POLK COUNTY, Iowa – A former worker at a Bondurant elderly care
facility has taken a plea deal regarding a woman’s death at the
facility.
Catherine Forkpa was initially charged with dependant adult abuse-intentional/reckless abuse in the death of 77-year-old Harriet Stewart on January 21, 2022. Stewart died after being found outside the facility in below-freezing temperatures.
The charge against Forkpa was upgraded to second-degree murder in trial information filed in April of 2022.
On Friday, Forkpa pled guilty to dependant adult abuse which carries a
penalty of up to two years in prison. In the plea documents, Forkpa
admitted she didn’t do hourly checks on Stewart.
The deal made with prosecutors would give Forkpa a deferred judgment
and two years of supervised probation. The civil penalty would also be
suspended in the case.
Sentencing is set for November 7th. The judge in the case is not
required to stick to the plea deal and could impose a sentence up to the
maximum allowed by law.
A woman formerly employed at a Michigan nursing
home facility is facing charges in connection to the death of one of its
residents that occurred a couple of years back.
Former
certified nursing assistant Jessica Struhar was accused of elderly
abuse and the placement of false information on a medical record while
she was employed at MediLodge of Richmond, over 100 miles from the
capital in 2021.
The 26-year-old was arraigned
nearly a week ago for those two charges, each punishable by up to four
years in prison, according to the Michigan Department of Attorney General.
“The
overwhelming majority of those who provide long-term care in Michigan
do so with integrity and respect for their important role. But when
there is a serious breach in the responsibility entrusted to them, there
are criminal consequences, and my office will seek accountability,”
Attorney General Dana Nessel wrote in the news release.
Here’s what we know.
What happened to the MediLodge of Richmond resident?
Struhar reportedly ignored standing orders related to the 58-year-old man’s care during meals repeatedly.
Due
to negation of protocol, the man had a “choking incident at the
facility, ultimately resulting in the death of the resident," the news
release states.
Investigators also discovered medical records
regarding the patient's care had been falsified. The falsification was
said to have occurred while the man was receiving lifesaving medical
treatment.
What’s next for the former certified nursing assistant?
A probable cause hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 17 at Macomb County 42nd District Court.
How can I report elder abuse in Michigan?
More
than 100,000 older adults in Michigan are victims of elder abuse, and
less than half of all instances are reported to authorities, according
to the Office of the Attorney General.
Michigan residents can contact 800-24-ABUSE
(22873) for elder abuse resources or or 855-444-3911 to report suspected
elder abuse.
There is also a webform available online
provided by the Department of the Attorney General and the Elder Abuse
Task so residents can report suspected incidents of elder abuse, patient
abuse and exploitation.
“I created the Elder
Abuse Task Force in 2019 to bring together a comprehensive group of
experts to ensure our elderly and vulnerable populations are protected
from abuse. Part of that work is ensuring the tools we provide to the
public, like this form, are accessible, easy to complete, and up to
date,” Nessel wrote in a news release.
This is a photograph of Ellen Hinds celebrating New Year’s Eve 2016 at Shannondell, about 2 1/2 months before her death.
by Stacey Burling
On a frigid night last March, Ellen Hinds, who was 85 and had
dementia, left her apartment building in her retirement community north
of Philadelphia wearing only light pajamas. There was snow on the
ground, and her feet were bare. She carried a potted plant but no key.
It was 2:15 a.m.
Five hours later, she was found near a different door lying facedown
in the snow. She was turning blue. Her feet showed signs of frostbite.
There were icicles on her hands and feet, according to a report from
first responders.
She died a week later having never regained consciousness. Family
members said she appeared to be in “great agony.” Her death certificate
lists “complications of hypothermia” as the cause of death.
Her son, Blake Rowe, a drug company scientist, has filed suit against
Shannondell at Valley Forge in Audubon and its security company,
Universal Protection Service LLC, claiming that they should have done
more to protect his mother. She had been allowed to stay in an
independent-living apartment after Shannondell knew she had a tendency
to become confused and wander aimlessly, the suit says.
“I put my trust in them. They said they would do an assessment they
never did,” said Rowe, who got the “horrible” news that his mother was
in the hospital as his plane landed in Florida for his honeymoon. As
for the security company, he said, “If they were doing their rounds,
someone would not be at a door for five hours freezing to death.”
