New York Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

A certified nurse's aide and her supervisor have both lost their jobs after the aide was accused of beating a developmentally disabled resident at Lily Pond Nursing Home in Staten Island. The supervisor is accused of attempting to cover up the incident. The aide allegedly struck the resident several times in the head during her shift. An EMT witnessed the incident. According to the EMT, the supervisor advised the technician not to report the incident. Both the aide and the supervisor have surrendered their licenses, and both were conditionally discharged by the facility.

Federal and state regulations each mandate that accidents and incidents of abuse in nursing homes must be reported immediately. When coupled with the obvious prohibitions of abuse in these homes, it is no surprise that both the CNA and her supervisor were discharged by the facility. It remains to be seen whether the facility will be found responsible in a civil lawsuit, under the theory that the employer failed to properly train the aide and/or supervisor and/or failed to properly monitor the resident. Nonetheless, this is a disturbing instance of elder abuse, and a reminder that we must remain diligent in ensuring that our loved ones are free from abuse and receiving the level of care that they are mandated to receive from nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

Website Resource: Beating, cover-up at nursing center on Staten Island, www.silive.com , Frank Donnelly, November 29, 2011

Three employees at a Havertown, PA senior living facility were arrested recently and charged with assault and harassment stemming from their treatment of a 79 year old resident of the home. Evidence of the alleged abuse came to light after the resident's daughter placed a "nanny cam" in her room. The resident had previously complained to her daughter that staff at the facility were abusing her.

In addition to the criminal charges faced by the three workers, the family has sued the facility for negligence. In the suit, the family alleges that the facility was understaffed, the existing staff was improperly trained, and that the facility violated regulations for the proper maintenance of a senior living facility.

Website Resource: Delco couple sue senior living facility after alleged abuse caught on tape

Philadelphia Inquirer, John P. Martin, October 13, 2011

Two employees at a Staten Island long-term care facility, Lily Pond Nursing Home, recently lost their respective licenses after a 40 year-old resident was abused. Cynthia Ferry, a Certified Nurse Aide at the facility, was observed by an EMT striking the 40-year old resident in the head.

Josefina Bernabe, a Licensed Practical Nurse, worked the evening shift as a Nurse Supervisor on the night of the assault. She was advised by the EMT worker that he witnessed C.N.A. Ferry strike the resident on the head. After being informed of the incident, LPN Bernabe told the EMT worker not to report it to protect Ferry from getting in trouble.

Both employees were charged by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the New York State Attorney General's Office. As a result of the charges, both were forced to surrender their respective licenses (Ferry - C.N.A.; Bernabe - L.P.N.) with the condition the they refrain from engaging in any employment in the health care field.

Long-Term Care Community Coalition, Enforcement Actions, 3/16/11 - 6/15/11.

According to a New York State Department of Health Deficiency Survey released recently, a Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) at Fieldston Lodge Care Center in the Bronx broke an elderly resident's arm in January of this year. Reportedly, the CNA was attempting to perform incontinence care on the female resident. When the resident resisted, claiming that she did not need the care at that time, the CNA grabbed the resident by the arm and twisted, causing a fracture of the distal ulna joint.

The allegations set forth by the resident are quite disturbing. Equally, if not more disturbing, is the manner in which the facility itself handled this situation. The alleged incident occurred on the afternoon of Sunday, January 2nd. There was no documentation of the occurrence in the January 2nd Daily Patient Care Report. Furthermore, although a different nurse responded to the resident's cries for help, an x-ray, the results of which displayed the fracture, was not ordered until the following morning.

Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations, section 483.25 states that "Each resident must receive and the facility must provide the necessary care and services to attain or maintain the highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being." Additionally, section 483.13(b)makes clear that "The resident has the right to be free from verbal, sexual, physical, and mental abuse, corporal punishment, and involuntary seclusion." Certainly, if the resident's allegations are true, the facility is in direct violation of these provisions of the Code. The Code guarantees the rights of residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Incidents such as the one documented above, while unfortunate, reinforce the necessity of maintaining the highest levels of staffing at such homes, in order to prevent future episodes from arising.

NYS DOH Survey, Fieldston Lodge Care Center, March 12, 2011

Today, June 15, 2011, is the sixth annual World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. It falls in the middle of World Elder Abuse Awareness Week, which commenced on Monday. While it is important to specify a day or week in which to give attention to the cycle of abuse that many elderly in society face, it is also imperative to remember that this abuse happens every day. We must remain vigilant as a society in an attempt to eliminate elder abuse.

As this blog has chronicled in the past, elder abuse occurs in many forms: physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and financial abuse, to name several. Unfortunately, often this abuse does not occur at the hands of an unkown hospital or nursing home aide, but rather at the hands of family members.

