Woman sues nursing home company alleging neglect of her late husband
A widow is suing a Newport Beach-based nursing home company, alleging elder abuse, negligent hiring and poor supervision.
The lawsuit alleges the woman’s late husband was neglected while in the care of a San Diego County center owned by the company.
Jimmie Davenport was being treated for an infected sore in the intensive care unit of the Zion Medical Center in San Diego when he died on Jan. 5. He was 80.
The pressure sore developed due to the lack of care he received while he was a resident at the Stanford Court Skilled Nursing and Rehab Center in Santee, according to allegations in a lawsuit filed Sept. 13 in Orange County Superior Court.
Life Generations Healthcare, the owner of Stanford Court and 19 other nursing homes statewide, is based in Newport Beach.
Life Generations Healthcare could not be reached for comment.
Davenport was admitted to Stanford Court after a series of falls at his home, according to a news release from the law firm, Garcia, Artigliere and Medby, representing Davenport’s widow, Mozelle.
Davenport had difficulty walking because of the medications he took for treatment of dementia, diabetes and other conditions, according to court documents. Staff was supposed to monitor him 24 hours a day and reposition him so that he wouldn’t develop pressure sores, according to the law firm.
The lawsuit alleges that Stanford Court staff was supposed to help Davenport from his bed when he needed to use the restroom in the middle of the night.
But the facility allegedly did not use standard monitoring procedures like bedrails or an alarm system to keep staff informed of when Davenport needed to leave his bed, according to the lawsuit.
About two weeks into his stay, Davenport wandered from his bed and fell, according to the news release.
“The ‘under staffing’ and ‘lack of training’ plan was designed as a mechanism to reduce labor costs and predictably and foresee-ably resulted in the abuse and neglect of many residents of the facility,” the lawsuit asserts.
Davenport was admitted to the ICU at Zion Medical Center in early December 2015 after the sore on his tailbone became infected for a fourth time, the court documents say.
Davenport died after about a month. The pressure sore was listed as an “other significant condition contributing to his death,” court documents say. A trial date has not been set.
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