Police arrested three employees of a nursing home, including a doctor and former director of nursing. They are accused of forcibly
administrating psychotropic drugs to patients to make them easier for
staff to control.
The former director of nursing allegedly ordered that dementia patients
be given high doses of the mood-altering drugs not as part of their
therapy, but to make them more tranquil.
In all, officials say 22 patients were affected. Three patients may have died from complications caused by the drugs. To find out more about the investigation, read the article.
Narcotics and
other drugs are too often used to sedate patients at nursing homes and
assisted living facilities. Based on the theory that a drugged patient
requires less care than one who has not been sedated, nursing homes and
assisted living facilities far too often “restrain” patients
chemically. Suspicious deaths should be just as thoroughly investigated
as those for which the cause of death is certain. If you, as the
family or friend of a nursing home or assisted living patient, think
the information you are being provided about a suspicious injury or
death doesn’t pass the “smell test,” stop, ask questions, get copies
of documents, and contact a lawyer to investigate. If you don’t,
you’ll always ask yourself why you didn’t!
____________________________________________________________
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.
