Family seeks class-action suit over bedsores
Woman says nursing home’s neglect led to infected ulcer and her father’s death
Agaping, infected bedsore that led to an Etobicoke man’s death is just one example of systemic failures of care and negligence at a large Ontario nursing home chain, a lawsuit alleges.
As part of an attempt to have the suit certified as a class-action case against the Revera chain, lawyers have filed a statement of claim that raises 82 examples, including that of the lead plaintiff, the family of Arthur (Ross) Jones, who died in hospital in June 2014 after11months at the Main Street Terrace home in east Toronto.
“Hopefully something will change as a result of this because a lot of people will end up in nursing homes — the boomers are all heading in that direction,” said Jones’s daughter, Lori Dekervor.
Jones, 68, suffered from “sepsis and suspected pneumonia,” and died two weeks after being transferred to hospital from the Revera home. Revera operates 53 long-term-care homes in Ontario, with 6,000 residents.
The suit claims $200 million in damages on behalf of Dekervor and any future complainants who come forward to join a possible class-action lawsuit. Lawyers for the family are seeking to have it certified in Ontario Superior Court. Dekervor will be at a news conference Thursday at Queen’s Park to discuss the case.
The allegations in the lawsuit have not been tested in court.
Revera spokesperson John Beaney said he is aware of the claim and his company will defend it in court.
“We do not believe there is merit in the lawsuit,” said Beaney, Revera’s vice-president of operations in Ontario. “We provide care to lots of individuals, often at the end of their lives and families are part of that process.
“When a resident passes away, it is often the result of a combination of factors. It is not simple . . . and this can often make it very difficult for their loved ones.”
Increasingly, residents arrive in nursing homes with a complex medical conditions, Beaney noted.
“We work to provide care and compassion not just with the residents but with their families as we walk through every stage of their life with them,” he said.
An ongoing investigation of nursing home care by the Star has previously raised the issue of improperly treated bed sores and other issues at various homes across Ontario.
Other instances of alleged negligence at Revera homes listed in the lawsuit include rationing of diapers; filthy, foul-smelling wheelchairs and walkers; and specific allegations including an 83-year-old female resident with dementia who was able to get out of her home and throw herself into a river; and a 100-year old female resident who had an open wound with maggots.
In the case of Jones, the claim alleges that while in the nursing home, his health declined rapidly. The suit states he suffered from malnutrition and dehydration, and he fell repeatedly when he couldn’t get help for simple tasks, like going to the washroom. He became “bed-bound” and then developed a serious pressure ulcer (open wound) on his tailbone that was improperly treated, leading to a deep, painful infection. On May 26, 2014, when Jones was found “unresponsive,” a nursing home physician requested he be sent to hospital, the documents say.
“In hospital, Mr. Jones’ ulcer was found to be large, red, infected, smelly and contained fecal matter,” the claim states. “It was also at an advanced stage . . . He experienced excruciating pain from the sacral ulcer.”
In an interview, Derkervor told the Star the discovery of her father’s “9inch by 4-inch” bedsore at the hospital, and his painful death, left her with “nightmares, anxiety and a lot of depression. It took over my life. I really neglected my family trying to find a way to get some justice.
“This (lawsuit) means that it’s not a secret anymore,” she said.
“I am hoping people will understand what could happen, what does happen and what to look for to reduce these cases of nursing-home neglect and abuse.”
In Canada, lawsuits alleging nursing-home negligence usually result in low financial awards, if any, against the home, said Amani Oakely, the lawyer handling the lawsuit for Dekervor, who is the “representative litigant” in the case. “Based on the number of calls that I get (from other families) I believe that Lori will not be alone,” Oakley said.
The statement of claim lists 82 separate allegations at various Revera homes in Ontario, culled from multiple media, including stories in the Star. (Three stories focused on Revera homes in Alberta.)
Dekervor told the Star that her father was an artistic man who built movie sets and “museum-quality” furniture that he once showcased in his Leslieville store, Smith and Jones.
He wintered in Mexico, to be near his children and their families in San Diego. But at the age of 67, when his struggle with Parkinson’s disease and early dementia proved too much, Dekervor and her two brothers decided he needed extra help. She found him a bed at Main Street Terrace. He moved there in June 2013.
The lawsuit set out the chronology of the allegations, including numerous falls when he “attempted to get to the toilet on his own, when staff failed to ensure he was taken to the washroom.” Staff also failed to use a mechanical lift to move him, as required, according to the claim.
After these falls, and a trip to the hospital to assess him for fractures, no one at the home looked at his skin for breakdown, the claim states, alleging that nobody at the home addressed his risk of falling. From May 15 to 26, 2014, Jones could not get out of bed but received no monitoring or repositioning to lessen pressure on his skin.
Jones’s chart notes a pressure ulcer on his heel (incorrectly stating the wrong foot) but makes no mention of an ulcer on his tailbone, the claim says.
On his final day in the home, May 26, the wound-care nurse wrote that the ulcer on his tailbone was deteriorating “due to incontinence.” The claim says there is “no notation in the chart” indicating that Jones was turned every two hours as required for a resident who can’t get out of bed.
“Had that occurred, his deteriorated condition may have been recognized earlier” than 6 a.m. At that point, he was “unresponsive verbally, his skin was hot to touch and his vital signs were abnormal.”
It wasn’t until the doctor was notified 23 minutes later that the ambulance was called, according to the claim.
Nursing home staff didn’t tell the paramedics or hospital about the bedsore on Jones’s tailbone, which had reached “stage four,” the designation given to severe ulcers, the claim stated. Jones “experienced excruciating pain.”
Dekervor, living in California, said she received a call from nursing home staff saying her father had been transferred to Toronto East General (now the Michael Garron Hospital) with possible pneumonia. She flew to Toronto.
Dekervor said she could smell something strange in the hospital room, but didn’t know at the time that her father had a rotting ulcer.
“Every time they rolled him over, he screamed in agony. I thought, I don’t know why he would be doing that if it was pneumonia. But that smell, that smell . . .
“So I opened up his clothes and I have never done that before, seen my father that way, but I rolled him over and there it was, a nine-inch by fourinch black hole.
“His anus was completely gone. There was white pus. Feces dripping into it.
“From that point on, I’ve never been the same.”