Long Island Nursing Home Neglect Makes Headlines
New York lawmakers say the Medford Multicare Center for Living should be closed following nine arrests and one death attributed to nursing home neglect in the Long Island facility. The NY Attorney General’s Office arrested nine employees for neglecting residents and falsifying records, and also charged the center’s owners with pocketing some $60 million meant for Medicaid patients.
The arrests came on the heels of a year-long investigation into the 320-bed Suffolk County facility, which opened in 2003. New York’s Attorney General A.G. Schneiderman claims that 72 year-old Aurelia Rios died at the Medford Center for Living after a worker failed to connect her to a ventilator. Nursing home employee Kethlie Joseph is facing felony charges for the negligent homicide of Rios. Joseph went on record stating that she was never told by a doctor to hook Rios up to a ventilator.
Long Island nursing home neglect leaves one senior dead
Disturbing surveillance video shows Joseph ignoring alarms indicating that Aurelia Rios had stopped breathing, and for two hours left the senior unattended. Rios’ family was told she had died of a heart attack. In total, nine Medford nursing home personnel have been arrested in connection with Rios’ death and purported cover-up.
Other elders at the facility experienced neglect and abuse so extreme that one suffered a traumatic head injury while left unattended and another was found in “deplorable and dangerously unsanitary conditions.” The facility has been cited for at least 130 violations by the state department of health, and court filings indicate that in the past ten years, 17 nurses and staff have pled guilty to falsifying patient records.
“Today’s arrests and lawsuit send a message that we will not tolerate anyone being neglected or denied life-saving medical treatment while individuals line their own pockets with tens of millions of dollars that Medicaid intended to provide resident care. We must and will do everything in our power to protect our vulnerable nursing home residents from being preyed upon by those who are entrusted with their care, yet fail to fulfill their duties to provide necessary care” said Attorney General Schneiderman in a press release issued this month.
Owners accused of New York Medicare fraud
A separate civil suit was brought against the Long Island nursing home’s owners, charging them with fraud based on a “long history of criminal conduct by employees of the home, and corporate looting.”
The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit discovered that the owners had siphoned off some 22 percent of Medicaid funds meant for patients – padding their bank accounts with $60 million over the last decade. Money that was meant to improve residents’ quality of life was secretly stolen as Medford patients suffered the effects of dangerously inadequate care and blatant neglect.
Legal recourse for victims of nursing home abuse
If you suspect a loved one has been injured by nursing home neglect in Long Island, Staten Island, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, or the Bronx, please report the abuse immediately and speak with a medical malpractice attorney about legal options provided to such victims. The Sanders Firm believes our elders should be treated with the utmost care and respect, and our personal injury attorneys will advocate on behalf of those who have needlessly suffered.
Serving New York residents for more than forty five years, we stand ready to hold negligent and abusive nursing home workers accountable for their actions. Call us today for a confidential consultation at no charge to you.1-800-Fair-Play (888-743-1031). Resources
- Long Island News, Lawmakers call for closure of Medford Multicare Center for Living, nursing home at center of probe, https://longisland.news12.com/news/lawmakers-call-for-closure-of-medford-multicare-center-for-living-nursing-home-at-center-of-probe-1.7049069
- My FoxNY, Long Island nursing home workers arrested, https://www.myfoxny.com/story/24698298/long-island-nursing-home-workers-arrested
- Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, A.G. Schneiderman Announces Arrests Of Suffolk County Nursing Home Employees And Lawsuit Against The Home’s Owners Alleging Pattern Of Neglect, https://www.ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-schneiderman-announces-arrests-suffolk-county-nursing-home-employees-and-lawsuit
