As reported by the Orange County Register, a woman has filed an elder abuse lawsuit against a nursing home for drugging her so that they could attain her retirement funds.
The woman, retired schoolteacher, M.A.D., 68, claims that the employees of Country Villa in Seal Beach "chemically restrain(ed)" her.
She filed her lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court during the last week of August for unspecified damages.
State investigators corroborate M.A.D.'s claim. When the investigators visited Country Villa in February they found that M.A.D. had indeed been inappropriately medicated.
The nursing home allegedly corrected their error.
Department of Public Health spokesman, Ralph Montano, said that their will be no fines, or citations, issued to Country Villa.
The chief operating officer for Country Villa Health Services, Julianne Williams, said that the Los Angeles-based company's administrators are in the process of reviewing the lawsuit. Comments were unavailable until their evaluation is completed.
She said, "
We take these things very seriously. The care and health and welfare of our residents are our very first priority. Every allegation that is brought to us will be investigated and acted upon appropriately."
The events that led up to the lawsuit are as follows: M.A.D., a retired preschool teacher that did part-time secretarial work for her church, suffered from diabetes and an assortment of other health problems.
In the fall she collapsed in her home. She was in a hospital for 10 days before being moved to Country Villa.
M.A.D. resided in the Country Villa nursing home for three months.
In the suit, M.A.D. claims that Country Villa medicated her so that she would suffer from "cognitive impairment." At that moment, it is alleged, Country Villa staff members swooped in to try and get M.A.D.'s payments from Social Security.
Matthew Borden, a Berkeley-based attorney representing M.A.D., said, "You're trusting these people, you're relying on them. They're supposed to be medical people. It's just unconscionable and it's scary."
As M.A.D. had no immediate family to work on her behalf, a friend came to her aid and the medication was stopped. At this point M.A.D. was moved to a Fountain Valley nursing home.
M.A.D. is still residing in the Fountain Valley nursing care home.
The state's report, which doesn't identify M.A.D., said that a nursing home is forbidden to use psychotherapeutic drugs for the purpose of "patient discipline or staff convenience." The report went on to say that M.A.D. was given Haldol.
Haldo is an antipsychotic medication for treating schizophrenic patients.
In pertaining to the administration of anti-psychotic drugs, capitalized words in Country Villa's policy specifically states, "SHOULD NOT BE USED" for patients experiencing only anxiety.
After doctors had ordered that M.A.D.'s medication for dementia be discontinued, nursing staff still administered it, per the report.
Investigators that spoke with a nurse learned that M.A.D.'s cognition and behavior improved one the medication ceased.
M.A.D. claimed that the drugs were given to her "to the point that I was unable to be aware of anything."
If you, or someone you care about, has been ill treated while in a nursing home facility, contact a nursing home abuse lawyer. Sometimes the "bruising" is not visible to the untrained eye.