Access To Justice

At Sokolove Law, we have seen an increasing number of nursing home abuse cases over the years.  It’s a sad fact that many seniors are seriously injured as a result of abuse right in their nursing home.  Sometimes this abuse is dramatic and results in broken bones and criminal prosecutions. Too often it’s more subtle and comes in the form of neglect, which results in malnutrition, dehydration, or systemic infections from skin sores that lead to more serious issues such as heart failure.

Now, recent news reports are pointing to a different kind of abuse—the use of powerful psychotropic drugs on patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s.

According to a recent front page story in The Boston Sunday Globe, some 2,500 nursing home residents in Massachusetts were given powerful antipsychotic drugs last year that were not intended or recommended for their medical condition.

This practice appears to be fairly widespread. The US Food and Drug Administration have twice issued nationwide alerts about the use of these drugs for elderly patients. In October, the Chicago Tribune identified 1,200 violations at Illinois nursing homes involving psychotropic medications since 2001. Those infractions affected 2,900 patients.

And the problem does not appear to be limited just to the U.S.  In November, a report in the Guardian found that nearly 2,000 elderly patients are killed each year in the U.K. by unnecessary anti-psychotic medication, and as many as 144,000 people suffering from dementia in that country are being given anti-psychotic drugs unnecessarily.

Here’s the bottom line, as reported in the Globe:

“Way too many patients in nursing homes are treated with antipsychotics purely to sedate them or to control behaviors that are difficult for the staff,’’ said Robert A. Stern, an Alzheimer’s specialist and brain researcher at Boston University School of Medicine.

Simply put these drugs may be dangerous, and that may be particularly true when they are given to patients who don’t need them.  The use of antipsychotic drugs on patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s is just another subtle form of nursing home abuse.  If you or a loved one has been the victim of nursing home abuse of any kind, you may have legal rights.  Contact us to find out more.

News developments that we’ll be watching at Sokolove Law:

Oil giant BP was ordered to pay $100 million in damages to contract workers after a federal  jury found that the company exposed the workers to toxic substances at its Texas City oil refinery in 2007, writes the Houston Chronicle. The story says that the plaintiffs alleged exposure to carbon disulfide while working on two refining units. BP said it will appeal the decision.

Tough new rules regarding the use of anti-psychotic drugs are being sought in the wake of a recent Chicago Tribune investigation that found the medications were sometimes used to “chemically restrain” elderly patients in Illinois nursing homes.  The Tribune reports today that health advocates are urging Gov. Pat Quinn’s Nursing Home Safety Task Force to target the problem.

People with pacemakers should think twice before undergoing an MRI scan.  ScienceDaily reports that FDA researchers have found that MRI scans may cause certain cardiac pacemakers to inadequately stimulate a patient’s heart due to the magnetic pulses from the MRI mixing with the electronic pulses from the pacemaker. This lack of stimulation could create a potentially dangerous situation for these patients, according to the article.

Industrial launderer Cintas has agreed to pay $6.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that it failed to pay a living wage to some of its laundry workers, writes the Associated Press. The tentative settlement provides $3.3 million in back wages and interest for more than 500 Southern California Cintas laundry workers at the company’s Ontario, Pico Rivera, and Whittier locations, according to a Workers United/SEIU press release. Cintas doesn’t admit wrongdoing in the settlement, says the AP.

Recent Recalls: The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that Dorel Juvenile Group is voluntarily recalling about 477,000 Dorel infant car seat/carriers. These carriers were also sold under the Safety 1st, Cosco, Eddie Bauer, and Disney brands. Dorel said it has received 77 reports of the carrier handle fully or partially falling off. At least three injuries to infants have been reported, including a head injury, bumps, and bruises. The product can still be used as a car seat when properly installed, according to the CSPC.

We’ll be watching these developments here at Sokolove Law.

News developments that we’ll be watching at Sokolove Law:

Radiation from computerized tomography or CT scans performed in 2007 will cause an estimated 29,000 cancers that will result in the deaths of 15,000 Americans, warns a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Two-thirds of the projected cancers will occur in women, one-third in people ages 35-54 at the time of their CT, and 15 percent in children or teens, according to a Reuters article. About 70 million CT scans were done on Americans in 2007.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recalled millions of Roman shades and blinds today after receiving reports of several strangulation deaths in young children. CPSC has received reports of five deaths and 16 near strangulations, since 2006, in Roman shades, and three deaths, since 2001, in roll-up blinds. The CPSC and the Window Covering Safety Council are working to provide repair kits for the recalled shades, which were sold by retailers including Wal-Mart, Pottery Barn, Ace Hardware, West Elm, The Land of Nod, and JCPenney.

New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton will carry the ball in a class-action lawsuit against Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co. Ltd., says a blog post at The Times-Picayune. Knauf is a Chinese company that made drywall that is believed to be corroding homes and making people sick. Payton, the suit’s lead plaintiff, was one of the first in Louisiana to link media reports of defective Chinese drywall to his family’s health problems and the failure of electrical and other equipment in his home. It is estimated that at least 550 million pounds of Chinese drywall has been imported into the United States since 2006 — enough to build 60,000 average-size homes.

Resolving Paxil lawsuits has cost GlaxoSmithKline almost $1 billion, according to a Bloomberg News report that cites court records and people familiar with the cases. This figure includes $390 million to settle suicide or attempted suicide cases linked to the anti-depressant drug, and $200 million to settle Paxil addiction and birth-defect cases. Bloomberg says Glaxo declined to confirm the $1 billion figure. Paxil went on the market in 1993.

Nursing home administrators in Illinois may soon face tougher disciplinary sanctions in cases of patient harm in their facilities as state officials push to improve elder safety. The Chicago Tribune writes that administrators are now seldom punished by the state entity charged with licensing them and other professional nursing home staff, despite reports of elder abuse.

Keep those you love protected from harm. At Sokolove Law, we’re here to help.