Horrific Cases of Nursing Home Abuse
Patients at care facilities depend on staff to tend to their every need. Sometimes, it's those caregivers who hurt them.
Approximately 5 million reported cases of nursing home abuse occur every year in the U.S., according to data gathered from Nursing Home Abuse Justice. Of these cases, 10% are aged 60 or older. Older and vulnerable individuals face higher rates of nursing home abuse.
A breakdown of the types of abuse patients experiences in nursing homes:
- Physical Abuse: 29%
- Resident-on-resident abuse: 22%
- Psychological abuse: 21%
- Gross neglect: 14%
- Sexual abuse: 7%
- Financial exploitation: 7%
According to a report by the NY Times, many of the most serious cases of nursing home abuse and negligence fall under the public radar. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/09/business/nursing-home-abuse-inspection.html
Good Samaritan Society Nursing Home
Six teenage employees at the Good Samaritan Society Nursing Home in Albert Lea, Minnesota, were arrested on charges of abusing patients. The six teens attacked patients stricken with conditions including dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
The teenagers sprayed the residents with water, poked at and groped their genitals, and spat into their mouths.
Four teens were charged and sentenced in juvenile court. Two teens, Brianna Broitzman and Ashton Larson were charged with disorderly conduct by a caregiver in adult court. Each teen received a sentence of 180 days in jail but spent only 42 days behind bars before their release.
George Kpingbah
In 2017, a nurse walked in on 76-year-old nurse George Sumo Kpingbah raping an Alzheimer’s patient at Walker Methodist Health Center in Minneapolis, MN. The 83-year-old woman could not speak, move, or even cry out for help due to her medical conditions.
The facility investigated Kpingbah on three separate occasions on allegations of sexual assault. They suspended him each time while investigating the claims, one of which occurred seven months before the nurse walked in on the man raping the patient.
In 2005, Kpingbah was sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to pay $15 million to the estate of a patient he raped at the facility.
Hacienda Health Care Facility
On December 29, 2018, a 29-year-old patient at the Hacienda Healthcare Facility in Phoenix, Arizona, delivered a beautiful baby boy. The problem is the woman had been in a vegetative state since the age of 3 after nearly drowning.
Staff at the care facility had no idea the woman was pregnant, nor any reason to suspect she was pregnant. Then, a nurse changed the patient’s clothing as she was in the middle of delivering the baby.
The woman delivered the baby -a boy- without any pain medications.
One of the patient’s caregivers, 36-year-old Nathan Sutherland, was charged with sexual assault and vulnerable abuse of an adult several weeks after the delivery. Investigators matched his DNA to the child.
He initially pleaded not guilty to the charges but accepted a plea deal on both counts. Sutherland received a 10-year prison sentence. The vulnerable abuse charge carries lifetime probation following his release from the penitentiary.
The victim’s family filed a lawsuit against Hacienda, stating Sutherland cared for her on many occasions from 2012 - 2018. Sutherland card for the woman during overnight shifts when fewer staff members were around.
The family alleged in the lawsuit that staff members at the facility failed to notice signs that she was pregnant, such as weight gain and missed menstrual cycles.
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Resources/More Information:
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix-breaking/2021/12/02/hacienda-healthcare-nurse-nathan-sutherland-sentenced-to-10-years-in-prison/8831657002/
https://heavy.com/news/2019/01/nathan-sutherland-family/
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