Elder Law

Nursing Home Fined After Falling Closet Door Kills Patient

By Levin & Perconti

A nursing home was fined by the state after an elderly patient died when an unbolted closet fell on her head. The 90-year-old woman had suffered from dementia and heart disease. She was the third patient in less than a year to be injured at the nursing home by an unsecured closet. State records show that the woman was found ?conscious but bleeding profusely from her forehead, face and left eye? in her room of the nursing home with the wardrobe on top of her. She was taken to the hospital were she died. State investigators found there had been previous incidents where unsecured clothing closets had fallen on patients at the nursing home, including one just three weeks before the 90-year-old woman was killed. The two previous incidents were not reported to the state. Nursing homes have a responsibility to ensure that their residents are safe at all times, anything harmful is considered nursing home negligence. To read the full story, click here.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on October 28, 2008 (boomark / email).