Washington Injury Attorney Blog

The Des Moines police department is investigating the death of a 95-year-old nursing home resident who went missing on Monday night. Helen Jensen, age 95, was found dead about 100 yards from the nursing home where she lived.

According to a report on King5.com, Jensen went missing from the Wesley Homes Health Care Center about 11:30pm Monday night. Staff at Wesley did not call the police until about 2:30am. Police searched for Jensen about 45 minutes before they found her lying on the ground about 100 yards away from the nursing home at 100 S 216th Street in Des Moines.

Police looked at video surveillance tapes and saw that Jensen had left the nursing home in her wheel chair at about 11:45pm.

The King County medical examiner has not yet determined Jensen's cause of death. Temperatures in the Seattle-Bellevue-Tacoma metropolitan area have been below freezing for the last few nights.

If Jensen died of exposure or hypothermia, which is the death of someone who was exposed to extreme temperatures, this may be a case of nursing home neglect.

Families whose loved ones have died because of nursing home neglect may have a valid wrongful death claim. Cases like this one are terrible tragedies but they may be a symptom of a nursing home being understaffed or not having the skill to recognize a patient who is apt to wander or elope. A nursing home's first and foremost responsibility is to insure patient safety.

Nursing home staff need to be educated about patient's who are at risk for wandering. There are steps a care facility can take like using electronic alarms which notifies staff when a patient leaves a safe area. A nursing home or assisted living home should also have an emergency preparedness plan which should be put into place as soon as a patient is missing.

This information is provided by Washington Injury Attorney blog, a service of The Farber Law Group. We represent people who have been seriously injured by nursing home abuse or neglect and the families of those who have died.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

Johnetta Dashaw Phillips, age 30, was sentenced to 20 months in jail for felony abuse in a plea agreement after a "granny cam" caught her on video tape abusing a paralyzed stroke victim in the nursing home where she worked reports the Lufkin Daily News.com.

According to the report, the victim's husband installed the camera after his wife complained of nursing home abuse. Because of the woman's dementia, she was not able to identify who abused her. The hidden camera caught Phillips abusing the elderly patient several times including two occasions in which she roughly put the woman in her bed allowing her head to strike the headboard.

Phillips at first denied abusing the patient. When confronted with the videotape evidence, she then blamed the abuse on the victim and reported that the victim had hit her. The evidence, however, showed that the abuse was unprovoked.

The report said that Phillips will have to serve her entire 20 month sentence.

Nursing home abuse and neglect can take many forms. Physical abuse is but one type of abuse. Mental abuse, physical neglect and medical errors can also cause serious injury to a patient. Bedsores, unexplained bruises or fractures or changes in physical or mental condition can be symptoms.

If you believe a vulnerable adult is being abused or neglected, you should contact a personal injury attorney to insure the adult's safety and well-being. At The Farber Law Group, we have more than 30 years experience representing nursing home abuse and neglect victims and their loved ones.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

See our Nursing Home & Elder Abuse Resources.

Richard Mark Garcia, age 51, has been charged with "one count of indecent liberties" after allegedly sexually molesting a patient who has cerebral palsy and was on a ventilator writes Levii Pulkkinen on SeattlePI.com.

According to Pulkkinen's report, the woman was on a ventilator at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle when she was placed on a ventilator because she had pneumonia. She was unable to speak because she had a tracheotomy. The woman communicated to her caregiver that Garcia, who has worked for Harborview for 19 years, forced her to touch him sexually on one occasion and on the following day, he touched the woman.

Garcia's semen was found on the woman's sheets.

It seems that Garcia targeted this patient because he thought she was mentally incompetent. Harborview may find that there was a pattern of patient abuse by this employee though he has only been charged with one count. It is abhorrent to think of someone repeatedly abusing such a vulnerable patient.

This information is provided by Washington Injury Attorney blog, a service of The Farber Law Group. We represent people who have been victims of nursing home abuse and neglect and victims of hospital and medical malpractice. With our help, you may recover compensation for your damages including pain and suffering.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

A 35-year-old woman has been sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to three Class C felony charges and three aggravated misdemeanor charges of wanton neglect of a nursing home resident after the woman stole pain medications from patients.

According to the Clinton Herald.com, Carrie A. Garza of Morrison, Iowa, removed Fentanyl patches used for pain management from three female patients. Fentanyl is used to create chronic pain and it is 100 times more potent than morphine.

