Brooklyn, NY – Nursing Home to Pay $19M in Damages for Patient Neglect

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    File photoBrooklyn, NY – A nursing home will have to fork over nearly $19 million in damages to the family of a 76-year-old patient neglected so badly that he left with more than 20 bedsores.

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    The massive award, handed down by a Brooklyn jury earlier this month, is the first in the state against a nursing home that includes punitive damages, lawyers said.

    “It was horrible,” said Margaret Whitehurst, 55, who pulled her father, John Danzy, from the Brooklyn Queens Nursing Home after just nine months. “He walked in on two legs and a cane. He was 237 pounds. When we got him back, he was 148 pounds and he had holes all over his body.”

    She and her siblings moved Danzy, a retired truck driver and butcher, to another nursing home. Six months later, in November 2003, he succumbed to an infection caused by the bedsores, according to testimony.

    A Brooklyn jury deliberated two full days following the four-week trial before finding the Cypress Hills facility delivered substandard care.

    The panel awarded $3.75 million for Danzy’s pain and suffering, but tacked on $15 million in punitive damages, based in part on the allegation that the home had doctored records to try to cover up the neglect.

    Lawyer Dennis Kelly said the first-ever imposition of punitive damages against a nursing home in New York state was due in part to evidence that the home tried to cover up the lack of care Danzy was getting.

    An FBI expert testified that about 100 different skin-check notes showing “G” for “good” had been penned over to show “B” for “broken” — an effort by the home to claim it hadn’t missed the horrific sores, Kelly said.

    “Someone went back and wrote B’s over the G’s to cover their tracks, so they falsified the records, he said. “We believe that once they found out they were being sued, they went back and said, ‘How could we have G’s here when they guy has 20 sores?’ ”

    The home’s CEO, Leopold Berkowitz, did not return a call for comment, and the home’s lawyer hung up on a Post reporter.

    Kelly said the nursing home restrained the Alzheimer’s-stricken Danzy to keep him from wandering off, but left him unattended for long periods.

    He said medical standards require that bedridden or restrained patients be moved every two hours to prevent such sores, but that Brooklyn-Queens only moved Danzy every four hours — if at all.

    Another of Danzy’s daughters, Cynthia, said she and her siblings chose Brooklyn Queens because it was the only facility that had a bed available in 2002, when they realized he could no longer live on his own.

    But it’s a decision she’ll regret forever.

    “I think they should be shut down,” said Cynthia Danzy, 46. “No one should endure that.”


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    36 Comments
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    formally
    formally
    14 years ago

    horrible, I think this is criminal, wonder why there are no charges?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    B”H
    I don’t know owner or details but can’t totally blame owner
    probably hundreds of patients and atleast 50 employees
    one or two loser employee who hopefully is fired by now may have been neglecting this poor man

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    I too am afraid it was more than just a few people. He was at the home for 9 months and there are three shifts a day 7 days a week of aides and supervising nurses who had responsibility for changing him, washing him, making sure he was moved, etc.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Horrible story.
    But, it certainly seems that this patient was not visited by family during this period.
    Otherwise, they would have not have been shocked to discover he had lost 90 lbs.

    ceo
    ceo
    14 years ago

    There are inspectors everywhere….but you see, there is rot everywhere. someone must have been paying off the inspectors.
    The favorite saying these days is: get the rot from within the system.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Even the good nursing homes have problems. Patients that have to sit constantly or remain in bed constantly have to be turned on their sides from their backs. Most elderly people do not like it and children do not have funds to 24 /7 care. It is a problem. Not just the nursing home’s problem but you have to think twice before putting a parent into a home!!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    In Mimonidies hospital I watched a nurse walk into a room and turn the clock (on the wall that says “this pt was turned at…) And walk out without turning the pt.

    Aryeh
    Aryeh
    14 years ago

    That kind of award to plaintiff’s is killing the country. 19 mil? We all pay that when you get insurance premium bills. Trial lawyers are killing us all. The situation stinks, that a man is neglected so, however his family realized something was wrong, or he just lost a hundred pounds overnight ad riddled with sores.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    the award is ridiculous.
    i think the family is to blame for not removing him sooner.
    such a loss of weight so many bedsores…… where were they?
    seems like they were pretty negligent too.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    same thing happened to my father in Ditmas Park. Horrible, horrible place with substandard care. He was there just for rehab for two months after being in the hospital, and ended up going into septic shock and dying 10 days later because no doctor was there to administer care and the nurses were useless when we asked for help. Better to die at home if at all possible.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Let this be a lesson to all the nursing homes and hospitals who think they can treat people like garbage and get away with it.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Whether a loved one is in the hospital, rehab or a nursing home, there needs to be a family member in charge of communicating with the facility, hopefully with help from other family members in monitoring the care the patient receives. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. You can’t trust these people, they’re just “doing their job”. I was horrified just spending one night (unplanned) after surgery in a NYC hospital that they kept wanting to drug me with a med that would have kept me zoned enough to shut up, but still in pain. The phone didn’t work, their response was to shrug, and my spouse had taken my cell home so it wouldn’t get stolen. I had never felt so alone, and it was only one night. It must be horrible having to live in a facility that is neglectful.

