Elder Law

Nursing Home Staff Leaves Resident With Broken Leg Untreated

By Levin & Perconti

The Madison-St. Clair Record reports on troubling new allegations of nursing home abuse and neglect at the The Lincoln Home, a facility in Bellville, IL. A lawsuit was recently filed against the nursing home and the company responsible for overseeing the day-to-day activities of the facility, Weiss Management. The suit alleges that one resident, an East St. Louis woman, broke her leg multiples times but staff members failed to provide her any medical relief.

Earlier this year the victim was being repositioned on her bed by staff members. The employees were attempting to turn the resident onto her right side in bed. In the middle of the move, at least three employees at the facility heard loud popping sounds and saw the resident reach for her leg in pain and cry out. Amazingly, even after the obvious sign of problems, no members of the staff contacted her doctor or anyone else to provide the victim with help. They left her suffering in bed alone.

The popping sound ultimately turned out to be caused by the fracturing of her femur and knee during the repositioning.

Five hours after the accident, the victim?s son went to visit. Her mother remained moaning and groaning in pain, but had not received any treatment at all for her severely broken bones. The resident was in too much pain to go to her kidney dialysis treatment the next day because of the pain. She still continued to complain about her leg to Lincoln Home staff members to no avail. They simply prescribed her pain medication and noted that it had no effect.

She was eventually brought to the hospital the next day where the multiple leg fractures were discovered.

Our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti spend each day fighting for nursing home victims who seem to be forgotten by the very people on whom they depend the most. All too often treatment at these facilities is robotic, unresponsive, and lacking when needed. We cannot have nursing home employees who simply ?go through the motions? and fail to recognize residents suffering for hours in bed with complicated fractures. Steps must be taken to hold those responsible accountable for the mistake and ensure that no other resident falls victim.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on October 30, 2010 (boomark / email).