Fighting For The Elderly, Vulnerable and Injured.

Nursing Home Claims That Woman Died After Her Ventilator “Malfunctioned”

On Behalf of | Aug 4, 2014 | Blog, Elder Abuse, News, Nursing home Abuse, Nursing Home Neglect

In the latest nursing home death case, the Attorney General’s Office and the State Department of Health are investigating the death of a 71 year old woman in the ventilator unit at Medford Nursing Home where employees are already facing criminal charges in the death of another resident in the same unit. The spokesman for the nursing home claims that this second woman died after her ventilator “mechanically malfunctioned” and she was unable to breathe. The ventilator alarms went off, so the question will be whether the employees quickly and appropriately responded to the alarms going off on the ventilator.

This same nursing home is already facing a criminal investigation for a similar incident where another resident died because she was not attached to her ventilator and employees allegedly disregarded alarms alerting them that she was not getting sufficient oxygen. The Attorney General’s Office claims that the nursing home falsified business records related to the first death. This same nursing home is also the subject of a separate legal case filed by the Attorney General’s Office alleging that the owners took $60 million from the facility by paying themselves salaries and profits and by funneling Medicaid funds to family run charities while cutting costs that would affect patient care.

Unfortunately, falsification of records is becoming a real issue in the nursing home industry. Day after day facilities block families efforts to obtain copies of the facility chart. This type of conduct and delay affords nursing homes the opportunity to falsify records. This should be a call to action for state agencies to vigorously investigate complaints of facilities failing to timely provide health records to their residents and their family members and to take enforcement action to stop nursing homes from covering up their misdeeds.

At York Law Firm, we are dedicated to representing elders and dependent adults who have been injured, neglected or abused. If you or your loved one has been the victim of abuse at a skilled nursing facility, hospital or assisted living facility, please contact our team at York Law Firm at 916-643-2200 so that we can investigate your case.

If you would like to read more about this latest incident of alleged nursing home ventilator “malfunction” leading to another death of a nursing home resident, please visit http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-attorney-general-health-department-probing-another-woman-s-death-at-medford-nursing-home-1.8938961

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