Two Illinois Nursing Homes Fined Over Patient Deaths

 Posted on August 16, 2018 in Nursing Home Abuse

A large majority of nursing home patients will spend the rest of their lives in such facilities. Patients like these often have physical or mental health conditions that make them unable to live at home or even in in assisted living facility. At the risk of being too blunt, this means that death is a part of everyday operations at the average nursing home in Illinois.

Most residents who die in nursing homes eventually succumb to their existing conditions. At a certain point, there is only so much that modern medicine can do as people age and become weaker. There are, however, far too many examples of nursing home residents who have died prematurely because of the actions or negligence of facility staff. Last month, the Illinois Department of Public Health (DPH) announced that it has fined two separate Illinois nursing homes over preventable patient deaths this year.

Lincoln Facility Fined $50,000

In January, a 64-year-old woman was involved in a car accident and was admitted to a nursing home in Lincoln, IL to receive treatment. An investigation by the DPH determined that the woman suffered from asthma and sleep apnea. She reportedly had been having trouble breathing for about three days, but the nursing staff did not notify her doctor until the third day—by which point her issue had become an emergency. The woman was given an inhaler, but she was found unresponsive the next day. State records show she died a few days later. The official cause of death was a Staph infection. The DPH fined the home $50,000 for failing to take timely action.

Repeated Falls in a Champaign Nursing Home

The DPH also levied a $50,000 fine against a nursing home in Champaign related to a patient death in February. In this case, the resident required a mechanical lift to help him get from his bed to a chair, and vice versa. As he was being moved one day, one of the rings holding the lift’s cloth sling broke and the man fell a few inches to the mattress. He was uninjured. The nurse on duty made a note that the sling was old and in need of repairs. She reported the concern to supervisors but the lift stayed in the man’s room.

A week later, however, the sling broke again. This time, the man reportedly fell to the floor, suffering head lacerations and brain bleeds. Due to staffing issues, only one nurse was operating the lift at the time of the accident. The injured man was moved to a different long-term care facility where he died less than three weeks later.

Call Us for Help

If you have lost a loved one in a nursing home and you believe that the death was prematurely caused by the actions or negligence of the staff, contact a Chicago nursing home neglect attorney for help. Call 312-535-4625 to discuss your available options with a compassionate member of our team today

Sources:

http://www.wandtv.com/story/38707917/local-nursing-homes-tied-to-residents-deaths

https://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/lincoln-nursing-home-cited-for-alleged-preventable-death/article_2b8c590d-128a-5d41-b11d-6235df31fabd.html