My mother, Evelyn Calvert, was a "frequent flyer" while living in a Sun Healthcare Skilled Nursing Facility in Newport Beach, California. They understaffed, used broken equipment and had a condemned HVAC system while committed to a Calif State Injunction with the State Attorney General's office for killing patients in Burlingame, Calif in 2000 with a broken HVAC system. When we complained they flew in flocks of regional managers to attempt to drive the complainers out, informing us that there wasn't enough money in the budget to run an ad for nurses even. Administrators and Directors of Nursing changed every 6 weeks. When attorneys began visiting the facility they flew a board member in to meet with families. Finally they transferred the license to Newport Nursing. But not before successfully killing patients, including my mother. I watched Richard Laga, a man without close family, who suffered from gangrene and lost his life when they neglected to hire a wound care nurse over a 4th of July weekend. Then there was Betty Harness who suffered from fecal impaction and died because the lacked the appropriate staff to track bowel movements. And Stella Carter who died when "stat" orders weren't carried out by the nurse on duty and she died. And the man in his 50's who died from aspiration pneumonia when the suctioning equipment failed. And my mother, Evelyn Calvert, who suffered a stroke when their blood pressure monitor registered 120/80, yet the local acute hospital's ER registered it twenty minutes later at 210/105. She suffered a stroke rendering her unable to swallow for the remaining nine months of her life. Not before contracting the superbug MRSA from the facility. She suffered ten months of urinary tract infections in one year. Two severe fevers after their thermometers' batteries broke. One Sunday a nurse called saying "If you want your mother comfortable you'll take her to the ER today -we don't have the staff to care for her". The ER informed me this facility was well known for transferring patients to the ER for treatment.
The Dept of Health closed Sunbridge the week they transferred the license to Newport Nursing, stating their staff couldn't care for the 37 out of 59 patients they had remaining until better trained. Disregard for human life by Sun Healthcare?
My mother died and I sued Sun three years later. But apparently my attorney was working for them. He threatened me in mediation for the CEO of Sun, stating not only would he destroy my reputation if I insisted on a jury trial, but he'd harm me too. I felt forced to sign. Then I sued for malpractice and he died 2 weeks later. Daniel Leipold, Santa Ana.
Sun escaped from having to compensate for treble damages since we could prove willful misconduct -$3-$4 Million. They also didn't pay a fine to the Dept of Justice, Attorney General's Office for violating the injunction. A fine of $2.5 Million to Sun in Sept 2005 apparently did not include the violations at this facility, according to Claude Vanderwold, Deputy Attorney General.
Would you say corporate corruption is alive and well in America?
This isn't rocket science, Buzz would say.
Deborah Calvert, former assistant to Buzz Aldrin