Elder Law

Nursing Home Fined after Sandwich Choking Death

By Levin & Perconti

A nursing home has been fined $75,000 for reporting an elderly man died of a heart attack, when in reality he wrongfully choked to death on a tuna sandwich. The state?s health and human services documents show that the resident had suffered from dementia and was supposed to be given only pureed food. This nursing home negligence contributed to the man?s death. Additionally, after the facility did not disclose the cause of death the coroner concluded that the man had choked to death on the sandwich. Further investigation concluded that the man had grabbed a sandwich from a food tray, and the nursing home employees negligently let him eat it. Nursing home?s have recently been disclosing different causes of death in order to cover-up the elderly negligence. To read about the wrongful death, click the link.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on February 27, 2009 (boomark / email).