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Chapel Hill Nursing Home Abuse?: Cary Nurse Indicted in Murder of Alzheimer?s Patient

Angela Almore, a registered nurse from Cary, is charged with six counts of felony patient abuse and second-degree murder in the death of 84-year-old Rachel Holliday on February 16. The 84-year-old Alzheimer?s patient was a resident at Britthaven of Chapel Hill when she died.

According to officials, last February, nine of the patients in the Alzheimer?s unit of the Chapel Hill nursing home tested positive for opiates, which are often used to manage pain. Six of them, including Halliday, had to be hospitalized.

According to a medical examiner that looked at the elderly woman?s records, she died from pneumonia-related asphyxiation with morphine toxicity as a contributing factor to her death. Tests conducted prior to her passing found that her morphine level was over 50,000 nanograms per milliliter of urine. Holliday and some of the other patients who tested positive for opiates weren?t supposed to be taking any pain medication.

After her death, the Chapel Hill nursing home tested its staffers at the Alzheimer?s unit for drugs. Their results came back negative.

North Carolina Elder Abuse
Mistreating, neglecting, or depriving a nursing home resident of the proper care in any way is a violation of his/her rights, against the law, and can be grounds for a North Carolina nursing home neglect and abuse lawsuit against the assisted living facility and the nursing home worker responsible for inflicting the abuse or neglect.

Overmedicating, administering the wrong medication, using drugs as a form of chemical restraint, or not giving a patient all of his/her medication is North Carolina nursing home negligence and can cause a resident to become seriously ill or die.

Murder charge filed in nursing home death, WRAL.com, June 7, 2010

Nurse indicted in patient's death, NewsObserver, June 7, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Britthaven of Chapel Hill

NC Division of Health Service Regulation

Full post as published by North Carolina Injury Lawyer Blog on June 07, 2010 (boomark / email).