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Woman mistreated in two nursing homes, suit alleges
2/27/2008 10:00 AM By Chris Dickerson  -Putnam Bureau

WINFIELD -- The son of a woman has filed suit against two Putnam County nursing homes over the treatment he says his mother received.

Zeb Lee Taylor Sr., power of attorney for Rosa Taylor, filed the complaint last month in Putnam Circuit Court against several business entities that do business as Sunbridge Care & Rehabilitation for Putnam and Teays Valley Center.

The suit, filed by attorney Erin L. Winter of the Charleston law firm of Bell & Bands, alleges Rosa Taylor did not receive adequate treatment and care during her time at the facilities.

Taylor was a resident of Sunbridge from Nov. 29, 2005, to Dec. 11, 2005. While there, she suffered serious injuries "from a pattern of poor care, neglect and abuse." That included dehydration and falls.

The suit says the negligence and abuse caused significant destruction of her physical and mental condition during her stay there.

Staff also "failed to develop and implement a care plan to prevent dehydration, and failed to provide adequate fluids to maintain adequate hydration" as well as "failed to adequately and appropriately monitor Mrs. Taylor's fluid intake and report her poor intake to a physician."

Also, the facility "failed to monitor Mrs. Taylor for her response to multiple medications, including whether Mrs. Taylor was suffering from side effects of those medications," according to the complaint.

She fell on Dec. 10 and Dec. 11, resulting in injuries that include a hip fracture. She was taken to Thomas Memorial Hospital and had hip replacement surgery.

After she was discharged from the hospital, Taylor was admitted to Teays Valley Center.

There, the suit alleges, she suffered more injuries because of poor care, neglect and abuse. Those injuries included severe dehydration resulting in renal failure, respiratory failure and infections.

The three-count complaint says Teays Valley Center did not keep Taylor's family fully informed of her status and did not provide proper staffing and nursing care to her. It also says Sunbridge was guilty of essentially the same thing. It also accuses both facilities of negligence.

Taylor seeks compensatory and punitive damages, attorney fees and other relief.

The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge O.C. "Hobby" Spaulding.

Putnam Circuit Court case number: 08-C-16

Comments on this article

  • Mrs.Taylor

    I use to work in both of the nursing homes that Mrs. Taylor had been in. And yes there is alot of neglect and no one gets what they are paying for. I had seen alot of abuse also while I worked in both nursing homes. I had always wanted to open my own personal care home and take alot of residents home with me. When it comes to another worker going against another it was then alosing battle you would not have a job there for long. I would very much hope that Mrs. Taylor is in her home or her son's getting the best of care that she is in titled to. When people get old I believe that they have payed their dues to life and they should get it all back. I had a great man in my life tell me to keep being nice to people and it will all come back to me and that is what I believe.

    by Pamela

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  • Poor nursing home care

    Sadly, many nursing homes today offer inadequate care to their residents. I was an LPN at several facilities out of state which offered excellent care to their patients. When I moved back to WV years ago I applied at one in the area and was appalled at the care given to their residents. Sufficient lack of nursing staff and aides to care for those residents, seeing patients in geri chairs not being given adequate care for hours on end, food being left on bedside tables for long periods of time before staff would go to feed the patient, threat of abuse by some aides to residents was also witnessed. I feel that our elderly need quality care at the end of their lives and regardless whether they can pay or medicare takes over these residents should be given the same care as higher paying residents. If this individual is sueing for his own means then I think this is appalling but if he is sueing because his mother received inadequate care that resulted in injury then that woman should be compensated but not the son.

    by PH

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