Many of my clients tell me that being a resident in a nursing home that is run poorly is like being a passenger involved in an airplane crash. You have NO CONTROL. You are defenseless in what is happening to you. And it can be a slow, agonizing hell.
If you are paying for nursing home care, your residence is your castle. These facilities are being paid great money to take CARE of you. This is not rent where you are leasing a room for $400 a month. Some of you are paying $4,000 a month or more and have your life in their hands. They took on this responsibility. They know that you should have certain ABSOLUTE NEEDS, like getting rolled every 2 hours to prevent pressure sores. In one of our cases, we discovered that the nursing home was not spending its allocated Medicare funds for nutritious food. No, they were spending just slightly more than what it costs to feed 3 cans of ALPO dog food to my client. Part of the plan in fighting pressure sores is not only active turning of the resident, but great nutrition. Poor nutrition leads to skin breakdown, which leads to muscle waste and intervention, which leads to decay and sepsis and ultimately death. All because the parent corporation is trying to increase their profits. Money.
Recently, we have had an increase in cases due to COVID-19. But there is nothing to stop this pandemic, right? In our most recent cases, the nursing home was short staffed (as most of them are due to owner greed) and they FORCED an employee sick with the flu to come into work after that worker reported sick. This action would be negligent at any time, by bringing the “old school” flu into the high-risk senior adult care environment. As it turned out, this employee tested positive for the Coronavirus Disease and infected the entire wing of the assisted living facility. The negligent act has resulted in 4 deaths as of time of this writing.
If you or loved one has been subjected to this pandemic by the people who are supposed to be your front line of defense, call us so that we can document the chain of events leading up to your loved one’s condition right away. Time is your enemy in situations like this.
Be safe!
John
