Elder Law

Nursing Home Employee Mixed Drug Cocktails to Quiet Resident

By Levin & Perconti

An employee of a McHenry County, Illinois nursing home is at the center of an investigation into suspicious deaths is accused of mixing drug cocktails to make sure that troublesome residents ?would not be bothering her during her shift.? A 130-page report of an investigation by the Illinois Department of Public Health says that improper use of drugs such as morphine sulfate contributed to five suspicious deaths in 2006 at the Woodstock, Illinois nursing home. Allegedly a supervisor told a nurse, ?I do not care if you play the angel of death, just don?t let me know about it.? The report by the Department of Public Health does not name the nurses, but the criminal indictment alleges that the supervisor made the angel of death comment to the nurse. The Department of Public Health report also refers to a 56-year-old man with Down syndrome who died in April 2006 and quotes a nursing telling a co-worker: ?Those people aren?t meant to live that long. They are meant to die in their teens and I?m going to help him along.? Levin & Perconti have already filed lawsuits in the angel of death case. To read the full story, click here.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on September 25, 2008 (boomark / email).