    PROFESSOR
    PROFESSOR
    14 years ago

    If you spend any time in one of these homes, you will see that a certain demographic seems to be very common in the direct care of the patients. They are typically very coarse, and mistreat the patients. The pay is low, and they are the only ones that take the jobs. The patients suffer! This is especially true when there is no family member to look after the client.
    While the higher ups are ultimately responsible for these infractions, their only way ro solve the problem is to at least double the pay and bring in higher quality care. This is of course cost prohibitive. I am sure that the owner did not instruct his employees not to do their jobs. They just didn’t want to do it.
    The greatest falsification of records was done by the lowlife worker that was too lazy to remove the restraints and move the patient. The higher ups were just covering themselves later on. It is not an excuse, but they don’t want to suffer for their employee’s disregard of the patient. (Ironically, the cover-up was the catalyst for most of the awarded damages.) The jury spoke loud and clear. Their indirect message is that you have to be careful not to hire a lowlife to care for a client

    The way it is
    The way it is
    14 years ago

    All the people here protecting healthcare providers are obviously owners of healthcare businesses or relatives of owners. Although, the owner of a nursing home is the one ultimately to blame for such circumstances, you must realize the blame doesn’t lie completely in them. The state system for reimbursing nursing homes encourages the owners to hire the cheapest labor out in the market. The nurses are usually the cheapest and laziest immigrants available, most of them living in the slumiest neighborehoods. Then the state system further encourages the owner to understaff nursing in order to save some more money. This, if you haven’t figured out by now, is a recipe for disaster. All this pay for quality of work the state talks about is just a load of BS to cover their behinds. It doesn’t do a darn thing, and if anything, it just encourages the owners to cover their tracks better so that everybody looks good. The problem is when the (expletive) hits the fan the state and prosecuters come out looking so compassionate and noble, while the owner is shoved into jail (if the case didn’t get too much media attention he gets a slap on the wrist and a fine), while the taxpayer foots the tab

    deepthinker
    deepthinker
    14 years ago

    “There are inspectors everywhere”– ceo (no. 7):

    Yes, there’s plenty of money for inspectors and parking ticket agents, but not enough to pay for a full staff of nurses, so that there will be enough people to do the time-consuming task of turning patients every 2 hours.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    We also need people to feed patients. Some of these nurses did not bother to feed this patient == I guess this may be one of the reasons that he lost 90 lbs. My mother used to feed patients in MMC. . They need volunteers badly.

    chevra kedisha
    chevra kedisha
    14 years ago

    i hate to say this, but i have seen many people with horrific bedsores from some of NY’s “top” hospitals & nursing homes. Some are so bad I have seen the bone beneath, and the putrefaction (smell) is horrible.

    We never say anything to the families, their grief is so bad what good would it do? But maybe we should contact the chaplains at these so called great places & also the administrators.

    Just saying
    Just saying
    14 years ago

    Alright couch potatoes and armchair quarterbacks who know nothing but are always happy to provide their “expertise”. This post is for you.
    There are plenty of nursing home owners/administrators who work six days a week and long hours too. A nursing home is only as good as the RNs and nurses aides needed to run the place. A good administrator will run a place efficiently and have lots of plans in effect but they are worth NOTHING if the workers don’t follow protocol. And the workers are not so easy to come by. It’s extremely difficult to find people who can pass a background check and are good workers.

    Are there bad apples? Sure, in every bunch. But YOU can prevent it by being involved in the patient’s care. If you don’t show up or call or care, you have yourself to blame. Ditto in hospitals, etc. All of the posters who say the inspectors are bribed not only have NO clue what they are talking about but show their ignorance. .

    By the way, those who think it’s better at home- wrong. The attendants you see when you visit act very differently once you leave. Just saying.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Unfortunately, many nursing homes are understaffed and with the poorest quality hired.
    Even in so called frum nursing homes it’s a disgrace what is going on.
    Many people keep someone private near loved ones when having to put the loved one into one of these homes.
    When someone suggested to my husband that we put our mother in a nursing home,i told them i’ll save the trip and wait out at Shomrei Hadas!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Plaintiffs don’t collect these huge awards, it’s just on paper, there will be an appeal, maybe even a new trial, and then a paltry settlement.

    tootired
    tootired
    14 years ago

    “Just saying” #25 tells us to cut the owners some slack since good employees are hard to find. I have a great solution! Pay them more than the lowest possible minimum wage and it might be easier to find good employees. Of course, the owner’s might have to cut into the millions they make each year, but hey, if you want good employees you would pay the price for it, right???

    in the biz
    in the biz
    14 years ago

    So let an administrator weigh in here.
    1. Staff does not make minimum wage in NY. A nurse’s aide earns $15-17/ hour
    2. They earn a good wage because of the union 1199 SEIU that cover virtually every nursing home and hospital employee in NYC
    3. It is virtually impossible to fire a poor worker based upon the union arbitration clause. They may be fired but then must be rehired sometimes with sometimes without back pay.
    4. Senior staff is only as good as front line staff that operate almost entirely on their own
    5. There is no mention of comorbitities (other things wrong with the patient) that might have contributed to the pressure sores.
    6. Lastly the jury could care less about other contributing factors. It is well known that Brooklyn and Bronx juries look at the system as lotto for the complainants

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Don’t believe everything you read. Sensationalism drives the news. Nursing home stories get printed whenever the government has other problems e.g. airport screening or too many soldiers dying. This is a means to deflect blame.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    If this one patient had that many bed sores, then what about the others? I’d like to know about that and what are they doing about it? Whether your loved one is in a nursing home or getting home care, the whole family needs to stay involved! Also, what can we do to improve this system? Write our politicians? Something needs to change. Nursing homes should be a place that families would even enjoy visiting their loved one! Families should embrace the great ones (workers) at NH. It is not a job for everyone. We need to do better.