As a result of the understaffing, Mr Dobbs was not placed on a bedpan so that he could relieve himself and was forced to lay in his own urine and feces for long periods of time. He told his family members that he was soiling himself because nursing home staff would not respond to his call light.
Like Mr Glass, Mr Dobbs lost about 60 pounds while he was in the facility as a result of substandard care and inadequate provision of food and hydration. The food served in the facility, the lawsuit complaint alleges, was not tasty or nutritious as required by law.
The complaint charges, that a "sample supper at Beverly Ripley - according to a facility employee - consisted of one unheated slice of bologna, two pieces of bread, and some potato chips."
During his stay, Mr Dobbs' developed bedsores as a result of the inadequate care and in the end, had to undergo a foot amputation due to those bedsores.
Betty Coggins is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, who was placed in the Beverly Tupelo nursing home after suffering a stroke and becoming paralyzed on one side of her body.
During her last 6 months at Beverly, Ms Coggins also lost between 60 and 70 pounds due to understaffing and not being fed.
Because of understaffing, the lawsuit alleges Ms Coggins was not turned enough and pressure sores developed that were so severe that they required hospitalization several times. Because she was not kept clean and was left lying in her own urine and feces for long periods, during one hospital visit, an emergency room physician reported that the unchanged bandages on her pressure sores had rotted into her body.
As a result of the inadequate care, according to the complaint, "The plaintiff in this case also contracted a severe infestation of scabies that was neglected and not treated or diagnosed for over a month while she endured severe physical pain."
"Her condition was worse than it otherwise would have been," the lawsuit states, "because her paralysis prevented her from scratching when she itched and she was permanently scarred from the scabies infestation."
Adding to the understaffing and resulting substandard care, the lawsuit alleges that Beverly maintains a bonus program tracked by a document known as the "Beverly Scorecard." The program awards bonuses to Administrators and Directors of Nursing whose facilities meet the budget and to executives who's managed facility segments meet or exceed budget.
This bonus program contains a scale so that the more a facility undercuts its budget the greater the bonuses are for the Administrator and Director of Nursing. "This gives Administrators and Directors of Nursing," the complaint alleges, "financial incentives to understaff, not request more than the budgeted staff, not provide adequate food to residents, and ignore caregivers' complaints about understaffing and inadequate care."
Mr Thomas reports that he was happy to see the New York attorney general recently criminally prosecute employees of a nursing home for abuse and neglect of residents. "I wish more prosecutors would do the same," he states, "including prosecution of the corporate executives who put the systems into place."
"Unfortunately, although it is a crime to abuse and neglect nursing home residents," he says, "it is not the type of traditional crime that prosecutors usually prosecute."
"Prosecution" he points out, "would require prosecutors to leave their comfort zone and shift resources away from other areas of law breaking."
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