Elder Law

Report States Nursing Home Deaths Were Not Mercy Killings

By Levin & Perconti

A report has found that the death of six elderly patients at a nursing home in 2006 may have been the work of a nurse overdosing patients she found to be troublesome or believed had lived long enough. A 130-page report from the Illinois Department of Public Health claims that the nurse told co-workers she gave restless patients drug cocktails to keep them calm and flatly stated that ?she made sure? one patient would not make it through the day. The report was generated as part of a 15-month state investigation into six mysterious deaths at the Illinois nursing home. The nurse faces criminal neglect charges alleging she intentionally gave four patients unsafe doses of drugs, including morphine. All four residents died within some hours of receiving the drugs. The nurse is alleged to have told co-workers that she gave difficult patients a medication cocktail so that she could have a quiet shift. Levin & Perconti have already filed lawsuits on behalf of victims of the ?Angel of Death? case. To read the full story, click here.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on September 26, 2008 (boomark / email).