Nursing Home

Tell Us What Happened to You

Out of necessity, many people rely upon nursing homes, assisted living facilities, special care institutions, community based housing or private duty aides to provide 24 hour care for elderly and disabled loved ones. Without exception, these elderly relatives and disabled persons have one trait in common. They all rely upon others simply to survive. Unfortunately, individual and institutional caregivers entrusted to protect our loved ones fail to do their jobs far too frequently.

On a day to day basis, nursing home residents, persons with autism, mental retardation, physical disabilities, and/or cognitive impairments suffer unnecessary, avoidable life threatening injuries that would have been wholly preventable had simple, routine and inexpensive care been provided as required by law. The consequences may include:

• painful, life altering fractures
• pressure ulcers that result in the amputations of limbs
• wrong food consistency that causes choking
• sexual assaults
• fire deaths
• fatal injuries when wandering away from a facility

At Zarwin Baum, we are committed to helping clients secure just and fair compensation from such institutions and individuals for avoidable injuries that have caused needless pain, diminished functionality, emotional distress, degradation, disfigurement or pre-mature death. We have a dedicated department, consisting of attorneys and paralegals, whose sole purpose and function is to represent the victims of institutional neglect and abuse. Since 2000, our team has prosecuted cases in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, recovering millions of dollars in compensation for our clients. Equally important, we recognize and appreciate the extreme emotional distress endured as a result of watching a loved one suffer. Our foremost goal is to represent the best interests of clients, providing quality legal representation forged by extensive experience from the prosecution of many such cases.

For more information, please contact any of the practice members referenced in the Attorney Listing.

Representative Matters

At Zarwin Baum, we have successfully prosecuted hundreds of cases on behalf of institutional/custodial neglect and abuse victims, including the following matters:

Pressure Ulcer – Few injuries evoke as strong an emotional response among our clients as pressure ulcers. Whether bone deep wounds located on one’s tail bone or a gangrenous ulcer located on a heel necessitating an amputation, Zarwin Baum has reviewed or handled many such cases, recovering millions of dollars collectively for clients.

Falls – Nursing home residents are typically vulnerable to falls while trying to walk or attempting to transfer out of bed. Often times, residents fall in nursing homes and other health care facilities as a direct consequence of inadequate care, breaking hips or legs that begins a progressive decline leading to death. Zarwin Baum has successfully prosecuted dozens of claims arising from avoidable falls and has made many six figure recoveries on behalf of clients.

Sexual Assaults – Sexual assault is an unbearable crime regardless of one’s age. At Zarwin Baum, we recovered $750,000 on behalf of an apparent sexual assault victim that occurred in a local nursing home. The victim was attacked by as many as two male residents of the same facility – both known to be unrepentant sexual predators by the nursing home. The assault occurred during a shift change when the two male residents were left unattended in violation of their care plans.

Our attorneys are currently prosecuting a lawsuit on behalf of an autistic child who was anally raped by a fellow resident of a facility, which provides residential services to autistic and brain injured persons.

Physical Assaults – Whether committed by staff members or fellow patients, physical assaults can have deadly consequences for the victim. Zarwin Baum attorneys recovered $650,000 in a partial settlement arising from the death of an elderly client who was killed when his aide threw him to the floor and stomped on his side after the resident experienced multiple episodes of incontinence and diarrhea. A second matter included the recovery of $600,000 to compensate a client who was assaulted by a fellow resident at a local, private psychiatric hospital. The client had been placed in a shared room with a another patient who was known to be aggressive and easily agitated.

Strangulation – Care dependent persons are inherently vulnerable and can suffer deadly injuries from obvious and unusual instances.   In August 2008, a client became entrapped within a privacy curtain in his nursing home room. Due to his underlying cognitive impairments, the client panicked and twisted himself up in the curtain, slowly strangling himself to death. Shortly after filing a Writ of Summons, Zarwin Baum made a substantial, confidential recovery for the surviving widow.

Choking – Persons with cognitive or physical impairments often will lose the ability to eat whole any foods without assistance or supervision. Within the nursing home environment, instances of choking can result from:

• “grabbers” – persons who literally grabbing food off of the trays of fellow residents even though those foods pose grave threats of harm to the grabber
• incorrect meals – facility kitchen delivers the wrong meal tray to a resident on a modified diet
• incorrect portions – overworked or inattentive nursing aide might put too much food in a resident’s mouth before the resident has had time to swallow.

Zarwin Baum attorneys have represented several victims in food choking cases in a variety of different settings.

Medication Errors – The use of medications for legitimate purposes is wide spread in nursing homes and other setting where residents commonly suffer from a host of medical problems. Sometimes, the wrong medication is prescribed and administered despite well known diagnoses and clear warnings on medication labels. In 2003, Zarwin Baum recovered a combined settlement of $525,000 against a variety of Defendants who prescribed, filled and administered a medication order for a client that was plainly contrary to her medical profile. Our client died as a consequence.

Other times, medications cause allergic reactions, which if not recognized and treated in a timely manner, can cause full body skin loss that essentially resembles heat burns. In 2006, we recovered more than $300,000 for a nursing home resident who suffered an allergic reaction to a drug administered in a nursing home where the staff failed to react promptly and report the allergic reactions to the attending physician.

Drugs known as anti-coagulants, such as Coumadin, are also commonly prescribed to nursing home residents. If not carefully monitored, the use of Coumadin can result in internal bleeding and death. We have successfully prosecuted claims for the mismanagement of Coumadin.

Chemical Restraints – Zarwin Baum has prosecuted several lawsuits against nursing homes who improperly and illegally used psychotropic medications, such as Ativan, Haldol and Zyprexa, to subdue and manage the behaviors of residents who suffer from dementia. The misuse of such medications profound dehydration, leading to death in one such instance. In 2002, Zarwin Baum recovered $525,000 for the estate of a man who died from severe dehydration resulting from the use of chemical restraints.

Fires/Smoking – At Zarwin Baum, we are currently prosecuting a lawsuit against the employer of a private duty aide who routinely failed to keep appointments with a client who was blind, wheelchair bound and diabetic. The client died from burns and smoke inhalation when she unknowingly placed aluminum foil wrapped food in a microwave oven in an attempt to heat her dinner when the aide failed to appear for the scheduled evening shift.

Zarwin Baum is also presently prosecuting a lawsuit against an area nursing home, which allowed an elderly, memory impaired client to smoke a cigar unattended on an outdoor patio. Cigar ash fell on his clothes, igniting multiple match packages that were held in a plastic pouch tied around our client’s neck. He was engulfed in flames and died from his burns a few days later.

Home Health Aides -- Many families make the decision to keep their loved ones in private homes as their health fails rather than nursing homes. Other persons elect to live in their own homes under a waiver program funded by the Department of Public Welfare. In many instances, home health aides fail in their duties, causing needless injuries, including death. Zarwin Baum has prosecuted cases on several occasions to recover compensation in such matters. In 2006, Zarwin Baum recovered $300,000 when a woman who died when her home health aide failed to keep scheduled appointments, allowing a PICC line to grow dirty and trigger a fatal blood stream infection.

Articles
• Press Release: Medmal Reform Abuses Nursing Home Residents
• Assisted Living Facilities vs. Nursing Homes: Choosing the Correct Level of Care
• Dehydration and Advanced Directives: Compassionate Care, not Heroic Measures
• Duties of the Nursing Home
• Residents' Rights
• Selecting a Nursing Home in Times of Crisis
• Signs of Neglect and Abuse