Rowe’s King of Prussia-based lawyer, Robert Snyder, said Shannondell
should have put Hinds “in the right place to get the right care so she’d
still be alive today.”
The case is a nightmare scenario for many families. The Alzheimer’s
Association estimates that up to 60 percent of dementia sufferers will
wander, a hard-to-define behavior that involves traveling by foot (or
car) in ways that don’t make sense to the rest of us. A man who hasn’t
worked for years may head for the office. A woman may pace the halls of
her assisted-living facility with no goal she can name. The danger
comes when brain damage causes wanderers to get lost and then makes it
hard for them to seek help in a rational way. It’s particularly scary
in the winter, when frailty mixed with subfreezing temperatures can
quickly turn deadly.
The Hinds case also illustrates a trend in senior housing — at all
levels of care, including independent living, residents are older and
have more health problems than in the past — with safety implications
that may surprise families. Most seniors want to be as independent as they can for as long as they can.Families
shopping for senior apartments may want to look beyond the quality of
the food or beauty of the grounds and ask what will happen when a loved
one declines: Were your buildings and security designed with dementia
in mind? Whose job is it — the family’s or the facility’s — to start
the conversation when a resident needs more help?
‘Nobody’s bothered to notice’
It is impossible to know how many caregivers have gotten calls like the one Rowe received.
Many wandering incidents never involve police or health authorities.
Spokesmen for the Pennsylvania and federal human services agencies said
they could not find statistics on people who had left assisted-living
facilities and nursing homes or on deaths related to wandering. Laurie
Brewer, chief of staff of the New Jersey Long-Term Care Ombudsman, said
there were 65 cases of wandering from nursing homes and 26 from assisted
living or other residential health care in 2017. Reporting is not
required for wandering from independent-living facilities or for private
homes.
Robert Koester, an expert on search and rescue with special expertise
in elders who wander, estimates that roughly 250,000 people with
dementia will be reported missing to police this year. The number will
rise as baby boomers age. About half of older people wander from their
homes, he said, while the rest find their way out of institutions like
nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. In an analysis of 800
searches involving people with dementia, 6 percent of those in urban
areas died compared with 8 percent in wilderness.
“Nobody’s bothered to notice how big this problem actually is,” he said.
An Allentown nursing home lost its license in October in response to the death last summer of a 77-year-old resident with Alzheimer’s
who wandered from the facility. Her body was found in a ditch three
weeks later. A 2016 lawsuit involved a man in his 90s who managed to
leave the Arden Courts Memory Care Community in King of Prussia in
February 2014 and suffered frostbite. An 87-year-old man was found dead
on a cold night in 2014 after wandering outside of Arden Courts of Cherry Hill, an assisted-living facility.
But Rowe’s lawsuit explores relatively new legal territory. While
lawyers have sued nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, Snyder
and other local elder law experts said they were unaware of cases
involving residents of independent living who have wandered. Ellen Hinds
got about 20 hours a week of extra help from a retired nurse but was
not under constant supervision.
Shannondell is a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC), a
common form of senior living meant to help people remain in the same
development as they need more care. According to its website,
Shannondell offers a continuum from independent living to nursing home.
It has a memory unit for people with dementia.
Shannondell did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.
Its lawyer, Peter Callahan, said he was not authorized to speak and
referred a reporter to insurer CNA, which did not respond to questions.
John Donovan, a lawyer for the security company, also did not respond
to a request for comment. In court filings, both sets of lawyers denied
wrongdoing. Shannondell’s responses to the suit emphasized that Hinds
lived independently and that her building was not a medical facility.
It denied knowing that she had memory problems and said it was not
responsible for her death.
How independent is independent living?
Snyder argues that the expectation of support is different for a
resident of independent living in a CCRC than for regular apartment
dwellers.
“You’re not independent,” he said. “You’re buying a program for
multiple steps for the rest of your life. You’re buying a first step.”
MICHAEL BRYANT
Robert Snyder is representing the Hinds family in the case against
Shannondell.
Hinds had moved from her longtime home in California in September
2016 to be near Rowe, who lives in Skippack. She paid a $145,000 entry
fee and monthly rent of $1,845 to live in a gated community with 24-hour
security, meals, and activities. While some CCRCs offer stable rents
regardless of their level of care, Hinds would have had to pay more for
personal, memory, or nursing-home care.
