Elder Law

Nursing Home Residents Tested After Disease Outbreak Scare

By Levin & Perconti

A nursing home is testing all of its residents for a potentially deadly disease following a contamination of the facility?s water supply reports Go Erie News.

The Golden Living Center-Walnut Creek admitted last week that Legionella bacteria was found in its water supply. One resident has already been positively diagnosed with the Legionnaires? disease and several other residents have already shown symptoms?they are being monitored. The rest of the patients of the facility are also being tested to ensure that they did not also fall victim.

The nursing home is currently conducting a sweep of the facility?s water supply in an effort to cleanse the problem away. A company was hired to flush a disinfectant through the pipes. Once that occurs, the next step in handling the issue is installing a copper-silver ionization system to ensure that the bacteria does not return to the facility.

The Center for Disease Control explains that Legionnaires? disease first appeared in the mid-1970s when a strange outbreak affected 250 patients, ultimately killing 34 of them. The bacteria may incubate in patients for up to two weeks before symptoms appear. As the bacteria advances, it causes problems in the nervous system as well as the gastrointestinal tract. It is most damaging in those with weakened immune systems, like the elderly.

Much like hospitals, nursing homes are often centers were disease and infection run rampant among individuals who are particularly susceptible to health problems. Because of that our Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti are well aware of the precautions that all facilities must take to ensure that their residents remain protected. In most cases where these and similar problems occur, nursing home officials claim that the error was an isolated incident that could not have been avoided. However, with some investigation it often becomes clear that the incident should in fact have been stopped if only employees had taken more reasonable precautions or abiding by nursing home laws.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on September 28, 2010 (boomark / email).