ElderLaw Radio Transcripts: A Case of Neglect

We recently posted a series of ElderLaw Radio podcasts that discuss nursing home abuse, the problems that can lead to it, and the best ways to pursue a nursing home abuse lawsuit. We now bring you the transcript of these podcasts so you can read along while listening in.

In “A Case of Neglect,” Barbara Salerno recounts the tragic story of how medical negligence at a California nursing home led to her 80-year-old father’s death.

To listen while you read, click here to open a link to the podcast in a new window. Narrator: “This is an Elder Law Radio special report on nursing home abuse. Are your loved ones safe in our current system? And now, your host, Rachel Gotbaum.”

Rachel: “I’m Rachel Gotbaum for Elder Law Radio. Barbara Salerno’s eighty-year old father died after what she and the State of California say was a direct result of the lack of care in the nursing home where he lived. Barbara is here to share her story.”

Barbara: “I’m here today to talk about my father, Albert Salerno, who died in January of 2003 following neglect and abuse in a California nursing home. My father was diagnosed with transverse myolitis, which is a rather rare neurological condition which affects the nerves of the spine. He was living at home, however, my mother was unable to continue to care for him. So we researched a number of facilities and actually visited them.

We decided on the specific nursing home for a few reasons. One, it was in close proximity to my parents’ house and thus my mother could visit frequently; it was only a half a mile away, and also my great uncle had resided there – he also passed away there without any complications that we were aware of.

We later learned things about the facility that had we known, we would not have placed my father in that particular facility. There was a particular case: it involved the former dean of the local community college, who went undiagnosed and untreated for a urinary tract infection for 11 days at this particular facility, and subsequently died. And so my father had been in the facility for approximately four and a half months when there were serious changes in his condition. My siblings and my mother were at the facility five out of seven days that week, and each of them observed changes in my father’s condition, which were reported to the staff. But ultimately, our family was just rebuked – just turned away – and there were some pat answer explanation given for our concerns.

For example, when my brother saw my father on Sunday, and my father was lethargic and hard to wake, my brother asked about that and was simply told, “Oh that’s just due to the pain medication.” On Friday, my mother was there Friday night, my dad was coughing up phlegm or spewdom – it was green and yellow. And also there was sediment in his Foley bag, and my mother asked the staff about that, and she was advised that he had been prescribed an antibiotic for a prior urinary tract infection and that would take care of any coughing that he had, and that as far as the sediment in the urine, that was due to, again - the prior urinary tract infection.

Of course we later learned that he was in full-blown renal failure, and also was suffering from acute pneumonia at this time. And it was not until my sister arrived on Saturday that she found him, essentially, in a catatonic state. He was not responsive at all, and my sister found that his lunch was just sitting on the table next to his bed, which meant that people had come in to serve him; people had observed this on the staff and did nothing. And my sister spoke to the nurse on staff several times and explained, 'My father is never like this, don’t you think he needs to go to the hospital?' This time the nurse told her, 'We’ve put in a call to the attending physician and are waiting for a call back.'

After approximately forty-five minutes of this nonsense, she insisted that they call ‘9-1-1’ and they did. The fire department and paramedics then responded to that call. And as the paramedics were removing him from the facility, one of the CNAs or ‘Certified Nursing Assistants’ remarked, 'It’s about time – he’s been like that for two days.'

He was admitted on a Saturday. The doctors attempted to save him, but all efforts were in vain, and my dad died on a Tuesday – January 28th of 2003. After my father passed away, I did file a complaint with the State of California. My complaint was investigated, and in June of 2003, the Department of Health Services issued the very highest citation, which meant that the facility was directly and proximately responsible for my father’s death, and a monetary penalty was also assessed against the facility. And the original assessment was $70,000 and it was reduced to $10,000, however, no further action was taken by the State of California with regard to the malfeasance of the nursing home. And since the state wasn’t going to do anything further, we contacted a private attorney and filed a ‘wrongful death’ suit.

We wanted the facility to be held accountable, and also we wanted to go public with my dad’s story in the hope that this would not happen to another family or another patient in a nursing home. We were an educated consumer family; we had a lot of common sense; we did everything we were supposed to – and the very, very worst result came to my father. You know, what I want people to know is that he was an extraordinary and exceptional person, and he was a survivor during his life. He was born in 1922, and he was born with pneumonia – he survived that. He was in the 8th Armor Division in WWII serving in the European theater in 1945 and 1946; survived WWII and was decorated for it. He survived the deaths of my sisters, Susan and Mary. He was also a public servant; for 39 years, he worked as a civil engineer for Caltrans, and one of his best friends at work committed suicide. He survived that. He was married to my mother for 54 years, and he survived her first round of cancer. My father survived all of that, but did not survive a few months in the nursing home.”

Rachel: “That was Barbara Salerno talking about the death of her father, Albert Salerno, in a California nursing home. For Elder Law Radio, I’m Rachel Gotbaum.”

Narrator: “Thank you for listening to Elder Law Radio, a production of Elder Law Answers. Elder Law Radio, sponsored by Sokolove Law at www.SokoloveLaw.com. For more Elder Law Radio, go to ElderLawAnswers.com/Radio.”

For legal help, call (800) 581-6358.

Tags: