Blog Post

California Nursing Home Fined $100,000 for Abuse


April 24, 2008
Topic: Nursing Home Abuse

Changing names doesn't really change the way a nursing home is run, or the sort of abuse that is carried on within its walls. Over a period of time, the Marysville Care Center in Marysville, California has gone by a number of names - Sunrise Care Center, Sunbridge Care Center and Two Rivers Care Center. For a nursing home of its size - just 86 beds- the instances of negligence leading to elder abuse that were reported after inspections were considerably higher than the average for facilities in this size segment. Now, the facility has come under added scrutiny after a patient was found dead with her head stuck between the bedpost and the bed railing. 84-year-old Dorothy Rothacher is believed to have died from to asphyxiation. She was only discovered in the morning.

The home has been fined $100,000 by the California Department of Health and Human Services. The fine was levied on February 27 after a series of investigations that revealed a number of instances of negligence and nursing home abuse, which contributed to Rothacher's death.

The investigations into the nursing home abuse revealed that the facility failed to use bed alarms that would have warned staff that she was about to leave her bed. They also failed to lower her bed rails. The level of ineptitude going on can be gathered from the fact that none of the staff seemed to even agree on whether Dorothy was in the habit of leaving her bed or not. One nurse claimed she was constantly getting out of her bed, and then a few months later, changed her testimony to read that she never got out of bed, taking pains to point out they had once found Dorothy on a mat placed near her bed.

This sort of negligent care of a patient who has a history of Alzheimer's disease, psychoses and osteoporosis, is no doubt what led to the tragedy. On the morning of May 21, 2007, Dorothy was found lying on the floor with her head stuck between the bed and the rails. The cause of death was ruled as asphyxiation arising out of a fractured larynx. This is a case of nursing home neglect and abuse, pure and simple.

It's no secret that the management of Marysville Medical Center also manages the Yubas City Care Center, which has the dubious distinction of being the very worst nursing home in California, with the most number of nursing home abuse citations against it. It may not be hard to conclude that the management that is responsible for the California's worst nursing home could also have been responsible for the kind of shoddy functioning and abuse at its other facility that led to the death of a patient.

In Dorothy's case, the care plan after her admission asked for the installation of a bed alarm, and the positioning of bed rails at the top portion to enable her to get out of bed from the lower section. As the citation read, these points were completely ignored, and the nursing home failed to protect her and safeguard her environment, leading to her death.

If you have a loved one who has been the victim of elder abuse or nursing home neglect, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury attorney.  Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.


The California personal injury attorneys at The Reeves Law Group represent victims of accidents, injuries and wrongful death throughout California from our offices in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Diego County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, Ventura County, Fresno County, Kern County, Sacramento County, San Fernando Valley, Long Beach, Antelope Valley, Torrance, Glendale, Bakersfield, Santa Ana, San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, Ontario, and Victorville.