Norfolk-Portsmouth Personal Injury Lawyer - Nursing Home & Elder Abuse

Sexual Assault in Nursing Home Highlights Need for Oversight

Rick Shapiro — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 12:59:00 GMT

An inexcusable act occurred at the Chesapeake Health and Rehabilitation Center. Mark S. Albright, a licensed nurse working at the facility on the 600 block of Kingsborough Square in Chesapeake, Virginia (VA) sexually assaulted a comatose woman.

A nursing assistant witnessed Albright place his mouth on the woman’s breast, but waited several minutes to report the incident, according to The Virginian-Pilot.

This is a disgusting, deplorable incident and Albrigt was rightly sentenced to 10 years in prison. Taking advantage of a woman in a debilitated state is horrendous.

Unfortunately, abuse in nursing homes is far too common in Virginia (VA). According to the National Center for Elder Abuse, during fiscal year 2002, Adult Protective Services received 11,306 reports of elder/adult abuse and maltreatment in Virginia (VA). Of these reports, 7,960 were substantiated.

As a personal injury lawyer who’s been practicing law for 20 years, I always get so frustrated when I hear about nursing home workers abusing patients. We are entrusting these people with the safety and well-being of our parents and grandparents. Many workers violate that trust.

Our firm wrote about the fact that three Virginia (VA) nursing homes were listed on the worst nursing homes in the country by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. It probably won’t be long before the Chesapeake Health and Rehabilitation Center make that list unless they take serious actions to overhaul their staff and implement stricter regulations.

Here’s a video describing some of the tell-tale signs of nursing home abuse.

Video

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm is based in Virginia (VA), near the NE North Carolina (NC) border and handles car,truck,railroad, and medical negligence cases and more. Our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as a pro bono public information service. Lawyers licensed in: VA, NC, SC, WV, DC, KY.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Rick Shapiro

Women Awarded $7.5 Million From Norfolk for Son Who Was Hit by City Truck

Jenny Albano — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:01:51 GMT

The city of Norfolk is awarding a woman $7.5 million because her son was hit by a truck which was driven by an employee of the city.

The circuit judge hearing the case must approve the settlement so the case is scheduled to go to trial next week. Council approval isn't necessary but the judge sought approval anyway.

Renee D. Wilson brought the lawsuit in January 2007. Wilson's attorney, Jack Drescher, said Travis Dalton was standing in the median on Brambleton Avenue near Posey Lane in December 2006 when he was struck by a city truck driven by city employee Theodore Goodman. Dalton suffered serious brain injuries. The lawsuit first named Goodman as a defendant. Wilson later added the city.

Dalton is now 19 years old, but can only has the brain capacity of an 11 year old. According to the lawsuit Dalton will never be able to work or support himself. He spent three months in the hospital after the accident and must return frequently for check-ups. Dalton had to have part of his skull removed because of the pressure from the swelling in his brain and his medical expenses cost over $329,000.

The city of Norfolk is arguing that it is not liable because the driver, Goodman, was traveling between two of the city's facilities. The prosecution states that Goodman could be held personally liable because he was driving and not performing tasks of his job.

Because the city is self-insured, it puts revenue each year into an account to pay legal settlements. Sources said the council was told Tuesday night that the fund will pay most, but not all, of the $7.5 million settlement. That means some money likely will have to be set aside to pay for the settlement in the next budget, which Williams is currently putting together.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jenny Albano

Nursing Homes Bow to Big Money

John Cooper — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 09:39:25 GMT

Authored by: John M. Cooper

A disturbing trend is emerging across the county regarding the quality of care and treatment that nursing home residents are receiving from nursing home operators. This trend involves the purchase, by wealthy investors, of numerous nursing homes. Upon acquiring these nursing homes as new investments the trend is for the quality of care provided to nursing home residents to fall dramatically. This has given rise to a steep increase in the number of medical negligence law suits being filed by injured nursing home residents or the families of those who have perished at the hands of inadequate care.

A recent article that appeared in the New York Times used the Habana Healthcare Center in Tampa Florida as an example. Habana Healthcare was struggling financially, when it was purchased by a large private investment firm as part of a 48 nursing home acquisition which occurred in 2002. The nursing home managers quickly cut costs and within months, the number of clinical registered nurses at this nursing home was half of what it had been a year earlier. The investors and operators were soon earning millions of dollars a year from their 48 nursing homes.

Residents faired less well. Over three years, 15 nursing home residents at Habana died from what their families contented was negligent care. Habana is one of thousands of nursing homes across the nation that large Wall Street investment companies have bought or have agreed to acquire in recent years. As such investors have acquired nursing homes, they have often reduced costs, increased profits and quickly re-sold facilities for significant gains.

But by many regulatory benchmarks, the residents at those nursing homes are worse off, on average, than they were under previous owners, according to an analysis by the New York Times of data collected by government agencies from 2000 to 2006.

Because of this kind of conduct, the frequency of nursing home medical malpractice cases has sky rocketed. Injured residents and the families of residents from nursing homes who have died are increasingly making these nursing homes stand accountable for their inadequate care in courts across the United States.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Nursing home and Elder Abuse.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by John Cooper

Medical Malpractice Lawyers for Injured People Need To Learn Simplicity

John Cooper — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 13:12:58 GMT

The lawyers in my law firm Hajek, Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis and Appleton exclusively handle injury and wrongful death cases and only do them on behalf of the injured people and families never the insurance companies.

