Garcia & Artigliere filed a lawsuit against California Armenian Home for elder abuse, negligence, negligent hiring and supervision, and wrongful death. The lawsuit alleges that Mary Forish suffered multiple falls, urinary tract infections, skin tears, and a neglected foot wound that developed gangrene, all caused by the facility’s inability to provide the required care. This ultimately led to Ms. Forish’s death.
In April 2011, Ms. Forish was admitted to California Armenian Home for rehabilitation and physical therapy after suffering from congestive heart failure a few months prior. The facility was well aware that one of the primary reasons Ms. Forish was admitted into the facility was to protect her from falls and corresponding injuries.
Given Ms. Forish’s myriad of health problems, nursing staff failed to implement fall prevention interventions, such as 24-hour supervision and monitoring, the provision of safety and aid devices, special assistance with other activities of daily living, and competent training of staff to prevent falls. Additionally, the facility failed to adhere to a physician’s orders to monitor Ms. Forish’s intake and output of food and urine as well as the nature, content and color of her urine as to prevent any infection in its earliest stage before worsening.
As a result of the facility’s negligent care, insufficient staffing, lack of training, and failure to allot economic resources, Ms. Forish suffered multiple falls, which the facility fraudulently tried to conceal. The continuous falls that Ms. Forish suffered from went unreported. Ms. Forish also suffered from multiple urinary tract infections caused by the staff’s failure to monitor for infection, urine intake and output, and the signs and symptoms of infection. During her stay, Ms. Forish sustained a significant cut on her foot that was never reported to her family. Ms. Forish’s daughter had only learned about the laceration when she saw bloody gauze on her mother’s foot. As a direct result of the facility’s failure to provide proper hygiene and wound care, the cut on her foot became so infected that it had developed gangrene.
Ms. Forish was immediately rushed to St. Agnes Hospital, where staff also found raw skin on her stomach from the diapers she was wearing and her mouth appeared filthy. The evident abuse and neglect she had suffered while at California Armenian Home resulted in her placement in hospice in April 2015. She died a day later.