CHESAPEAKE
The
family of a 73-year-old woman who died last year is suing a Deep Creek nursing
home, alleging the staff there didn’t properly monitor and care for a bedsore,
leading to her death.
This
is the third lawsuit filed against Carrington Place in Chesapeake in the last
five months.
Carrington
Place did not return a request Friday for comment about the most recent suit.
According
to court documents, Bessie Shealey was recovering from a broken femur in May
2016 and previously had pressure ulcers, known as bedsores, which put her at
risk for a recurrence. Shealey needed the nursing home staff’s help will all
aspects of daily living, from supervision while eating to hygiene to monitoring
her medical condition, the lawsuit says.
On
Sept. 15, the nursing chart shows Shealey had remnants of an almost-healed
bedsore on her lower back, about the size of a pinpoint, the suit says. Within
a week, it had grown and “significantly deteriorated” to a stage three on a
four-point scale, according to the lawsuit filed this month in Circuit Court.
The
wound eventually went to the bone and became infected, leading to sepsis, said
Carlton Bennett, the attorney for Shealey’s family. Shealey died in October.
Bennett
said the nursing home didn’t manage Shealey’s pain for her broken femur and
didn’t reposition her to prevent the bedsore from growing.
“They could have prevented this in a number of
ways,” Bennett said. “… They just let her lay there.”
The
suit also alleges that Carrington Place staff didn’t treat Shealey with a wound
care solution ordered by her doctor. Nursing staff treated her with iodine
compounds, to which she was allergic, the suit alleges. Iodine compounds can
cause chemical burns and delay the healing of bedsores, the suit says.
Shealey’s
family is seeking $4 million.
Carrington
Place currently is facing two other lawsuits stemming from a separate incident
in May 2016.
A
former resident and her daughter sued the facility in December, alleging that
nurses tied the former resident to her wheelchair with bedsheets and injected
her with a narcotic sedative to “silence” her. The suit alleges one other
resident was tied down and that the facility fired staff nurses who reported
it.
The
facility’s management company has denied the allegations.
Three
fired nurses filed their own suit against the nursing home in February.
Source: njlawjournal.com
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