ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER
Facility Owner Arrested For Elder Abuse And Cruelty
Nine Elderly Residents Victimized
Only One Staff Member For Nine Alzheimer’s Residents
Patients in nursing homes and assisted care facilities are at risk of intentional abuse, neglect, negligence, or abandonment by aides, staff and owners in the very facilities where families expect their loved ones to be safe and cared for. Elder physical abuse is a crime and grounds for a civil lawsuit for damages against all those responsible. See Cal. Penal Code § 368 and Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code 15610.63 (definition of physical abuse). When patients are abused, Evans Law Firm, Inc. believe that facilities, owners, administrators and staff should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. If you or someone you know is suffering elder abuse in a nursing home, assisted care facility or at home by a caregiver in Contra Costa County or elsewhere in California, call us today at 415-441-8669, and we can help. Our toll-free number is 1-888-50EVANS (888-503-8267).
Nursing Home Owner Arrested For Alleged Abuse
In one recent reported case,[1] a nursing home owner has been arrested charged with elder abuse of nine residents living in the nursing home he owned. Investigators say the patients at the facility were living in temperatures higher than 90 degrees, with just one overworked staff member to look after them. That staff member, not a trained nurse, had been looking after patients for 32 hours straight according to the Sheriff’s office handling the case. In addition, the air conditioning was only working in one part of the building according to the Sheriff’s Office. One thermostat read over 100 degrees. “We had one elderly gentleman there that was vomiting, we assume, because of the heat. It was just so miserable in there,” the Sheriff said. “And you’ve got the owner down there in an air-conditioned office, that’s what infuriates me.” The conditions in the home came to light after almost all of the staff recently quit, according to authorities.
Protecting Loved Ones
Before admitting any loved one to any facility make sure the facility is licensed to provide the care your loved one needs and track the citation history for the facility. The California Department of Public health maintains a database on the more than 10,000 registered healthcare facilities in California which you can access at: https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CHCQ/LCP/CalHealthFind/pages/home.aspx. There, you can look up the license of any registered healthcare facility, the identity of the facility’s owner and the history of complaints, citations, and other state enforcement actions against the facility for improper care or other misconduct or statutory violations.
Contact Us
If you or a loved one is or has been the victim of abuse or neglect from a caregiver or while residing in a nursing home or other care facility in Contra Costa County or elsewhere in California, contact Ingrid M. Evans at the Evans Law Firm at (415) 441-8669, or by email at <a href=”mailto:info@evanslaw.com”>info@evanslaw.com</a>. Our toll-free number is 1-888-50EVANS (888-503-8267). We can help guide your case through a jury trial or toward an equitable settlement. We handle cases involving physical and financial elder abuse, qui tam and whistleblower law, nursing home abuse, whole life insurance and universal life insurance, and indexed, variable, and fixed annuities.
[1] Evans Law Firm, Inc. was not involved in the case in any way.
