Serious, Endemic Nursing Home Abuse at NJ Facility Shocks Families of Elderly Patients

A nurse in a New Jersey nursing home was fired by staff after she brought up issues around nursing home abuse at the facility.

Nikki Thompson was a day shift nurse in the long-term care wing of the Voorhees Center Skilled Nursing Facility, and she loved her job. As the change nurse, her job was to ensure that shift changes and elder care occurred seamlessly.

Thompson discovered potential nursing home abuse, however, after an elderly hospice patient had fallen early in the day, and Thompson ordered one-on-one night staff coverage to ensure the patient didn’t harm herself by accident. However, while Thompson was at home that evening, she received a text message from the staff member on duty who was upset because the 85-year-old woman had been tied to her wheelchair with a knotted bed sheet.

Thompson said, “I guess because they felt like they couldn’t deal with her, they tied her to a wheelchair.” The resident’s shirt had been pulled down over the restraint in an apparent attempt to hide the knots.

The patient, Eleanor Hallowell, had been a facility resident for four years. However, she is lucky enough to have a legal guardian who helps manage her care. Betty Monroe, of South Carolina, has filed a nursing home abuse lawsuit against the Voorhees Center to protect her charge. Her lawsuit accuses the facility of restraining the dementia patient without a doctor’s order, which is illegal.

According to Hallowell’s sister-in-law, the woman did repeatedly attempt to get out of bed, and with her level of physical frailty, that would easily have caused her harm. In such cases, a doctor can prescribe some types of restraints for some occasions, but according to Monroe, there was no such doctor’s order.

Monroe added that the Voorhees Center never admitted to the incident. Thompson was fired because she reported the nursing home abuse to the family.

Journalists who have attempted to investigate the nursing home abuse case say that staff at the facility still refuse to talk about the incident or admit that there was a case. Still, state records reveal that this is not the first nursing home abuse complaint at the Voorhees Center. Documents show the center had been cited for the abusive restraints used on Hallowell; that incident, along with other conditions, were reported by state authorities to constitute “immediate jeopardy to resident health and safety.”

And Hallowell’s case is not the only incident of abuse. A 73-year-old patient named Jose Medina was photographed by nursing staff wearing women’s pajamas. His family is unsure whether staff set the incident up, but they would not have known about it if concerned staff members like Thompson had not reported it to them.

According to the staff’s explanations, Medina also suffers an eating disorder called PICA – he puts anything, including non-food items, in his mouth. With dementia, this can put him at risk for several issues unless very specific medical steps are taken to protect him. The staff claimed that the one-piece women’s pajamas were so that he wouldn’t eat his clothing, but his family insists that the staff should have purchased special garments made for PICA patients instead. And, Medina was hospitalized and required surgery after ingesting a plastic plant out of one of the aquariums, which he should not have been able to do because he should have been more closely monitored.

When asked about the nursing home abuse incidents, Voorhees released this statement: “We are committed to providing quality care to our patients and residents and take any concerns regarding care very seriously … We immediately conduct a thorough investigation … When warranted, we also report issues to the New Jersey Department of Health.”

If your loved one has suffered nursing home abuse in a South Carolina or Georgia facility, contact us today for legal help.