For residents in long-term care facilities, conditions inevitably come up that require treatment above and beyond the long-term care they may be getting. Colds, bedsores, and other common infections may be common, but they generally pose no threat unless left untreated. Left untreated, conditions like bedsores can get into muscle tissue and eventually lead to amputation and in some cases, death. When bedsores are allowed to deteriorate in such a way, the nursing home may be at fault. News 5 Cleveland reports on a nursing home facing a lawsuit from the family of a woman who says the facility left a foot blister untreated, which led to the woman’s death.
Glennie Hood was the neighborhood “grandmother” according to her son, Michael Hood. Though Glennie was there for not only her own children, but other children in the neighborhood, eventually, her children started seeing signs of dementia.
In time, they had to seek long-term care for their mother. After a tour of the facility, the family chose Essex of Tallmadge, which was just minutes away from her children, making visitation easy.
However, the nursing home reported to the family that Glennie had a blister on her foot. Though the facility claimed that the foot was being treated, the family had their doubts. The facility kept the wound bandaged and told family members it was getting better, you could smell the rot from down the hall.
Finally, Glennie was feeling badly enough to be sent to the hospital. When the nurse there checked the wound, she went to get a doctor to examine it. The doctor said that the wound was “too far gone” and “had been there a long time.”
Ultimately, Glennie passed away and her surviving children have since filed a lawsuit. Attorneys for the nursing home argue that the foot injury was unrelated to Glennie’s death.
Despite these assurances, the state of Ohio fined Essex more than $58,000 from 2014-2016. One report stated that the facility “failed to provide necessary care” for a resident with “critically high blood glucose levels” who later died.