Garza had an elaborate ruse to steal the medications. She called the nursing home -- The Alverno -- and claimed to be a representative of the pharmaceutical provider and said there had been a recall of the medication. She then went to rooms of Rosemary Sparks, Helen Parsons and Virginia Lange and removed their medication patches.

This seems like a pretty brazen act by Garza. It is hard to imagine a person removing needed pain medication from a patient for their own use. These women must have suffered pain after their medication was taken away.

It does not seem like the nursing home did everything they could to protect the patients involved. Allowing someone who was not an employee of the nursing home to actually touch a patient without checking their credentials seems like lax oversight.

This information is provided by Washington Injury Attorney blog, a service of The Farber Law Group. We represent people who have been seriously injured by nursing home abuse and neglect and the families of those who have died. Nursing home abuse and neglect can take many forms including medication errors, bedsores, and physical and sexual abuse.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

Joseph Anthony Garcia, 35, was sentenced to 18 months in jail for committing elder abuse at the Las Cruces Nursing Home where he worked. According to a report in the Las Cruces Sun-News, Garcia beat a 76-year-old man in the head, chest, stomach and back while he helped him get ready for bed.

Judge Lisa Schultz also added four years to Garcia's sentence because he had two previous convictions, one for breaking and entering and one for cocaine trafficking.

The really chilling part of this whole story was that the nursing home did not perform a background check on Garcia before they hired him.

Last November, the voters of Washington State overwhelmingly passed Initiative 1029 which requires that all long-term care workers complete training, pass a certification exam and undergo a federal background check for prior criminal records. It seems that in this Las Cruces case, the nursing home was guilty of negligence in not screening Garcia properly before allowing him to work with vulnerable adults.

This information is provided by Washington Injury Attorney blog, a service of The Farber Law Group. We are a personal injury law firm with more than 30 years experience representing victims of nursing home abuse and neglect and their families.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

It's important that all Americans are able to detect elder abuse and neglect and report it. The frail and elderly senior citizens among us deserve our protection. Being able to spot the signs is important for the family and friends of senior citizens.

The Victims

Most elder abuse victims are over the age of 80. Many of the victims are shut ins and are isolated. Many lack resources or support in the community and are dependent on others financially, emotionally and physically. Some of the victims live in their own homes or in a caretaker's home. Many live in long term care settings such as nursing homes or adult family homes.

The Perpetrators

Statistics show that the perpetrators are often the caregivers of the elderly. Most perpetrators are between the age of 30 and 61 years old and 50 percent are family members and 50 percent are paid employees such as certified nursing assistants, nurses or other staff.

Forms of Elder Abuse

Elder abuse can take man forms including:

• Physical abuse -- hitting slapping punching. It can also include withholding food or care.
• Emotional abuse --name calling, berating, verbal abuse and intimidation.
• Sexual abuse -- rape, inappropriate touching or sexual harassment.
• Neglect -- by self because of impairment or by a caregiver. Some elderly are no longer to care for themselves which can threaten their well-being or health. Sometimes the caregiver withholds medical treatment or basic treatment such as hygiene.
• Exploitation -- is when the perpetrator financially takes advantage of an elderly person. Examples of this include people who take money or possessions from an older person or those who enter into contracts with an elderly person that are not valid because the elder has mental impairment and is unable to enter into the contract.

Signs of Physical Abuse or Neglect

• Bedsores
• Broken bones
• Depression or behavior change
• Urinary tract infection
• Malnutrition or dehydration
• Unexplained bruises

Many times victims do not report the abuse because they are unable to communicate or because they are ashamed or fear their abuser. In a nursing home setting, health care workers are required to report any suspected elder abuse but sometimes they don't because they fear losing their job.

Many types of citizens do come forward and report abuse. Sometimes it is a neighbor, a friend, a bank teller or an attorney. If you believe an elderly person that you know is being neglect or abused, check our Nursing Home & Elder Abuse Resources. There are many agencies that can help you. If the person you know is seriously injured, you should contact a qualified personal injury attorney who can help provide legal protection for the victim.

This information is provided by The Farber Law Group, a Washington law firm with more than 30 years experience represent nursing home abuse victims and their families.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

The relative of a woman who was sexually abused in a La Salle, Illinois nursing home has filed a lawsuit against the nursing home for negligence seeking damages because the nursing home failed to protect the woman from abuse.

According to a report in the News Tribune serving North Central Illinois, the unidentified woman suffered a fractured pelvic bone in the sexual attack. In the suit, Henry Elzer also seeks damages for his relative because his relative also suffered a broken leg when she was dropped.

