Another nursing home is facing an abuse lawsuit over complaints of alleged negligence. The lawsuit was filed by national law firm, Parker Waichman LLP, on July 5th in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Bronx (Index No. 305738/2012). Parker Waichman LLP filed the suit on behalf of a woman admitted […]
Another nursing home is facing an abuse lawsuit over complaints of alleged negligence. The lawsuit was filed by national law firm, Parker Waichman LLP, on July 5th in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Bronx (Index No. 305738/2012).
Parker Waichman LLP filed the suit on behalf of a woman admitted to Concourse Rehabilitation & Nursing Center, Inc. in the Bronx, New York. During her residency at the facility, the woman suffered from necrotizing fasciitis and required debridement surgery to remove infected tissue. The lawsuit alleges that the woman’s injuries are a direct result of nursing home negligence in which the staff failed to properly maintain the woman’s feeding tube and clean the feeding tube site area.
According to the complaint, the woman was admitted to Concourse Rehabilitation & Nursing Center in June 2006; her feeding tube was not properly cared for, which led to necrotizing fasciitis, also known as flesh-eating bacteria syndrome, last April.
Brett Leitner, a Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect attorney at Parker Waichman, emphasized the importance of diligence when caring for nursing home residents on feeding tubes. “Nursing homes must be extra vigilant when caring for residents with feeding tubes. Staff must clean the skin surrounding the percutaneous endoscopic gastronomy (PEG) tube site on a daily basis to prevent infection. It is also crucial that they check the placement of the tube to make sure it has not become dislodged or blocked. If the feeding tube becomes dislodged, food contents can enter the abdominal wall area, causing massive infection.”
The woman suffered from a 40 cm by 20 cm (roughly 15 by 8 inches) necrotic lesion containing three liters of fluid. The complaint states that the wound extended to all of the abdominal wall’s layers. The lawsuit attributes these injuries, as well as subsequent complications, to neglect on the part of the nursing home. Among other things, the suit alleges incurred medical expenses, disfigurement, disability, pain and suffering, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment of life.
This is not the first time Parker Waichman LLP, has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a nursing home resident. Most recently, Parker Waichman filed a lawsuit on behalf of the estate of a New York woman who died, allegedly due to the negligence of Our Lady of Consolation Geriatric Care Center, located in West Islip, New York. The complaint was filed on March 30th in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York (Index No. 151438/12). That complaint alleges that the now-deceased woman was admitted to the facility from December 2008 to May 2011. On May 16th, she suffered a fall, which fractured her left tibia and fibula. The lawsuit alleges that the fall was due to the nursing home’s negligence and the impact from these lower limb injuries led to complications that caused the woman’s death on May 22nd, 2011.
“One of the largest causes of potentially preventable hospital emergency room visits made by nursing home residents is injury due to a fall,” said Brett Leitner regarding this case. “This is all the more reason that nursing homes must be vigilant about keeping the facility free of dangerous conditions that might cause an elderly patient to slip or trip and fall, and must provide proper safety devices, supervision, and interventions to prevent falls from occurring.”
We recently wrote that Parker Waichman LLP filed a lawsuit on behalf of the estate of a Nassau County, New York, woman who died, allegedly, as a result of nursing home negligence on the part of the Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation. That center is located in Woodbury, New York and the complaint states that, while at the facility, the woman developed numerous decubitus ulcers, skin breakdown, infections, malnutrition, dehydration, and other injuries.
Prior to that, Parker Waichman LLP filed another nursing home neglect lawsuit against Grandell Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, of Long Island, New York. That lawsuit was filed on behalf of a Nassau County woman who suffered severe and permanent injuries from falls associated with negligence on the part of Grandell Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, which is also being charged with violations of the New York Public Health Law and negligence and gross negligence.
