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Elderly Alzheimer’s Patient Left in Her Own Waste

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Disturbing New Jersey Nursing Home Neglect Case

A family in New Jersey shared disturbing photos taken of their mother during her residency in a nursing home facility. The photos show that the neglected woman was left to sit in her own feces, some of which was smeared on her face.

These allegations of neglect are part of the family’s lawsuit against a nursing home in New Milford, New Jersey and its parent company, Care One, which operates dozens of nursing home facilities across the state.

While Care One claims to provide quality care – their spokesman, Tim Hodges, quoting a 4 out of 5 starts for Quality Measures – the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Nursing Home Compare rating gave the facility in question an overall rating of 1 out of 5 stars. This rating was a direct result of multiple problems found during health inspections.

How Does This Kind of Nursing Home Neglect Happen?

How does a facility with a high quality score receive such a low overall score? More importantly, what happens in the facility that would lead to a woman being left to sit in her own waste?

The family of the woman in question believe that understaffing is the underlying issue. Not only did the nurses aides fail to answer the woman’s calls to go to the bathroom in time, leading to her soiling herself, they also failed to answer another one of her calls for help getting to the toilet. The latter of which her family is claiming led to her broken hip as she attempted to get to the bathroom herself.

The Understaffing Problem in New Jersey Nursing Homes

Earlier this year, a bill was proposed to establish minimum staffing standards in New Jersey nursing homes. It’s now been close to a year since that bill was proposed with no comment from Governor Christie on why he declined to sign it.

Assemblyman Lagana, a co-sponsor of this legislation, shares why he believes this bill needs to be signed: “We have to remember that we have a moral obligation to our aging population. The people in these facilities are now — this is the greatest generation. This is the World War II generation that saved all of us.”

Here at D|K|R|Y, we have seen that understaffing in nursing homes leads to many different kinds of nursing home abuse. It’s a sad, but real problem in New Jersey Nursing Homes. If you are concerned about a loved one or have questions concerning nursing home abuse and neglect, please feel free to contact us directly for support.

 


 

 

Source: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/Nursing-Home-Aide-Abuse-Shortage-New-York-Investigation-399497661.html

 

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