This poor woman seems to have suffered some extreme abuse at this nursing home with both a sexual abuse and an injury from being dropped.

If you suspect a friend or a relative has sustained injuries due to nursing home abuse or neglect, you should contact a personal injury attorney. At The Farber Law Group, we have more than 30 years experience representing the victims of nursing home abuse and neglect and their families and we will work to protect your loved one's rights. Signs of nursing home abuse can include bedsores, broken bones, malnutrition, urinary tract infections and medication errors.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

We came across an article on a British news web-site, Mail Online, which detailed a study by the British Department of Health which examined prescription errors in nursing homes. The study found that half of all nursing home and care home residents had been the victims of prescription mistakes.

The study looked at 55 residential and nursing homes for two and a half years. Researchers found that a typical nursing home resident takes between seven and eight medications. They found that minor errors some times had a ripple effect with one error compounding by others.

Medication errors were made by nursing home staff, pharmacists and physicians. Common mistakes for physicians to make was prescribing the wrong medication or not taking into account the potential interaction of one medication with other medications a patient was taking.

Transcription errors were also causes of mistakes. One patient in the study died after he received a massive morphine overdose after a faxed prescription had a missing decimal point. Another nursing home patient was given 10 times the correct dose of a blood thinning medication and the error was only discovered after the patient began bleeding profusely.

Medication errors can be grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit if a patient was severely injured or died. If you or a loved one has had this happen to you, you might want to contact a personal injury attorney for a case consultation. The Farber Law Group has more than 30 years experience representing medical malpractice victims and people who have been injured in nursing homes.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

Health and Human Services (HHS) provides people with Medicare and Medicaid a tool which allows them to compare every Medicare and Medicaid-certified nursing home in their own community.

On-line Tool

An on-line tool allows a user to put in a search criteria using a name, city, county, state or zip code. Based on a given zip code, for example, you can get all the nursing homes within a given distance from the zip code. The tool then provides the following information:

• Name and address of nursing home
  
• Overall rating of the facility -- on a 1-5 scale which includes a health inspection rating, the staffing rating and the quality measures rating.
  
• Health inspections rating -- a rating based upon an annual health inspection.
  
• Nursing home staff rating -- based upon staffing, the number of Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, Licensed Vocational Nurses and Certified Nursing Statement. This rating is calculated using the number of patients and provides the ratio of staff hours per resident per day.
  
• Quality Measure - based upon residents and quality measures in the nursing home. Quality measures assess aspects of nursing home care including whether residents were given flu shots, are in pair or losing weight.
  
• Program participation -- indicates whether the nursing home takes Medicare or Medicaid
  
• Number of certified beds - the number of Medicare and/or Medicaid beds. It does not include private pay beds.
  
• Type of ownership -- For profit, non-profit.

Click here for the HHS Guide entitled "Guide to Choosing a Nursing Home."

This information is provided by Washington Injury Attorney blog, a service of The Farber Law Group. We represent people who have been seriously injured by nursing home abuse or neglect and their families. With our help, you may recover compensation for your damages including pain and suffering.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

In a story that is hard to fathom, two female who were employed at the Pigeon Forge Care and Rehabilitation center in Tennessee have been arrested on charges of healthcare abuse.

According to WBIR.Com the two women, Mary Ann Burgess, 50, and April Longmire, 35, allegedly took "nude and degrading pictures of elderly patients" under their care at the nursing home.

Investigators for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation allege that the two women took the photos of patients with their cell phone cameras and that this behavior dated back to 2007.

We often find that when nursing home abuse occurs, there are systemic problems at the home which includes inadequate staffing, supervision and training.

If one of your loved ones has been injured or died as a result of nursing home staff negligence or abuse, contact The Farber Law Group, a law firm which specializes in nursing home abuse and neglect cases.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

A California hospital administrator, Pamela Ott, has been charged with eight felony counts of elder abuse. Ott's name has been added to the indictment of former director Gwen Hughes, former pharmacist; Debbi Hayes, former staff pharmacist; and Dr. Hoshang Pormir, staff physician, who were all arrested in February after a two year investigation by the Department of Health. The four were accused of elder abuse for forcibly sedating patients with high dosages of psychotropic drugs for the convenience of the Kern Valley Hospital and not for the welfare of the patients.

