Lawsuit Filed After Nursing Home Neglect Case Ruled Homicide
Charles Boyk Law is co-counsel with Michael Hill Trial Law, a firm specializing in Nursing Home Abuse cases, on a wrongful death lawsuit against Arbors at Oregon Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, following the death of 73-year-old patient, Lucy Garcia.
The Lucas County Coroner performed an autopsy on Lucy Garcia and reviewed her medical records from St. Charles Medical Center and Arbors at Oregon. The coroner determined her cause of death was a homicide, with a primary cause of death listed as a Stage 4 bedsore caused by medical neglect.
Michael Mooney of Michael Hill Trial Law says, “In the twilight of her life, she should have been treated with dignity and respect, and Arbors at Oregon just
did not provide that to her.”
The lawsuit filed in Lucas County Common Pleas Court involves multiple claims, including medical negligence, recklessness, wrongful death, and Resident’s Rights Law violations, involving Arbors at Oregon’s “inadequate care of Lucy Garcia and the corporate control of the facility leading to inadequate care that led to Lucy Garcia’s untimely and wrongful death on July 2nd, 2024.
Lucy Garcia was admitted to Arbors at Oregon on January 25, 2023 for long-term residential care following complications of a stroke. Her stroke weakened the left side of her body and her left arm in particular. Upon admission, the facility was aware that Lucy required assistance from staff to get in and out of bed, to move herself around in bed, and with getting to the toilet.
Arbors at Oregon’s administration and admissions staff assured Lucy’s family that they could “meet her care needs, keep her safe, and assure her rights at a nursing home resident would be protected.” They also represented to Lucy’s family that they had “sufficient numbers of well-trained, qualified, and compassionate nursing staff to provide appropriate care to Lucy and all the other residents under their care.”
However, the complaint alleges that “Arbors at Oregon’s administration and admissions staff knew resident’s needs were not being met, that residents were not being kept safe and in fact suffered from preventable injuries such as bedsores, infections, falls, and even death.
The complaint also claims that “arbors at Oregon knew that the reason for these preventable injuries was due to having insufficient nursing staff who were not adequately or appropriately trained to provide care to the residents, and nursing staff who were not compassionate to the needs and rights of the residents.”
Arbors is also accused of misreporting patients’ bedsores as “abrasions” because the facility is required to report new bedsores occurring while a resident in their care to the Centers for Medicare. Such reporting negatively affects a facility’s “Quality Measures” rating, which Medicare makes accessible to the public through its “Nursing Home Compare” online tool intended to help consumers select the best nursing home available.
The Defendants operate Arbors of Oregon and fifteen other care facilities across the state of Ohio. This case has garnered significant coverage, including local TV news stories and multiple articles in USA Today.
The Plaintiff brings this action for compensation for the harms and losses sustained as the result of the negligence, recklessness, conscious disregard, reckless disregard, conduct by which – through heedless indifference to the consequences – the Defendants or their staff disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the health care provider’s conduct is likely to cause, at the time those services or that treatment or care were rendered, an unreasonable risk of injury, death, or loss to person or property, or intentional misconduct or willful or wanton misconduct, and other wrongful conduct described herein or discovered during litigation.
This plaintiff requests a trial by jury. The case is pending before Lucas County Common Pleas Court Judge Eric Allen Marks.
