Elder Law

Nursing Home Covers-up Neglect

By Levin & Perconti

An employee at an Illinois nursing home was too absorbed by an episode of ?Dog the Bounty Hunter? to respond to a security door alarm sound. The alarm was most likely triggered by the electronic bracelet worn by an 89-year-old resident who wandered outside the nursing home. The woman wrongfully died of exposure to the cold. Law enforcement believes that after the employees found the elderly woman in the subfreezing cold, they allegedly tried to cover up the tragedy by returning the deceased woman to her bed. The former Chicago woman, who suffered from dementia and other health problems, was a resident at the nursing home for nearly three years. At the moment, the nursing home is facing both criminal and civil charges after they originally told officers that the elderly woman died while asleep in her bed. Authorities became suspicious because the woman was dressed in a hospital gown and covered in blankets and lying on a gurney while hooked up to an oxygen machine. To read more about the wrongful nursing home death, please click the link.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on February 18, 2009 (boomark / email).