The Bakersfield News, Turn to 23.com, has a copy of the full indictment which says that 22 residents were forcibly give medication. Allegedly, three elderly patients died as a result of the medication including Mae Brinkley, 91; Joseph Shepter, 76; and Alexander Zaiko, 85. Another patient was greatly harmed because of the drugs.

Director of Nursing, Gwen Hughes, allegedly ordered that the psychotropic medications be given to Alzheimer's and dementia patients so that they would be easier to control. She ordered the drugs for any patient who argued with her, was noisy or disruptive. According to the report, she even ordered two patients to be held down and forcibly given the injections when they resisted. She has been charged with elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon.

Pharmacist Hayes allegedly provided the medications without a written prescription or physician approval. She has turned state's evidence after a plea of no contest to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit an act injurious to public health. She was sentenced to three years probation and one year in jail but her jail time is suspended based upon her testimony.

Dr. Pormir, the staff physician, allegedly approved the prescription of the drugs after they had already been filled and without examining the patients.

Ott has been indicted because she hired and directly supervised Gwen Hughes. California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. said:

"As hospital administrator, Pamela Ott, was ultimately responsible for safeguarding the welfare of her patients, instead, Ott abdicated her responsibility and allowed the staff of the Kern Valley Hospital to forcibly sedate patients who questioned their care."

The defendants face up to 11 years in prison if they are convicted. They are being prosecuted by the Attorney General's Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse along with the Kern County District Attorney's Office.

Over prescription of sedating medication is a form of chemical restraint. Chemical restraints should only be given in extraordinary circumstances such as a patient being at severe risk to harm themselves or another in a time of emergency. Signs of over-medication can include tremors, abnormal face and body movements, low blood pressure, hypothermia, cardiac and blood disorders and extreme drowsiness.

This information is provided by Washington Injury Attorney blog, a service of The Farber Law Group. We represent people who have been seriously injured because of nursing home neglect or abuse or the families of those killed.

See our Nursing Home and Elder Abuse Resources.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

The owner of the Houghton Lakeview Adult Home in Kirkland, Patricia Goodwill of Marysville, is charged with "failure to report" and one of her employees, Effie Tutor-Dutton of Lynnwood, has been charged with criminal mistreatment in connection with the death of a patient at the home.

According to a report on Seattle's KOMO News.com, Jean Rudolph, an 87 year old resident at the adult family home died in June 2008 of a bone infection caused by severe bed sores. Rudolph weighed only 68 pounds when she died at a hospital where she was taken for treatment by her son.

Court documents said that Rudolph's bed sores were so severe that her hip bone was exposed. Rudolph, who had dementia, was unable to communicate her pain.

Bed sores or pressure sores are layman's terms for decubitus ulcers. A bedsore is a common injury to nursing home patients and is caused by neglect. They are caused when the patient is not positioned correctly in bed and is not cared for. In the early stages, bed sores are treatable with especially designed cushions and turning the patient often. Rudolph suffered from the worst form of ulcer, a Stage IV, where the ulcer extended into the muscle, tendon and bone. It would have taken a period of time for a Stage IV ulcer to develop.

Rudolph's son, James Rudolph, said he visited his mother twice weekly but that he was not aware of the bedsore until he was informed by Tutor-Dutton as her sores were covered by her bed clothing.

In the case of a patient who dies of nursing home abuse or neglect, the family of the deceased may file a wrongful death claim.

This information is provided by Washington Injury Attorney blog, a service of The Farber Law Group. We have more than 30 years experience representing victims of nursing home abuse and neglect and their families.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

A Science Daily study that reviewed more than 82 research studies concluded that non-profit nursing homes provide superior levels of care over the for-profit variety.

“The results are unequivocal and completely consistent with other studies comparing for-profit versus non-profit care,” said Dr. Gordon Guyatt, the study’s senior author and professor of medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada,

The Science Daily, an online British medical journal, compared quality of care measurements collected over a period of 35 years from tens of thousands of nursing homes, most of which were in the United States.

The non-profit homes provided a higher quality care in nursing home staffing which is measured by the number of staff and the quality of staff based on their education and training. Patients in non-profit nursing homes also had fewer incidence of pressure or bedsores. Measurement of staffing and the incidence of bedsores is always indicative of the quality of a facility.

The study noted that nonprofit homes did not use physical restraints as frequently and had fewer quality violations when they were assessed.

Guyatt says that the reason nonprofit institutions are better is that they are not having to satisfy shareholders and they do not have to pay taxes. Often, it is the for-profit nature of many nursing homes which leads them to cut corners and inadequately staff the facility. When a nursing home is inadequately staffed or the staff is not trained properly, falls, pressure sores, mistakes in medication, etc., often arise.

