Elder Law

Videotape Reveals Abuse at Nursing Home

By Levin & Perconti

The family of an 84-year-old resident of a nursing home hid a video camera in the woman?s room after they discovered dozens of bruises all over her body and didn?t get satisfactory answers from the staff. The videotape shows nursing assistants physically abusing and taunting the woman and failing to feed and clean her. The state is conducting a criminal investigation, and the facility has received the most serious citations that state nursing home inspectors can give. After the criminal investigation began in September, further investigation revealed ?injuries of unknown origin? on 17 residents who were cognitively impaired. The family aimed a hidden camera at her bed without the nursing home?s knowledge because they were desperate to know the truth. The inspector general?s office issued a citation and determined that the nursing home failed to adequately investigate the injuries on the 17 patients. A review of the videotape shows that the nursing home demonstrated actual incidents of physical abuse and neglect by the staff. They showed staff pulling a resident out of bed by her wrists and neck and then roughly moving the resident from side to side. This type of elderly abuse is all to common in nursing homes and must be properly corrected. To read the full story, click here.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on November 30, 2008 (boomark / email).