Infamous Cases Of Overmedicating Florida Nursing Home Residents
It’s often said that placing a loved one in a nursing home may be the most difficult, yet necessary choice a family feels they must make. Unfortunately, loved ones are at high-risk for abuse within a nursing home. Reports reveal that 25% of nursing homes are cited every year for elderly abuse.
Researchers are currently seeing a dramatic increase in nursing home residents being overmedicated. Florida nursing homes have been proven to have the highest rates of overmedicating their residents, over 71%. Below is list of recent nursing home overdose headlines.
Morphine Patch Kills St. Louis Nursing Home Resident
At only 46, nursing home resident William Jones didn’t even have a prescription for the morphine patch. While it remains unclear how the patient received the morphine, the nursing staff testified that patients were routinely overmedicated and given morphine. The St. Louis Normandy Nursing Center was found responsible for his death. While the hospital’s attorney defended their 2/5 star rating from Medicare, the jury ruled in the brother’s favor and assigned damages to be paid in the total of $700,000.
Overdose of Coumadin Kills California Nursing Home Resident
Within another nursing home, an 82-year-old stroke patient was recently overdosed with Coumadin, a blood thinning medication. Following his daughter’s persisting for him to be rushed to the hospital after obvious bruising, it was found that he was administered 20-times more of the medication than that which was prescribed. Her father died two days later and the CA Health Department gave a spanking to the hand with a $100,000 fine. The firm that owned that nursing home also owed over $30 million in damages to another family for elderly abuse causing another’s patients death.
If you have a loved one that has suffered from being given the wrong medication or overmedicated within a Florida nursing home, contact the Law Offices of David Benenfeld for a free legal consultation to determine if you have a case. To successfully pursue defending your loved one’s rights, you will need a qualified Florida Nursing Home Abuse Attorney. Call 954-677-0155.
