(1888PressRelease)
October 26, 2009 - Walnut Creek, California – The Nursing Home & Elder Abuse Law Center announced today that a San Francisco East Bay nursing home, known as Pleasanton Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, and its parent company, Generations Healthcare, were served this week with a wrongful death elder abuse lawsuit related to the death of one of their elderly patients, Hella M. Albert. Hella M. Albert’s surviving daughter and son filed the action charging that the nursing home recklessly neglected and abused their elderly mother, and caused her death. In their suit, Alameda County Superior Court Case No. RG09446444, the family alleges that the Pleasanton nursing home willfully and recklessly failed to prevent their 84 year old mother’s malnutrition and dehydration.
In their complaint, the children allege that Hella Albert was so grossly deprived of fluids by the nursing home that she became severely and terminally dehydrated. The civil suit alleges that “Based on her abnormal sodium levels on April 13, 2008, Hella’s doctors were able to conclude a ‘free water deficit,’ which is an indication of how much water a person is missing. In Hella’s case, based on the sodium level of 161 and her body weight, the free water deficit comes out to 4 liters. This is equal to one gallon, or sixteen (16) 8-ounce glasses of water that Hella’s body desperately needed, but did not receive.”
See Complaint 39. The complaint goes on to assert that the nursing home ”recklessly neglected Hella, they ignored her needs, they constantly turned a blind eye to her inability to swallow, her rapid weight loss, her rejection of meals, her rejection to the intake of liquids, and her becoming increasing lethargic as she was slowly dying of dehydration. Essentially, Defendants didn’t care what was happening to Hella and they were apathetic to her health, safety, and welfare. Even inmates in a prison get plenty of food and water and yet this supposedly skilled, but definitely highly paid, nursing facility couldn’t make sure Hella’s fluid status was properly addressed.” See Complaint 57.
Attorney Jay P. Renneisen, a partner at the Walnut Creek based Nursing Home and Elder Abuse Law Center stated “It is truly shocking that a loving grandmother like Hella could be so recklessly abandoned by a nursing home. Think about it, Hella’s labs at the ER showed she left the nursing home down more than sixteen 8-ounce glasses of water. That means she literally for days was not getting any fluids. And, it was only after Hella’s daughter demanded that her mother be taken to the hospital that was anything done to help but by that time it was too late.”
PDF copies of the lawsuit can be obtained by e-mailing Jay P. Renneisen at jay ( @ ) NoElderAbuse dot com or by calling the Nursing Home & Elder Abuse Law Center at 925-280-8900.
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