New York Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog
A long-term care facility, more commonly referred to as a nursing home, is where many of those whose needs require more constant care than what a short-term care facility like a hospital can provide. They are also, where many of the long-term and terminally ill spend their remaining time before they die. These facilities are supposed to treat those persons whose care they have been entrusted with the utmost dignity and respect. Unfortunately, there are many cases that these facilities are anything other than trustworthy. A doctor has learned of one such facility that may fit into this category.
Equip for Equality, which is a watchdog group with the support of the federal government, recently conducted an investigation into a nursing facility for disabled children and young adults in Chicago, IL. The facility is facing closure as a result of an investigative journalism story by the Chicago Tribune that detailed death and neglect within the walls of the nursing facility.
Among the allegations that Equip for Equality is making toward the nursing facility is of destroying medication error documents, patients not being treated properly, doctors ignoring pages and lab reports, and internal investigations were sketchy at best.
One such incident is the case of the death of a 14-year old girl who breathed with a ventilator. According to Equip for Equality’s report, the girl died of pneumonia due to the lack of care and neglect of the doctors and the facility. Her lab results indicated that she had a “heavy growth” of Pseudomonas aeruginosa–a bacterium. A week later, the girl was diagnosed as having pneumonia after having a chest x-ray. The doctor prescribed antibiotics that, as the report claims, that particular strand of pneumonia are resistant.
When she was hospitalized a short time later, Pseudomonas was found again. This time she was given an antibiotic that worked. The problem is that she was soon returned to the nursing facility that would soon run-out of that type of antibiotic. She went for two days without receiving antibiotics. Although she would receive another series of the proper antibiotics, she continued to be overcome with Pseudomonas. The doctor was notified, but he ignored the notifications for two days. Three days after the doctor gave an order to resume antibiotics, the girl died.
A spokesman who also reps hospitals in Nassau and Suffolk for the nursing facility stated that the girl died of natural causes and that they did everything for her that they could.
If you or a loved one has suffered from the negligence or mistakes of doctors, nurses, or other medical professionals, you need an experienced New York Medical Malpractice Attorney on your side. Investigating and preparing medical malpractice cases requires resources, hard work, experience, and knowledge. A New York Medical Malpractice Attorney has that experience and knowledge.