospital are particularly dependent on hospital staff for their care and well-being. The issuance of the reprimands causes one to ask what would have to happen at OSH – and how widely the system might have to fail – for more serious disciplinary action to be meted out to hospital staff?

Beyond the obvious question of whether Perez’s demise constitutes an Oregon wrongful death, it is also essential to consider whether this case also fits the definition of Oregon medical neglect. Such questions involve complex interpretations of law, and are best addressed with the help of a Portland medical neglect lawyer with extensive experience in the laws relating to Oregon wrongful death. Professional sanctions are important but cannot, by themselves, make up for the loss of a loved one through Oregon hospital negligence. An Oregon wrongful death attorney can be a bereaved family’s most important ally when they approach the courts seeking justice in the wake of a tragedy such as this.

The Oregonian: Five Oregon State Hospital employees reprimanded for care to patient Moises Perez, who died last fall

Salem Statesman-Journal: Oregon State Hospital reprimands five in patient’s death

A fascinating column in the November issue of Consumer Reports magazine offered a frank call for more openness in medicine. Dr. John Santa, an internist who also directs the magazine’s Health Ratings Center, wrote: “Until our health care system gets its act together, patients and their families will have to be constructively assertive to get to the bottom of any mishaps.”

The reason for this, Dr. Santa writes, is that American medicine has developed a professional culture that is very reluctant to acknowledge error. Doctors and nurses fear professional consequences. Administrators, in turn, fear that publicizing mistakes will make medical professionals even more reluctant to report them. Ultimately, the real losers, he writes, are patients, who “deserve to know what happened and that the doctor or hospital is trying to rectify the situation.”

Dr. Santa also offers a series of helpful, common sense suggestions for patients, among them: “Enlist family members to keep track of your care” and “Know what medicine you’re taking and tell your doctor or nurse if you don’t recognize what you’re given.”

Though Dr. Santa does not mention it, it is also true that the legal system has emerged as a check on the sort of medical malfeasance about which he writes. Here in Oregon, a Portland medical malpractice lawyer can offer patients and their families advice on legal remedies they may have after something has gone wrong during a hospital stay. Medical malpractice suits are rarely pleasant, and often come in the wake of great personal pain and suffering on the part of patients and their families. An experienced and compassionate Oregon wrongful death and medical malpractice attorney can, however, be an important resource when other’s mistakes have thrown your family into despair.

The family of a 75-year-old nursing home resident is suing Pheasant Pointe Retirement and Assisted Living Residence and Spectrum Retirement Communities of Oregon for her wrongful death. Ruby Larson wandered away from the Molalla nursing home on July 23, 2007. She was never to be seen again. Last year, a judge declared the Alzheimer's patient legally dead.

The Oregon wrongful death lawsuit, filed on behalf of one of the elderly woman’s sons, contends that Larson had wandered off on more than one occasion yet staff members failed to prevent the final incident from happening. The plaintiff is seeking $2 million.

Oregon Nursing Home Negligence
Elderly and sick persons stay at Oregon nursing homes because they need help taking care of themselves. Some residents, because they suffer from dementia, Alzheimer’s, or another kind of ailment that impairs their memory, have a tendency to wander off and then forget where they are.

It is important that an Oregon assisted facility properly supervises all residents, while paying special attention to patients who are an elopement risk. A nursing home should also make sure that the facility and premises are properly secured so that residents aren’t able to just leave without anyone’s knowledge by walking out front or side doors or jumping out of windows (this can cause injury, especially if the window is located above the ground floor).

Nursing home residents that wander off a premise could end up getting hit by a car, freezing to death, getting hurt in a slip and fall accident, or becoming the victim of a violent crime. Injuries sustained from wandering off may even result in Oregon wrongful death.

Reports of nursing home patients attempting to wander off is not uncommon and Portland, Oregon nursing homes and other assisted living facilities must make sure that this doesn’t keep happening.

Family of missing Ore. patient files suit, 2news.tv/AP, August 4, 2009

Alzheimer's: Understand and control wandering, MayoClinic.com

Related Web Resources:
Preventing Elopement, Repertoiremag.com

Nursing Homes in Oregon

Continue reading "Oregon Wrongful Death Lawsuit Alleges that Nursing Home Negligence Allowed Alzheimer’s Patient to Wander Off" »

In Oregon, two former Gateway Care and Retirement Center workers were found guilty of felony criminal mistreatment related to the death of a 60-year-old nursing home patient who was dropped while being transferred from a wheelchair to her bed. Linda Ober broke her legs in the fall, which took place at the nursing home on October 29, 2006. She died five days later after she was finally taken to a local hospital. Ober’s daughter, Sarah Cunningham, has already filed a $3.5 million wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home.

The two former Gateway Care employees are Suzanne Ruddell and Cammy Elaine Nye. Ruddell, a former supervisor, reportedly failed to get Ober medical help even though she kept crying out and staff members kept saying that something was wrong with her. Ruddell also told a nurse not to complete the incident report about the fall and waited to order an X-ray for Ober until after she was told that the patient had a bone sticking out at a weird angle. Ruddell then went to the beach.

Nye, a certified nursing assistant, was found guilty of misdemeanor reckless endangerment for carelessly placing Ober in a sling right before she fell. Another nurse, Verna Colleen Heide, has already pleaded guilty to one count of criminal mistreatment. It was Heide who determined that Ober’s condition was fine after the fall.

Wrongful Death
Nursing homes and their workers are required to provided residents with proper care and supervision. When nursing home neglect, abuse, or failure to provide that care results in the death of a patient, the family of the deceased may be able to file an Oregon wrongful death claim against the home and its workers.

Cunningham’s Oregon wrongful lawsuit, filed in December 2007, alleges negligence and wrongful death. Cunningham says staff members told her mother that the pain was in her mind and the accident never occurred. Cunningham did not know her mother had been hurt until after she was notified of her death.

Gateway nursing home workers found guilty of criminal charges in death of 60-year-old patient who was dropped, The Oregonian, October 6, 2008

Closing arguments in Oregon nursing home death, KGW.com, October 6, 2008

Family Claims Wrongful Death In Nursing Home Lawsuit, KPTV.com, December 14, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Resource Center

Gateway Care and Retirement Center