Nursing Home Abuse Leads to Citations
A nursing home in Washington State has received a serious citation involving injuries caused to a resident that were apparently the result of mental and physical abuse by the facility’s employees. According to a news report in the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, the woman was admitted to the nursing home in 2000 with short and long-term memory issues.
Employees apparently told the woman she could not smoke because her “body odor had become offensive.” They told her it was a penalty for refusing to shower or change out of her soiled clothes. An employee then pushed the resident in her wheelchair to the bathing area and ordered two aides to shower the resident. The woman sustained injuries from her struggle and during two more mandatory showers later. The two employees who were involved in these incidents of nursing home abuse have been fired from their jobs. The same nursing home was also found to have had inadequate supervision of the residents, some of whom were smoking despite regulations. This could have led to a fire or devastating personal injuries to the residents.
Many of these incidents in nursing homes occur because nursing home staff are not properly trained or do not have the time to serve their residents properly. A number of these facilities are deliberately understaffed because their owners want to make maximize their profits. Obviously, a shortage in staff leads to neglect of nursing home residents.
You may wish to contact a Bellevue personal injury lawyer if your loved one has been abused or neglected in a Washington nursing home.