Friday, April 11, 2008

Rest In Peace, New Vanderbilt resident

On another note, a death at


New Vanderbilt Rehabilitation and Care Center,


the link is here: (This article is about the woman and her life, but does not mention what she died from).


Link: click these words

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/senior_citizen_takes_6story_de.html

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/senior_citizen_takes_6story_de.html

Resident Jumps from Own Window in Nursing Home in Staten Island, NY

Staten Island Incident:

Here is the website. Nursing home resident jumped from her window. What brought this on?


What made this woman jump out the window?

Was this really a suicide?
****
******(The news says "apparent suicide" -it does not say that it definitely was determined to be a suicide).


Stories like this, above -- true stories, tell us more than ever that we need nursing home reforms.


All around the country, nursing home residents are dying in different ways. Some die because they could not survive the bedsores they obtain in different rehab centers and nursing homes. Others die from falls, while still others die deaths like that one listed above.

Yet, where is the public outcry for more and better supervision, more and better health care inside of these places?

We need investigators to go into all nursing homes at random, consistently and constantly during the year. Investigators should interview all residents and take anonymous complaints of any problems if there are any.

What Happens when employees report?

The reason that CONGRESS needs to step in is because the employees who are witnessing the abuses, and malpractices -- when they step forward, they are penalyzed.


One nurse actually committed suicide because she reported abuse and the system went against her and told her to cover up the abuse.

Here is the article, and we quote:


To understand the stakes in this feud, it's useful to revisit the tragic death eight years ago of Mary Hochman, a 52-year-old night nurse at Beverly La Cumbre nursing home, a Santa Barbara affiliate of Beverly Enterprises for which Carlson served as California-based vice president of operations.
According to news accounts, Hochman walked onto a beach and shot herself in the heart after a months-long dispute with her employer. Her problems began when she tried to report that a nurse's aide had hit an 81-year-old man with dementia. According to Contra Costa Times reporter Carolyn McMillan, Hochman said in a sworn affidavit that she was told to cover up the information.
"If a nurse cannot protect her patients, I do not want to be a nurse," Hochman wrote in her suicide note. "This has taken all hope away from me."
Hochman's note, along with a journal detailing instances where she was told to cover up incidents of abuse and neglect, helped spur a federal raid on the nursing home. A subsequent investigation revealed patients suffering beatings and maggot-infested bedsores, culminating in a $2 million settlement against Beverly relating to preventable deaths. The investigation also spawned a dozen civil suits, according to press reports.
After the Hochman investigation and settlement, Beverly Enterprises sold off its nursing homes in California and Carlson took on his consulting role as head of the California Alliance for Nursing Home Reform



Check this website for the whole story.

Calling All Genuine, Honest Politicians

Now is the time for all politicians, yes all, to become united on the issues of nursing homes reform. There are too many young and old people that are living in nursing homes and that are being mistreated, neglected and handled with a lack of care.

There are too many deaths in these nursing homes and there are too many people turning into vegetables due to the quality of care in some of these rehabilitation and care facilities.

Residents, patients and relatives need to be able to make complaints anonymously and those complaints need to be checked out thoroughly without warning the nursing homes that they are coming in to inspect the place.

Too many nursing home residents and patients are in agony and yet they still are too terrified to make legitimate complaints in order to achieve a better quality of life.

Where is the help for these old and young people?

If you are a politician or if you have any kind of government job or hold any office, we beg you to begin to change the laws that govern rehabilitation and care centers

and nursing homes.

We beg you to help protect those young and old people that are inside of these nursing homes.


For Whom the bell tolls...it tolls for the seniors now and in the future, the young people of today will be tomorrow's seniors.

Please, please unite today and join against these unscrupulous nursing homes and rehabilitation and care centers that are doing harm to their patients, relatives and to the residents.

Read news stories about rehab centers and about nursing homes here at our blog. Help us bring the news to the front pages of the net.


To the public:

We seek your input, your opinion, write to us today--write confidentially. All emails will be answered.