Ohio Nursing Home Workers Plead Guilty After Patient Death
By Barry Zimmer on October 18th, 2018 in Medicaid
Ohio nursing home planning attorneys at Zimmer Law Firm will help you to prepare in advance in case you require nursing home care. It is important that you make plans to get care in a nursing home before the time when you need care, as there’s a substantial chance you may need to move to a facility when you get older. Not all nursing home facilities are created equal — there are serious problems of abuse in some facilities — and you want to ensure that you are able to get the highest possible quality of care to maintain your standard of living as a senior. It is also important to ensure that you can afford the costs of a high quality nursing home, as getting care in these facilities can be expensive.
Zimmer Law Firm will work with you in making advanced plans to research nursing home care facilities so you can find the right one to meet your needs– and will help you to ensure you protect your assets while getting qualified for Medicaid to pay for nursing home care. We assist with making advanced plans if you are preparing for the day you may need to move to a home. We also help families responding to a crisis who need to find the right care facility for a loved one who needs immediate care.
A recent tragic incident in Ohio shows why it is so important to find the right care facility where staff members truly care about the patients who they are providing support for.
Ohio Nursing Home Workers Plead Guilty After the Death of a Patient
The Toledo Blade wrote recently about the two Ohio nursing home workers who pled guilty after a patient died under their care. According to the Blade, the victim was a 76-year-old nursing home resident who had dementia. The woman wandered outside of the care facility on a freezing cold night and she ended up dying of hypothermia because of it.
There were several staff members who had been responsible for the woman’s care at the time of the incident, including a 36-year-old and a 20-year-old. These two individuals falsified a log at the nursing care facility indicating that someone had checked on the 76-year-old at both 2:00 AM and 4:00 AM on the evening in question. However, no one had actually checked on the woman. An investigation conducted by the state revealed that the older woman left the nursing care facility at around 12:30 AM, going out of a door that had been equipped with an alarm. No one found her until her body was discovered eight hours later, after she had died of hypothermia on a very cold night when the temperature was just two degrees below zero.
Both of these two staff members entered into a plea agreement recently. They had been indicted for involuntary manslaughter in May, which is a very serious charge. They ultimately pled guilty to felony forgery charges and to misdemeanor charges for gross patient neglect. The prosecutor has recommended that the two staff members both by sentenced to probation. There is also a third employee who was involved who has been charged and who will be going to trial in November on charges of forgery and patient neglect.
Getting Help from Ohio Nursing Home Planning Attorneys
Ohio nursing home planning attorneys at Zimmer Law Firm will work closely with you to identify the right nursing care facility for you or for a loved one who needs care. We can also help you to make a Medicaid plan so you can afford to pay for care in a good facility without impoverishing yourself.
To find out more about the ways in which our legal team helps you to be prepared for the time when you or a loved one must move into a nursing home, join us for a free seminar. If you are ready to get personalized advice on legal issues related to nursing home care, give us a call at 513-721-1513 today.