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day helps to raise the public profile of the growing ubiquity of elder abuse. Events such as this, as well as celebrities such as Mickey Rooney speaking about their own experiences, will hopefully bring an awareness of the perils that our elderly citizens face. If you suspect that someone you love has been a victim of elder abuse, please contact the proper authorities as soon as possible. With the proper level of awareness, perhaps someday we can bring an end to elder abuse in its many forms.

The NYS Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Unit recently arrested Pamela Davis, a Licensed Practical Nurse at Riverdale Nursing Home in Bronx, New York, on charges of elder abuse. Nurse Davis allegedly struck a 75-year old resident in the back with her keys and kicked him in the buttocks. According to a Long-Term-Care Community Coalition Report, on February 8, 2010, Nurse Davis was sentenced to a conditional discharge and required to complete 5 days community service as a result of the incident.

Stemming from an elder abuse investigation conducted by the New York State Attorney General, a Certified Nursing Aide at Utica Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation was recently placed on three years probation and was forced to surrender her C.N.A. certificate. The NYSAG investigation revealed that while assisting another CNA help an 80 year-old resident in the shower, C.N.A. Rhonda Woodson flicked the resident's ear and nose, sprayed water up the resident's nose, and slapped the resident's head.

Website Resource:

Long-Term-Care Community Coalition Quarterly Report, Winter 2009.

The family of a resident at a California nursing home, Fillmore Convalescent Center, was recently awarded $7.75 million in a case involving nursing home abuse. The resident was a 71-year-old stroke victim.

The attorneys for the resident and her family showed the jury a secret videotape of the woman being abused. Members of the residents family became suspicious after they noticed that their mother was bruised. They complained to management at the facility, but apparently the facility failed to investigate. As a result, the family took it upon themselves to set-up the hidden camera.

She videotape reportedly showed a member of the nursing staff slapping the resident, pulling her around by the hair, bending her neck, fingers and wrists, and treating her violently in a shower chair. The jury deliberated for two days before announcing the verdict: $2.75 million in actual damages and $5 million in punitive damages.

Website Resources:

$7.75 million awarded in abuse case - Elderly victim a patient at Fillmore facility, Ventura County Star, Stephanie Hoops, December 11, 2009.

A former nurse's aide in a New York nursing home has been accused of abusing an 88 year-old resident who suffers from dementia and visual impairments. The former aide is accused of hitting, grabbing and punching the woman last October, leaving her with a broken collarbone and facial bruising. The abuse allegedly occurred in the Adirondack Medical Center's Mercy Nursing Home.

The nursing home facility reported the incident as required under New York law. The Attorney General's Office has charged the former aide with second-degree endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person, endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person and willful violation of health laws.

Website Resources:

Elder abuse charged at Adirondack Medical Center's Mercy Nursing Home, Denise A. Raymo, PressRepublican.com, May 14, 2009.

In February, California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced the arrest of a nurse, physician and a pharmacist of a skilled nursing facility in Lake Isabella, California. All were charged with elder abuse for forcibly administering psychoactive medications for their own convenience and for causing the deaths of three residents.

According to the website of the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR),

...[T]he former nursing director, is reported to have ordered staff to inject numerous residents with powerful, dangerous antipsychotic medications without any medical justification. According to the charges, groups of staff held down at least two residents and injected them with drugs that reduced them to a zombie-like state. In addition to the three deaths, other residents suffered severe medical and psychological trauma. When drugging triggered behavioral problems, even stronger drugs were ordered and administered. Many residents and family members were not informed that psychoactive drugs were being used.

The year-long investigation by the Attorney General's office was triggered by a Department of Public Health investigation in January 2007 that first documented the widespread drugging and brought a rare finding of "Immediate Jeopardy."

"These people maliciously violated the trust of their patients, by holding them down and forcibly administering psychotropic medications if they dared to question their care," Attorney General Brown said. "This is appalling behavior, which amounts to assault with a deadly weapon."

"Deadly weapon" is an apt description of antipsychotic drugs when used in this fashion. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has issued its most dire warning - known as a black box warning - that antipsychotic drugs cause elders with dementia to die. Although the FDA has never approved use of antipsychotic drugs to treat dementia, it is estimated that up to 40 percent of nursing home residents with dementia are subjected to antipsychotic drugs, such as Zyprexa, Seroquel, Risperdal and Haldol.

Website Resources:

Attorney General Charges Nursing Home Drugging is Assault with a Deadly Weapon, California Advocates For Nursing Home Reform, February 18, 2009.