We are always tying to continue our legal education to make sure to do the very best job possible in court in the complicated area of medical malpractice lawsuits. When I was at a convention recently of the American Association for Justice, the National Plaintiff's Lawyers' Group, I got a copy of an excellent book which describes a method of trying to keep the complicated subject of medical malpractice and surgical errors as simple as possible. The idea is to make clear to a judge and a jury so that the injured person wins their case. The book is called the Rules of the Road: A Plaintiff Lawyers Guide To Proving Liabilityby Rick Freidman and Patrick Malone.

Because medicine is so complex sometimes the lawyer helping a family whose loved one has been killed by an error in a hospital operating room may let the issues become so confusing that the insurance company wins the lawsuit. Confusion about the medical malpractice may mean the family does not get fair compensation for the wrongful death of their loved one. The "Rules" provides a method to help plaintiff' personal injury attorneys win more of these complicated, medical malpractice cases by keeping things clear and simple. For example, there is a common sense rule of surgery that the doctor should never cut any part of the patient's anatomy in the operating room without being sure what it is before he cuts it. This rule of surgery is so basic that every doctor and medical expert should agree to it. If the plaintiff's medical malpractice lawyer can show that the surgeon in fact failed to know what it was that he was cutting, then a strong pattern of medical malpractice can be shown.

Our law firm has seen many cases of surgical errors where the doctor has cut something in the plaintiff's body without confirming what he was cutting properly first. In these types of lawsuits, it is helpful for the attorney working for the injured person's family to show the medical mistake as simply as possible by establishing a clear rule that was violated, because complexity and confusion will only help the insurance defense lawyer to win the case if the judge or jury does not understand exactly what the doctor should have done. This technique keeps the jury focused on exactly what the doctor should have done and failed to do rather than worrying about such general legal terms as the reasonably prudent doctor standard which is too vague to really mean anything to the jury.

It is hard to summarize all of the great ideas in this super book in this short article. Suffice to say that by continuing out legal education and going to the best seminars offered by the Trial Lawyers' Associations in Virginia (VA), North Carolina (NC), and nationally, we are constantly trying to improve our skills in trying medical malpractice cases. I wish all lawyers trying these cases would do the same and perhaps improve the odds of winning against the medical malpractice insurers. However, I think that by our constantly striving to be the best medical malpractice lawyers in Tidewater, Virginia (VA) we show our clients that we are willing to invest the time and money to separate ourselves from other law firms by the level of our knowledge and skill.

For more information on this subject, please refer to our section on Medical Malpractice and Negligent Care.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by John Cooper

Nursing Home Abuse Becomes an Ever Growing Problem

John Cooper — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 13:00:28 GMT

According to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, by the year 2030, 8.9 million people will be 85 or older. This is double the amount of elderly today.

With this rise in population many will head to nursing homes for special care. However, a nursing shortage is sure to come with such an overwhelming increase in population. Neglect is the number one cause of nursing home abuse cases.

A national incidence study found that 551,011 elders over the age of 60 experienced abuse, neglect, and/or self-neglect in a one-year period. Without special attention, your loved one may experience problems such as bed sores, malnutrition, weight loss, dehydration, pneumonia, and serious blood born infections. All of these can lead to a premature death for anyone.

Our firm, Hajek, Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis and Appleton, is happy to help you or a family member to see if you have a case related to possible nursing home neglect or abuse. The insurance companies for the nursing homes fight these lawsuits and claims vigorously. It is critical to have an attorney on your side to balance the scales of justice in these nursing home files.

For more information on this subject matter, please refer to our section on Medical Malpractice.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by John Cooper

Accidental Falls-A Major Risk in Nursing Homes

John Cooper — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:36:17 GMT

According to a published report in the Washington Times on November 17, 2006, the leading cause of injury deaths for people over 65 is a fall.

In 2003, over 13,000 seniors died from falling according to a study by the United States Centers for Disease Control. Older men are more likely than older women to die from a tumble because they are typically more frail.

The population of people over 65 in nursing homes was over a million and a half in 2003. As many as 3 out of 4 residents of nursing homes will fall each year, some more than once. 1,800 people in U.S. nursing homes will die from the accidental falls that occur. As much as 1 out of 5 nursing home falls result in serious injuries. Obviously, given these significant dangers to nursing home residents, the operators of these homes must use extra caution to try to limit the number of falls. Changes can be made in the nursing home environment to make it easier for people to move around safely like adding more grab bars and handrails and adjusting the height of beds and toilet seats.

The staff in nursing homes has to be ready to properly assess patients for fall risks, including their medication and their underlying medical conditions. As many of the nursing homes in the U.S. and Virginia (VA) are squeezed financially by the corporations which own these facilities, fall prevention may not get the constant vigilance it requires. Unfortunately, many nursing homes are understaffed and under funded, which makes the risks of accidental injury like falls greater. If your parent or loved one has been the victim of nursing home neglect or negligence resulting in death or serious injury, please contact a competent lawyer to look into the matter. You may not only be helping your own family, but also preventing future mishaps to other seniors.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by John Cooper