This information is provided by Washington Injury Attorney blog, a service of The Farber Law Group. We represent nursing home residents and their families. The Farber law Group has more than 30 years experience in representing the vulnerable elderly.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

A Missouri nursing home assistant, Dennis A. Rowe, age 39, has been sentenced to five years in prison after he was convicted of second degree elder abuse reports the Joplin Globe. Second degree elder abuse is a Class B felony in Missouri.

Rowe was convicted on the testimony of a former nursing assistant, Michael L. Wells Jr., who witnessed the abuse of brain-injured resident. Wells testified that he saw Rowe hit Benny Crowley, a vulnerable and helpless adult who is confined to a wheelchair and is on oxygen, in the testicles. He also witnessed Rowe torturing Crowley by forcing water down his nose and into his lungs through oxygen tubing.

Rowe was not charged until one year after the abuse. Wells testified that he waited a day before reporting what he witnessed to the nursing home administrator after first consulting with his mother and his wife. An investigation then was launched by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Nursing home abuse and neglect can take many forms. Falls, broken bones, unexplained bruises, malnutrition and bedsores are all forms of nursing home abuse. If you have witnessed the neglect or abuse of a person who, because of dementia, age or physical impairment, can not advocate for themselves, you should seek help for them by contacting an experienced personal injury attorney. At The Farber Law Group, we will meet with you and provide a free and confidential case evaluation.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

A Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) press release announced the revocation of a license for the Shangra-La Adult Family Home in Lacey. The revocation of the license means that the facility cannot accept any new residents and the safety of any residents who remain will be monitored by the DSHS.

According to the press release, "The provider failed to promote a respectful care environment that enhanced residents' dignity, residents' right to make choices about their activities and respected residents' personal property. "

Adult Family Homes are facilities in neighborhoods which are licensed to care for between two and six residents. Care includes room and board, supervision, laundry and assistance with personal care and the administration of medication. Shangra-La is licensed in Thurston County to provide special care for adults with mental health issues and dementia.

While the DSHS did not provide specifics about the reasons for the revocation of the license, the Blevins has 28 days to respond by requesting and administrative hearing.

This information is provided by Washington Injury Attorney blog, a service of The Farber Law Group. We represent people who have been seriously injured because of nursing home abuse and neglect. Abuse and neglect can take many forms including bedsores, dehydration, physical and sexual assault, broken bones and aspiration pneumonia. Often the elderly and people with physical and mental challenges need an advocate and that's when families and loved ones contact us for help.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

See our Nursing Home & Elder Abuse Resources which might be helpful to you.

A 72-year-old nursing home employee, Pierre Obas, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of "abuse, neglect and mistreatment of a person" reports LoHud.com, New York's Lower Hudson Valley news source. According to the report, Obas surrendered his nurse aide's certificate and is banned from working in a nursing home for one year after an incident of neglect of a patient in May of 2008.

Obas' guilty plea came about after the Waterview Hills Rehabilitation and Nursing Home camera recorded Obas tying a 83-year-old patient to her wheelchair with a bed sheet and then turning off the lights and taking a nap. The helpless woman languished while Obas slept.The only time when a nursing home is permitted to restrain a patient is upon doctor's orders and only to prevent a frail or disabled person from slipping from the chair. Bed sheets, in particular, are not proper restraining devices because they could suffocate a patient.

Nursing home abuse and neglect can take many forms including improperly restraining a patient. Some nursing homes are inadequately staffed or they do not have employee screening and training and so the residents and elderly person are neglected or suffer. Other forms of nursing home abuse can include bedsores, broken bones, dehydration, aspiration pneumonia, exposure after a resident has wandered off or even physical or sexual abuse.

If your loved one has been neglected or abused in a nursing home, you should contact a personal injury attorney who specializes in nursing home law. The Farber Law Group has more than 30 years experience representing nursing home residents and their families. With our help, your loved one can be assured of getting the care they deserve.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

See our Nursing Home and Elder Abuse Resources.

A Texas nursing home employee was caught abusing a nursing home patient on a hidden camera installed by the patient's husband according to a report in The Lufkin Daily News.

The nursing home employee, Johnetta Darshaw Phillips, is being held in Angelina County Jail with a bail set of $100,00. She is being charged with "injury to elderly."

