Metabolic

Family sues qualified care facility after Aptos wife – Santa Cruz Sentinel dies

WATSONVILLE – A lawsuit filed by relatives of 79-year-old Ann Williams against Valley Convalescent Hospital alleges the facility alleges abuse, fraud and wrongful death by the elderly.

After trying to contact the administration of the specialist care facility, the Sentinel did not receive any feedback from a representative before the editorial deadline.

Attorneys for Williams’ two sons alleged in a press release this week that Valley Convalescent employees killed Williams by depriving her of food and water. Williams suffered from severe dementia and needed help with chores like eating and drinking, which the family said Valley Convalescent knew when she was admitted in 2018 to recover from hip replacement surgery.

“While Ann was convalescing in the Valley, her roommate told the family that Ann would ask the staff to help her fetch water, but she couldn’t get enough… (her son’s wife) reports that she even wrote that she couldn’t verbally is’ on the whiteboard in Ann’s room, “lawyers for Santa Cruz-based Scruggs, Spini & Fulton said in the statement. “The family’s efforts have apparently been ignored.”

The family also claim that when Valley convalescents knew that Williams’ Medicare benefits were about to expire, they fired and “dropped” them off the door of the Paradise Villa assisted living facility on February 22, 2019. She was visibly emaciated and dehydrated, they say.

“Her nurse, who checked her in as required, saw her the next day and immediately dialed the emergency number,” said attorney Dana Scruggs.

After Williams was allegedly admitted to Dominican Hospital, she was taken to a hospice and died five days later. In the three months before her death, Williams is said to have lost nearly 40 pounds, or a quarter of her body weight.

Both her laboratory results from her hospital stay and her death certificate indicate that she suffered from metabolic encephalopathy or a brain injury from dehydration and electrolyte abnormalities, the family plot said.

Push forward

The lawsuit is currently in the hands of the Santa Cruz District Attorney’s Office investigating the claims. The family’s lawyers say Valley Convalescent denied responsibility for Williams’ death and avoided going public through arbitration. However, the law firm alleges that Valley Convalescent failed to pay the arbitration fees on time, bringing the case back to the Santa Cruz Public Court. The facility appealed the order last month; a motion to reject the complaint is pending.

Lawyers fear the appeal is an attempt to delay justice for the Williams family in the 2020 case, their statement said.

“It has been said many times that delayed justice will be denied,” the press release said.

Scruggs said Williams’ sons were entitled to the loss of the consortium or the loss of their relationship with their mother. In the lawsuit, the evidence found identifies the legal protection sought as non-economic and economic damage, demonstrably punitive damages, $ 500 per violation of Williams’ patient rights, and attorney and court fees.

“Because we believe this is a case of outright and convincing neglect and abuse of the elderly, the survivors are eligible for pain and suffering on Ann’s behalf and their attorney’s fees in pursuing the case,” said the attorney . “The amount of the damages to be awarded is at the discretion of the jury, but that is the case in which the conscience of our community in the form of a jury often speaks out loud.”

According to California Department of Health records, Valley Convalescent has been charged with a total of 11 state and federal deficiencies since June 2018; the deficiencies concerned both the care of the residents and infrastructural problems. In one December 2019 case, neither a male resident nor his beneficiary were made aware of Medicare non-coverage until five days after Medicare stopped paying for their physical therapy services.

“According to the Medicare Claims Processing Manual, revised 3/8/19, written notices must be issued well enough in advance for the beneficiary to make a rational, informed decision without undue pressure,” one CDPH auditor wrote in his report.

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