Wawa-news.com You can't hear the 'big picture'!
May 3, 2018 @ 06:46
Be aware that this article contains disturbing material, and may be very upsetting to many.
Amani Oakley, a medical malpractice lawyer who launched a class action against Nursing Home giant, Revera, in 2016, has now proceeded to file class actions against both Extendicare and Leisureworld.
Ms. Oakley is furious that nursing home residents are left to suffer, in the infinite ways she has learned about, from families who have called her office seeking assistance. Ms. Oakley observed, “There is no other segment of our society where we would tolerate these abuses, year after year, decade after decade. If our children suffered like this in daycare, there would be a government inquiry and heads would roll. If an animal shelter had animals suffering with the kinds of wounds we see on nursing home residents, there would be outrage, tears, and change at the top. To say that this is an unacceptable way to treat a generation which has given us so much, is to seriously understate the obvious.”
And Amani Oakley means business in confronting these abuses.
She has pulled together a team of high‐skilled, dedicated lawyers to handle these cases. As the senior partner of Oakley & Oakley, Amani has decided to partner with the class action powerhouse law firm of Howie Sacks Henry, and the well‐known law firm of Diamond and Diamond – famous for its ability to get the word out and its capacity to handle a huge workload of calls and claims.
Amani has christened the newly created team, the Nursing Homes Action Coalition and they’ve established a number and a website:
1 (877) 506‐NHAC or 1 (877) 506‐6422 www.nursinghomeabuse.ca
“The problem is a huge one, and one which seems to be ever‐present, despite decades of reporting by equally appalled journalists”, Amani said, “so it’s time we met the challenge with a powerful legal team which is prepared to expose these abuses and attain some justice for residents and their families. Really, I think Canadians have to say ‘enough already!’,” she stated.
Ms. Oakley represents a family whose mother had maggots in her leg wound (a story first featured in the National Post), while resident in West End Villa in Ottawa ‐ an Extendicare home. Her daughter, Lara Gerol, was moved to start legal action because she was “horrified” at the thought of maggots crawling around in her mother’s leg wound, a wound which hadn’t been cleaned in six days. West End Villa has a number of infractions, as identified by the Ministry of Health in their online database.
The family of Shirley Murphy has also decided to proceed with legal action, after they witnessed Shirley’s poor care in an Extendicare facility (Craiglee) in Toronto. Shirley suffered with an inserted catheter for more than two months, without it being changed, leaving her excruciatingly sore and unable to have another catheter inserted. After about four months in the home, Shirley was told by a PSW to “clean up her own mess” in the washroom.
Heartbreakingly, while trying to follow these mean‐spirited instructions, Shirley fell – breaking her ankle. No one answered the emergency call bell for almost half‐an‐hour, while Shirley cried by herself on the floor. It appears Shirley died from sepsis, when the nursing home failed to administer the appropriate medications which had been prescribed for Shirley – including an antibiotic. Craiglee also has a number of infractions listed on the Ministry website.
And one can only imagine the horror that Jose Novo’s family endured, as they watched their dad and brother, be reduced to skin and bones, and his skin covered in gruesome bed sores.
Tullamore Nursing Home in Brampton, run by Leisureworld, failed to look after Jose, failed to ensure he ate enough or received enough fluids and failed to properly and consistently treat his bedsores, which could be found in a dozen or more places by the time of his death.
Jose’s family was looking after him at home for years, but finally, his daughter (Ana) had no choice but to go back to work. She blames herself for putting her dad in the nursing home, though she knows all too well – as do her brothers – that the family struggled financially, as long as they could to keep him home. Within a month of his transfer into Tullamore, he was dehydrated and rushed to hospital. The family regularly noted that no one was feeding him and no one was ensuring he received fluids, despite the fact that he was entirely dependent on the nursing home for that care – something promised by their promotional materials.
Tullamore also has a number of infractions listed on the Ministry website.
The photos taken by this distraught family, tell all the story that needs to be told, about the failure of Leisureworld to deliver on those promises.
Amani Oakley points out that while residents are suffering these terrible outcomes, the CEOs of these companies are making extraordinary salaries on the backs of these victims.
The 2016 salary of Extendicare CEO – Timothy Lukenda – was $1,524,387s annual salary, and over $2.5 million when his long‐term compensation is taken into account. The 2014 salary of Leisureworld CEO Lois Cormack was over $1.5 million including stock options. It is also worth noting that in 2014, none of the “performance categories” that the Leisureworld board of directors had to achieve in order to earn bonuses, had anything to do with delivering good, competent, compassionate care to Leisureworld residents:
Amani Oakley is focused on making this stop. “There’s a ton of money being made at the top of these giant nursing home corporations”, she says, “so let’s not hear another word about limited resources being the cause of these problems. I wouldn’t have even a tiny bit of a problem if the folks running these nursing homes were getting millions of dollars because they were doing such a fine job keeping our seniors safe and comfortable in their golden years. But that’s obviously not the case.”
She encourages those who have been the victims of these nursing homes to call the Nursing Home Action Coalition at 1 (877) 506‐NHAC or 1 (877) 506‐6422, or contact NHAC through the website, set up just for this purpose: www.nursinghomeabuse.ca
She also cautioned against assuming that the home your loved one is in, is not one of the three being named in the Class Actions.
She explains, “there’s a very curious thing happening right now. These nursing home giants are doing business under a whole lot of different names, like Sienna Senior Living (Leisureworld), CVH No. 1, 2, 3, etc. (Extendicare), Vigour (Leisureworld), and others. Extendicare is also managing a lot of homes so it is often difficult to spot their involvement.
So the Nursing Home Action Coalition recommends that if you’ve experienced poor care in a nursing home, contact us and we can help you determine if the home might be one of the homes named in the Class Actions (Revera, Extendicare, Leisureworld), despite new names or new management arrangements. We think that the government should step in to stop this name game, since the public has a right to know where public tax dollars are going. In the meantime, give us a call if we can help you or your family.”
There will be a Media Conference today at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday May 3, 2018 at Queen’s Park.
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