We’ve been following the horrendous and harrowing issues surrounding <"https://www.yourlawyer.com/practice_areas/nursing_home_negligence">nursing home abuse for some time now. Sadly, in the face of mounting reports of such abuse, we find ourselves writing about yet another case making headlines.
The NewsObserver has said that regulators in North Carolina State issued a recommendation for $20,000 in penalties against Britthaven of Chapel Hill nursing home. There, a former nurse is accused of patient abuse related to morphine overdoses and, most seriously, murder.
The fine was recommended by the state Department of Health and Human Services and made to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; $20,000 represents the federal maximum the two centers can legally fine the facility for the violations that occurred over the course of two days in February, according to investigators, wrote the NewsObserver.
The violations are connected to the alleged activities that occurred in February by Angela Almore. Almore, said the NewsObserver is a former registered nurse at the facility who was charged with second-degree murder and patient-abuse surrounding Rachel Holliday’s, 84, death. Injuries involving morphine and six other patients are also involved, wrote the News Observer.
According to a medical examiner, Holliday died of pneumonia from asphyxiation; the morphine levels in her body were believed to have contributed to her death, said the News Observer. Of note, none of the patients were prescribed the potent pain reliever.
Meanwhile, the facility has to answer to other allegations including civil malpractice suits following significant injuries to two other, unrelated patients, added the News Observer.
