As many as 1 in 5 patients may be receiving unnecessary and dangerous antipsychotic drugs.
Nursing home abuse is a sad reality for many older Americans and their families. This abuse is not limited to physical abuse and injuries, but can also involve more insidious activities such as emotional abuse, sexual abuse, denial of food, isolation, and even misuse of medications, including antipsychotic drugs.
Recently, this issue of misusing antipsychotic drugs as a means of chemically restraining a patient came to national attention. An unprecedented class-action lawsuit on this subject was settled in May, and groups like AARP hope that similar outcomes can be reached across the country.
The lawsuit involved patients like Patricia Thomas, age 79, who entered the Ventura Convalescent Hospital to recover from a broken pelvis. Thomas had Alzheimer’s but was able to feed and dress herself, walk on her own, and carry on a conversation when she was admitted. When Thomas was discharged after 18 days in the nursing home, her daughter found a stranger before her.
“She wasn’t my mother anymore,” said daughter Kathi Levine, reporting that her mother was slumped in a wheelchair and chewing on her hand when she came to pick her up. Thomas was withdrawn, her speech was garbled, and within a few weeks she died.
Upon investigation, it became clear that Thomas had been given a variety of heavy-duty medications during her stay in the nursing home, with one drug administered after another to counteract the prior drug’s side effects in a seemingly never-ending chain. Not only were these drugs known to be dangerous for older patients, they were also given without the informed consent of Thomas or her daughter. Realizing the indefensibility of their actions, the nursing home quickly reached a settlement with Levine for her mother’s mistreatment.
According to a UC San Francisco professor of nursing and sociology, as many as 1 in 5 nursing home patients in America has been given an unnecessary and dangerous antipsychotic drug, typically in an effort to subdue the patient and make them easier for chronically understaffed nursing facilities to deal with.
The fact that a judge found Levine’s complaint against the nursing home valid and a settlement was reached in this case does provide hope for future justice for other victims of this type of nursing home abuse. If you believe a loved one is being given unsafe medications without informed consent, or suffering any other form of nursing home abuse, please contact an experienced nursing home abuse attorney like Michael A. Kahn immediately. We can help you find ways to remove your loved one from an unsafe environment and hold the abusers responsible for their actions.