Martin Kardon, a Philadelphia lawyer who specializes in cases
involving medical errors and nursing-home neglect, agrees with Snyder
here. “Independent living,” he said, “is a lot different than renting an
apartment at the Academy House.”
Michael Ringold, a Marlton lawyer who specializes in nursing-home
abuse cases, said this case would be “difficult” because
independent-living facilities are not expected to provide supervision.
His own mother died after wandering from a memory unit in California in
2016. Even in locked facilities, residents can get out, he said, often
because of short staffing.
While independent living is not regulated as a health provider,
experts on aging said the line between it and assisted living — adding
help with activities like dressing and taking medicine — is blurring.
“Independent living communities are more and more ‘independent’ in
name only,” said Jerold Rothkoff, an elder law attorney in Cherry Hill.
These days, people tend to be older when they first come to
independent living, and many hire aides to help them stay there. Many
resist moving to a higher level of care, either because they don’t want
to pay extra or, more often, don’t want to admit they need extra help.
“Family members hate, hate, hate moving their family members out of
independent living,” said Julie Thomas, associate director of clinical
services for the Alzheimer’s Association Delaware Valley Chapter.
Danielle Snyderman, a Jefferson Health geriatrician who works
frequently at The Hill at Whitemarsh, a CCRC, said wandering by someone
in independent living there would immediately put that resident at the
top of the list for a discussion about a higher level of care.
Shannondell wouldn’t comment on its practices.
Some independent-living facilities said they will admit people they
know have dementia, although that typically happens when there is also a
well spouse in the picture or an aide.
“These places were not designed to take care of people with dementia,” Rothkoff said.
‘She hated the cold’
Ellen Hinds lost her first husband in 1985, the second in 2012.
Rowe’s brother and only sibling died in 2015 of lung cancer. Rowe then
began hearing from her neighbors that his mother was depressed and
behaving oddly. She was wandering around at night. She looked for a
nonexistent lost dog in the bushes. She thought she saw children in the
yard.
Rowe intervened, and his mother wondered if the medicine she was
taking for nerve pain was making her hallucinate, but realized she
needed more help. She agreed to move to Pennsylvania. Her only
concern, said Jenny Hinds, her ex-stepdaughter-in-law and frequent
companion, was the climate. “She hated the cold,” Hinds said.
Ellen Hinds toured Shannondell and one other facility and liked them
both. Rowe pushed for Shannondell because it had more residents, and he
wanted her to “get out and meet people.” She loved how new and clean
everything was. Rowe has pictures of her dancing on New Year’s Eve.
She walked unaided and had enough stamina for 12-hour excursions to
casinos or the mall with Jenny Hinds. Before her death, the two were
planning a trip to the Philadelphia Flower Show. MICHAEL BRYANT
Jenny
Hinds, Ellen Hinds’ ex-stepdaughter-in-law, said Ellen enjoyed a visit
from her grandchildren at Christmas 2016. Blake Rowe is pictured in the
background.
Rowe says he told Shannondell officials from the beginning that his
mother had a history of wandering and memory problems, though her
symptoms had improved after surgery for the nerve problem in California.
Not long after she moved in, Rowe began getting calls from
Shannondell that his mother had been found wandering. At least twice,
he was told she’d gone into the parking lot late at night, and he
needed to come to her apartment. He took her to his house and brought
her back when she seemed all right. He says he took her to a doctor
with an office in the Shannondell community, who diagnosed her with Lewy body dementia and told him she would eventually need more care. He assumed, he said, that that information would be shared with Shannondell.
In their response to the lawsuit, Shannondell said that doctor did
not work for them, but had an independent practice that leased space.
Rowe said his mother had $900,000 when she died, plenty to pay for a
higher level of care. He would have moved her to Shannondell’s memory
unit, but no one from the retirement community brought it up. Neither
did he.
“Their nurses were the ones calling me” about wandering, Rowe said of
Shannondell. “I was figuring they should be doing something.” Ellen
Hinds’ agreement with Shannondell gave either her or the community the
right to ask for a higher level of care.
Jenny Hinds said the family felt Ellen Hinds was safe at
Shannondell. “We were looking to them to guide us,” she said. “They
said they would help us through this journey.”