The nursing home abuse came to light after Bonita Bolin, a 77-year-old patient, complained to her husband, Melvin Bolin, that a nursing home employee had been abusing her. Mrs. Bolin was not able to identify her abuser because of diminished mental capacity so her husband installed a hidden camera.

Melvin Bolin presented a video of Phillips striking his wife and treating her rough on numerous occasion to the Lufkin Police Department . The video shows that the Phillips behavior was clearly abusive and that it was unprovoked.

Mrs. Bolin was very fortunate to have a loved one who was so proactive in protecting her. Often, nursing home patients have no one to look out for their best interests.

Nursing home abuse and neglect can take many forms including bedsores, sexual abuse, physical abuse, insufficient nutrition, medication errors, dehydration, infection and exposure.

If you are concerned about a loved one or someone you know who is being neglected or abused in a nursing home, you should contact a personal injury attorney with experience in nursing home abuse and neglect cases. Sometimes The Farber Law Group will be contacted by an employee of a nursing home who fears jeopardizing their job, or a friend or family member. The Farber Law Group can provide a free and confidential case evaluation and can make sure the proper authorities are contacted. If the abuse or neglect resulted in serious injuries, we can work to obtain compensation for the victim. See our Nursing Home Resources.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that a former employee of a Kent assisted-living facility has been found guilty of the rape of a 45-year-old blind and disabled patient.

Joseph Thurura, age 32, impregnated the 45-year-old woman, who later miscarried the pregnancy. Police identified Thurua after taking DNA samples of 11 men who could have had contact with the woman.

King County Superior Court Judge Richard McDermott found Thurura guilty of second-degree rape. Thurura can receive between 7 and 8 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for August 14.

Most people writing into the P-I blog were pretty disgusted that Thurura will likely be out of jail in a few years.

As a personal injury law firm that represents people who have been seriously injured because of nursing home abuse and neglect, we have seen numerous cases of physical abuse including sexual abuse. Sometimes the families of the victim decide to bring a civil suit against the nursing home because of negligence in failing to protect their loved one.

If your loved one has been injured in a nursing home, contact The Farber Law Group and we will provide you with a free and confidential case evaluation.

The Washington State Department of Social and Health Service is investigating Life Care Center of Bothell after a 93-year-old resident fell and hit her head while getting out of bed and later died.

According to a report in the Everett Herald Net, the nursing home patient hit her head when she fell and also had a cut in her arm. The patient was taken to Evergreen Hospital and Medical Center in Kirkland and then later moved to hospice care where she died.

DSHS investigates whenever a significant injury occurs that may have been as a result of abuse or neglect. According to Roberta Crawford, a field manager for DSHS, four reports had been filed with the DSHS hotline which triggered the investigation.

The Bothell police are also investigating this patient's death.

Falls are not uncommon in nursing homes. In a 100-bed hospital, there will typically be between 10-20 patient falls per year. When environmental hazards such as lack of bed rails, wet floors, poor lighting, clutter, etc., are the cause of the fall, then there might be a legitimate case of nursing home neglect.

If your loved one has suffered a serious injury in a nursing home, you should contact a personal injury attorney with experience in representing these cases. The Farber Law Group has more than 30 years representing victims of nursing home negligence and abuse and their families.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

See our Nursing Home & Elder Abuse Resources.

The Illinois Department of Public Health concluded their report on a LaSalle County Nursing Home and found that the facility failed to protect female residents from a male resident who sexually abused and propositioned at least 10 female residents reports ABC News.

The report described how the man would grab, touch, fondle and attempt to kiss female residents, some of them who were ill or suffered from dementia. He was also verbally abusive.

Apparently some of the nursing home staff were aware of the man's behavior and they cooperated in the investigation. The abuse lasted for a period of six months starting last December until the man was moved to an inpatient psychiatric unit.

The report from the investigating board said

"Due to Administrative staff's failures to implement policies and procedures for abuse, failure to recognize abuse, and failure to effectively manage facility resources, sexual abuse occurred for 10 residents," the report said.

While most nursing homes are staffed with caring professionals, some times there are breakdown in supervision and management of the home. In these cases, an attorney who specializes in nursing home law can be very helpful. Then can make sure that the proper authorities are involved and that residents are compensated for any serious harm or injuries done to them.

If your loved one has been the victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, including bedsores, medication errors or falls, you should contact a knowledgeable nursing home abuse attorney. The Farber Law Group has more than 30 years experience representing nursing home neglect victims and their families.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or e-mail attorney@hgfarber.com. We have office in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.