A resident at the Waterfront Terrace nursing home experienced a fractured leg and a displaced hip after being roughly put in bed by nursing home staff. For over a week, the man complained of pain, but no call was placed to his physician.
In one of the more astonishing claims, nursing home staff told the Illinois Department of Public Health Inspector that “After about a week of hearing [the resident] complain to various people I spoke with [staff member] about the possibilities of [the resident] being seriously injured upon the transfer we did. I did not report [the resident’s] complaining of pain to anyone.. [The resident] plays around a lot and I did not take [him] seriously. [He] is always crying wolf about something…
The resident was admitted to the nursing home for pressure ulcers, diabetes, an above-the-knee amputation and (unsurprisingly) depression. This is a person who is suffering a wide variety of terrible conditions that are either very difficult to cure (pressure ulcers) or incurable. This is not a person who has imagined conditions. These health problems are very, very real.
It’s also worth noting that none of the other staff, many of whom heard the resident repeatedly report his distress, took action themselves.
Waterfront Terrace is a nursing home on South Shore Drive in Chicago. By any standards, this is a busy (and probably very successful) nursing home. It has 118 beds and at the time of the last nursing home inspection, 106 of them were filled.
By all accounts, this should be a nursing home on firm financial footing, well staffed and organized. The financial benefits of a large facility over several small facilities is easy to see. Unfortunately, the truth is that Waterfront Terrace is a two-star facility according to Medicare.gov. Health inspection reports and staffing levels are far below average.
One of our core beliefs is that nursing homes are built to fail due to the business model they follow and that unnecessary injuries and illnesses and wrongful deaths of residents are the inevitable result. Order our FREE report, Built to Fail, to learn more about why. Our experienced Chicago nursing home lawyers are ready to help you understand what happened, why, and what your rights are. Contact us to get the help you need.
Other blog posts on nursing home falls:
Unsafe transfer at Danville Care Center