Seven employees of a Columbus nursing home, including a nurse practitioner, have been charged with an assortment of crimes related to the death of one resident and the neglect of another.
The man who died suffered for some time from wounds that eventually developed gangrene. However, workers either neglected or ignored his condition for more than a month. After they finally took action, the patient was hospitalized with septic shock — which turned fatal just a few days later, killing him on March 5, 2017. In the words of the Ohio Attorney General, the victim “literally rotted to death” while his caretakers did nothing to treat him.
In the case of the other patient, who ultimately survived, nurses tried to cover up the fact that she was receiving inadequate care by lying on her records to show treatments that never happened (some of which they mistakenly alleged occurred on days she wasn’t even at the facility).
Three employees face involuntary manslaughter charges. Other charges include forgery, falsifying medical records and gross neglect. There are 34 charges in all. As the state’s Attorney General stated, “…evidence shows these nurses forced the victims to endure awful mistreatment and then lied about it.”
The nursing home, naturally, is quick to deny its culpability for its employee’s actions. However, things like that simply don’t happen when there is appropriate oversight as well as a company culture that emphasizes proper patient care above all else. It’s difficult to believe that so many employees would be complicit in this kind of situation without the nursing home’s managers being part of the problem.
If you suspect that nursing home neglect led to your loved one’s injuries or death, take steps to hold the nursing home accountable. Cases like this illustrate the fact that the administrators of those places won’t accept accountability until they are forced.