Elder Law

Man Charged in Death of Nursing Home Patient

By Levin & Perconti

Police have arrested a former health care worker in connection with the 2007 homicide of a patient with cerebral palsy. The case almost ended with no investigation into the victim?s wrongful death and his burial days later in pauper?s grave. The nursing home aide is charged with criminally negligent homicide in the death of the disabled man. The wrongful death occurred at the home when the employee worked as a certified nursing assistant. Last summer the body was exhumed and the autopsy indicted that the man died of a blunt force trauma to the head. There was no initial autopsy performed because the nursing home representatives told him that the victim had fallen and fractured his skull as a result of a seizure. The family believes that the nursing home and the state?s department of human services were in collusion to hide the death and burial of the victim. Additionally, there was little done to inform the victim?s family of his death. The nursing home fired the certified nursing home assistant soon after the wrongful death. To read more about the elderly manslaughter, please click the link.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on March 09, 2009 (boomark / email).