former worker at a nursing home is suing the facility and one of its
contractors for wrongful termination after she reported abuse and
neglect of the nursing facility’s residents.
In the lawsuit, the woman said she worked as a housekeeper at the facility for
three months, and was supervised by nursing home
staff.
During her employment, she said she observed numerous instances of improper care of the home’s residents.
“[She] observed a male resident who had been left in his
own waste for so many hours that he had feces caked on to his leg from
his hip to below his knee, and had wet himself at least one time,” the
petition said.
She said she saw the man sitting in his waste
and reported it to her supervisor, the head nurse and two nurse’s
aides. Her supervisor sprayed deodorant in the man’s room to cover the
smell. The aides said they would leave him for the next shift.
“Two and a half hours later, he was still sitting in his own
waste,” she said. “He couldn’t say nothing. I would always talk to
him. He would just light up when I went to clean his room. It’s
heartbreaking when you see a resident not being taken care of.”
Also, an elderly woman paralyzed from the waist down was left
in her own waste. She rolled out of the bed and into the
hallway to get someone to change her soiled garments and the nurses
“just laughed at her,” the woman said. For more, read the story.
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Robert W. Carter, Jr. is a Virginia attorney whose law practice is
dedicated to protecting the rights of the victims of nursing
home and assisted living neglect and abuse in Richmond, Roanoke,
Norfolk, Lynchburg, Danville, Charlottesville, and across Virginia.
