Elder Law

Workers Ignore Nursing Home Alarm Leading To Death

By Levin & Perconti

A nursing home lawsuit was recently filed following the heartbreaking death of 87-year old Sylvia Ploszay in February, reports the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Clement Manor is a nursing home that also has some assisted-living apartments within it. Sylvia was living in one of the apartments when the accident occurred. She suffered a cut in a varicose vein and began to bleed. She needed quick emergency care. To get it, Sylvia pulled an emergency cord that was located in her unit to specifically help in situations like the one she faced. It was shortly at midnight when Sylvia summoned help. Unfortunately, it would not arrive quickly.

A nurse?s aide was supposed to be on duty to handle these emergencies. However, she ignored the alarm. When another resident heard the alarm and called the aide to ask if she was going to help, the aide replied that she was watching TV but would handle it. It seems that the nursing home staff member simply hung up after that call and returned to the TV. It wasn?t until 4:30 am, 4 hours later, that nursing staff members made it to Sylvia?s room. They found her in her bathroom?she had bled to death.

Besides the reckless disregarding of Sylvia need for emergency help, the lawsuit also alleges that the facility was short-staffed that night. With inadequate assistants available to help in situations where care was desperately needed, negligence by one aide was enough to lead to Sylvia?s death.

Our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti are saddened but not surprised by the lack of care exhibited by Clement Manor that led to Sylvia?s death. Our decades of legal experience have repeatedly exposed us to nursing homes that fail to provide the very basic emergency care that made residents chose to live in their facilities in the first place. If nursing home staff members are not responding to most important types of care?emergency pleas?than they are likely failing in other areas as well. This extreme negligence can never be tolerated, especially when vulnerable lives are on the line. Please contact a nursing home lawyer if you suspect any similar failings at a nursing home near you.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on September 05, 2010 (boomark / email).