Snyder says security footage viewed by Erik Snyder, his son and
law partner, shows Ellen Hinds trying to get back in the building the
night she went out without her key card. The doors have keypads that
allow residents to call security with a four-digit code. Hinds, the
lawsuit says, is seen repeatedly touching the pad as well as tugging and
banging on doors. Robert Snyder said he can’t tell whether she failed
to punch the right code or the guard failed to respond. Photo courtesy of the Hinds family
This is a
photograph of Ellen Hinds taken in the hospital after she left her
apartment building on a cold night and was unable to get back inside.
She later died of hypothermia.
He contends that facilities like Shannondell should make doors safer
for residents who can’t remember the code needed to summon help, perhaps
with vestibules protected from the weather and red buttons that make it
easier to call security. David Danton, senior principal with KDA
Architects in Voorhees, which specializes in designs for senior housing,
said vestibules are unusual for anything other than main entrances.
The lawsuit said the security film showed someone inside the building
looking out shortly after 5 a.m. and failing to notice Hinds slumped
over a trash receptacle 15 to 20 feet away. By 5:52, the video showed
that Hinds had fallen in the snow. She was found around 7 a.m. and an
ambulance arrived at 7:20.
Rowe said he filed the suit because “I don’t want it to happen to someone else.”
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A skilled nursing
facility in Bellflower was fined $100,000 Tuesday by the California
Department of Public Health because the facility failed to provide
proper care to a patient, which led to his death in December.
Woodruff
Convalescent Center received the severe penalty because the department
said it found deficiencies and that it failed to adhere to state and
federal laws and regulations that nursing homes must follow.
On
Jan. 4, the center received an unannounced visit from the department
over complaints from a resident who fell several times, according to a
department report.
The resident, an 82-year-old blind man with
dementia who was taking blood thinner medication, lived at the facility
for nine weeks.
According to the department report, the resident
fell five times within the nine weeks he was there. One of those falls
resulted in him suffering a head injury.
The facility said
restlessness and anxiousness were contributing factors in the falls,
according to the report. In an effort to keep the man from falling, he
was given a non-self-release seatbelt while he was in his wheelchair
instead of a self-release belt as ordered by his doctor.
The report said the man became agitated by the restraint and nothing was done to evaluate and revise his care.
In
early November, the man fell for the fifth time and suffered a cut to
his forehead. A licensed nurse could not stop the bleeding and called
911. He was taken to a hospital and had to undergo surgery to stop a
hemorrhage on the surface of his brain, according to the report.
The
man was also placed on a feeding tube. He was taken to another nursing
facility for hospice care in late November and died on Dec. 4.
The
department said the facility failed to provide the necessary care and
attention the resident needed, It said he was not properly supervised,
did not receive neurological checks after each fall, did not receive any
assessments when he received his safety belt, staff failed to monitor
his behavior and safety with the restraint and failed to assess his care
plan after each fall, among other violations.
Woodruff
Convalescent Center responded to the report and said it would take steps
to fix the issues. The full report, along with the center's response
and plan of action, can be viewed by clicking here and reading the March 30, 2017, assessment.
A Minnesota nursing home has been found negligent in the death of a resident who entered the facility's laundry room and fell into a basin of 155-degree laundry wastewater, according to a report released Wednesday.
Allenne Hookom, 90, reportedly wandered into the laundry room at Auburn Manor in Chaska, MN, on Dec. 31, 2016. Hookom eventually fell backward into a concrete basin on the floor of the room that collects hot runoff water, and was discovered by a nursing assistant who heard her calls for help.
Hookom suffered second-degree burns from the scalding water, and died the next day at a local hospital from “thermal injuries,” the report shows.
The state health department ruled that Auburn Manor was negligent in the incident, since Hookom was known to wander. The department's report also showed that facility staff had left the laundry room door open with a magnetic latch meant to “make it easier to go in and out of the laundry room.”
Mike Senden, CEO and president of Auburn's parent company Auburn Homes and Services, told The Minneapolis Star Tribune that he understands the state's report, and considers the incident “a really heartbreaking accident [that] affected our staff greatly and the family greatly.”
Following Hookom's death Auburn Manor has removed the magnetic latch from the door of the laundry room, and now requires it to be locked at all times unless a staff member has direct view of the door, the newspaper reported. A screen has also been placed on top of the wastewater basin.
