Choosing a nursing home can cause a lot of anxiety and feelings of guilt for families.
The decision to place a family member under the care of a nursing home facility is usually made when health and/or mental capabilities have declined and the family is no longer able to sufficiently care for their loved one.
All facilities must insure and protect the rights of every resident and provide a clean, healthy, attractive environment.
Residents are entitled to treatment regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, ability to pay, or source of payment.
Every resident has the right to request the name and function of all individuals providing them service and the identification of other health care facilities, nursing homes, hospitals, and other institutions that may provide them with services
You may not be aware that……You can review the state surveys of each home that you have an interest in because Medicare and Medicaid facilities are required by law to let you see their survey reports.
Signs to look for that may indicate improper care at a nursing home include strong smells of urine and feces, vests and other devices that tie or hold people down in their beds, lack of privacy, lack of dignity, unanswered calls for help, inactivity and loneliness, and lack of help with eating.
Every resident has the right to receive medical care, nursing care, rehabilitative and restorative therapies, and personal hygiene in a safe, clean environment.
Also, residents have the right to be fully informed of his/her medical condition unless the physician indicates in the medical records that it is not in the best interest of the patient to be told.
Residents have the right to be advised by a physician or appropriate professional staff of alternative courses of care and treatments and their consequences.
It is imperative to do your homework when choosing a nursing home facility to avoid any instances of foreseeable abuse, neglect, and death that continue to be reported within nursing home facilities nationwide every day.
Every resident has the right to be treated with consideration, respect, and dignity in full recognition of his/her individuality.
This includes privacy during medical treatment and care of personal needs. People not involved in the care of the resident should not be present during examinations and treatment without consent from the resident.
Every resident should be encouraged and assisted to exercise his/her right to voice grievances and recommend changes in policies and services to facility staff and/or outside representatives of his/her choice without fear of coercion, discrimination, or reprisal
But as this next Insider Exclusive tragic story clearly demonstrates… Reports of serious, physical, sexual and verbal abuse are “too numerous” among the nation’s nursing homes…
A Congressional Report has found that: over 30 percent — of the 5,283 nursing homes in the U.S. were cited for an abuse violation that had to cause harm between January 1999 and January 2001.
Over 2,500 of the violations were serious enough to cause actual harm or to place residents in immediate jeopardy of death or serious injury.
Common problems included untreated bedsores, inadequate medical care, malnutrition, dehydration, preventable accidents, and inadequate sanitation and hygiene.
In fact, in 1,600 cases, the abuse violations were serious enough “to cause actual harm to residents or to place the residents in immediate jeopardy of death or serious injury” .
Reverend Randolph Mack, Sr., 63, suffered a stroke affecting his left side in May 2020. After successfully managing the stroke, his Johns Hopkins physicians recommended he enter rehabilitation for a period, to regain physical mobility. .
His wife Rhonda chose Stella Maris nursing home in Towson Maryland, a facility that is part of a billion dollar health entity – Mercy Health – and has a religious affiliation. Rhonda trusted that Stell Maris would protect her husband and keep him safe.
But that was not the case. After a couple of weeks, Rhonda was told that her husband had “redness on his back.” She had discussions with the nursing home about the need to turn him regularly and was reassured that they do turning and repositioning regularly, but the nursing home’s records show that was false. .
That redness progressed into a stage I, then stage II, then stage III pressure wound. Shortly after, Mr. Mack acquired Covid and was hospitalized for 3 weeks where he made a full recovery. .
He returned to Stella Maris in late July, 2020 to continue his stroke rehabilitation. By the end of July, after just another 9 days in the Stella Maris nursing home, Mr. Mack had a stage IV pressure Ulcer and sepsis. .
By the time Randolph got treatment for his pressure ulcer and sepsis, he was in a deteriorated and weakened state, and was unable to recover.
He received care at several other facilities until eventually Rhonda took him home to provide hospice care for the remainder of his life, learning how to clean his softball sized wound and how to apply a wound vac device.
Randolph died on December 4, 2020 when the wound became infected and the infection was too much for his body to handle.
The jury awarded the Mack family $9,045,000, the largest nursing home verdict in Maryland history. The amount of the verdict has rattled the nursing home industry.
Despite that fact, the verdict was reduced to $1,037,500 by the unjust cap that Maryland law places on pain and suffering damages.
The heavily falsified records which helped prove that the nursing home was understaffed, poorly managed, and not providing complete day-to-day care for the patients.
Nursing homes are now aware that they can be held to account in the courts and patients are standing up against the billion-dollar corporate machines that run these chains.
The nursing homes’ insurance companies are taking allegations of negligence more seriously, going to great lengths to settle cases without a public trial.
In this new Insider Exclusive “Justice in America, Network TV Special, our investigative news team sits down with Reza Davani, Partner at Ketterer Browne & Davani Associates and his client Rhonda Mack to share how he got justice for the Mack family by securing the largest verdict in Maryland history for a Nursing Home case, $9,045,000.
Reza Davani has earned the highest respect from citizens and lawyers alike…. as one of the best Trial lawyers In Maryland to protect our elders.
He makes it his dedicated mission to get legitimate and truthful answers to what really happened to his clients in each case.
He believes that elders within our community deserve the utmost respect and that any individual who brings harm to an elderly person should be held accountable.
He uses the civil court system to ensure the rights of the elderly are protected and that their abusers are held accountable for their wrongdoing.
He sees his mission to fight for people who Reza has built a substantial reputation by consistently winning cases other law firms have turned down.
And his amazing courtroom skills and headline grabbing success rate continue to provide his clients with the results they need……And the results they deserve.
You can reach Reza Davani @ https://kbaattorneys.com/our-attorneys/reza-davani/