Elder Law

Nurse?s Aide Pled Guilty in Elderly Woman?s Death

By Levin & Perconti

A former nursing assistant apologized for allowing 89-year-old Sarah Wentworth to freeze to death last winter after she wandered out of her Itasca, Illinois nursing home. The nursing assistant never checked a door alarm that sounded at two in the morning when the elderly woman left the Arbor of Itasca nursing home during zero degree temperatures. The woman offered an apology after pleading guilty to criminal neglect an obstruction of justice in the victim?s death, which an autopsy concluded was caused by hypothermia. The woman was given credit for the six months in jail that she served since her arrest and was placed on probation for 30 months. The nursing home negligence plea brought little comfort to the victim?s family, who said the penalty wasn?t severe enough given the agonizing death of their loved one. The victim had Alzheimer?s and a propensity for wandering. After she triggered the alarm the employee did not check the door as required, but simply turned off the alarm and continued watching ?Dog: The Bounty Hunter.? An investigation showed that the employees at the nursing home tried to hide how the victim died by returning her to her room and changing her clothes, although no other workers were charged in her death. The woman?s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home. To read more about the nursing home abuse, please click the link.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on September 01, 2009 (boomark / email).