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North Carolina Nursing Home Negligence: Britthaven of Chapel Hill Sued for Inadequate Care

The widow of Marian Orlowski is suing Britthaven of Chapel Hill for North Carolina nursing home neglect. Marian, who suffered from dementia, died from pneumonia at age 86.

His wife, Jadwiga Orlowski, had him admitted to the Chapel Hill nursing home two years prior to his death after he underwent surgery. She contends that on his first day there, he fell from his bed and suffered North Carolina personal injuries, including a fractured hip.

Jadwiga is accusing Britthaven of North Carolina nursing home negligence. She claims that the nursing home staff did not properly monitor her husband and neglected to provide him with a bed that had side rails.

Britthaven is considered a ?special focus facility,? meaning that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have singled the assisted living facility out as a home that has a pattern of providing substandard nursing care. For example, one of its nurses, Angela Almore, is scheduled to appear in court this week on second-degree murder and nursing home abuse charges over the morphine death of Rachel Holliday, 84, and the morphine-related injuries of six other patients.

In 2009, CMS ordered Britthaven of Chapel Hill to pay $216,400 for failing to comply with Medicare requirements in a nursing home case involving 95-year-old Mary Lou Barthazon. A federal judge says that the elderly patient likely broke both thigh bones close to her knees in September 2007 when she was dropped by a nursing home assisted who was attempting to transfer her from a chair to her bed. Per Barthazon?s care plan, the nursing assistant was supposed to use a mechanical lift.

Because the North Carolina fall accident was not reported, Barthazon?s fractures went untreated for two weeks. Her daughter Anne Blanchard is the one who demanded that she be taken to an emergency room. Four days later, Barthazon passed away. Blanchard is suing Britthaven for Chapel Hill, North Carolina nursing home negligence and wrongful death.

Other North Carolina assisted living facilities that have made the Special Focus Facilities list are the Brian Centers in Goldsboro and Gastonia and Chapel Hill Health and Rehabilitation.

Nursing home faces lawsuits, NewsObserver.com, July 10, 2010

Prosecutor: Nurse charged in patient death acted alone, WRAL, June 8, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Nursing Homes, North Carolina Division of Aging and Adult Services

Britthaven Inc.

Full post as published by North Carolina Injury Lawyer Blog on July 10, 2010 (boomark / email).