Woman Killed by Parasites
When you and your loved one make a decision to move into a nursing home facility, you may feel like you are at the mercy of the nursing home management and staff. Your family is entrusting someone you love into the care of others you do not personally know. This can be a difficult choice to make for any family member.
It is difficult to emphasize the importance of ensuring your loved one is placed into the hands of trusted caretakers who will properly treat and care for their needs. In the worst-case scenarios, nursing home residents can suffer physical and mental harm due to severe negligence.
A tragic case of nursing home negligence that follows serves as an example.
Long painful death of a once vibrant, flourishing woman
The beautiful young woman caught the attention of those around her. She captured a room. She was indeed a contemporary woman for her era during the 1940s and 1950s. Career-oriented, headstrong and hard-working, she was a small-town girl from the State of North Carolina who moved to Norfolk Virginia after graduating high school to work at the naval base. Later she worked as a model in New York City and also landed a job as an assistant to Mike Wallace of CBS news. She married and worked as a stay-at-home mother.
However, later in life her physical condition necessitated that she live in a Georgia nursing home. It was there where she suffered terrible negligence that ultimately concluded in her long, painful death. In this facility, parasitic mites had made their way under her skin, laying eggs throughout her body. As a result, the body of the woman, Rebecca Zeni, became infected with crusted scabies. The infection of the scabies became so severe that her bloodstream became infected with bacteria, which brought about her death at age 93.
What is scabies?
Scabies is another word for a mite infestation. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “The microscopic scabies mite burrows into the upper layer of the skin where it lives and lays its eggs. The most common symptoms of scabies are intense itching and a pimple-like skin rash. The scabies mite usually is spread by direct, prolonged, skin-to-skin contact with a person who has scabies.”
The CDC says that scabies can spread rapidly, especially in areas where people are in close contact. Crusted scabies is the most severe form, and is most commonly found in the immunocompromised – the disabled and the elderly. The condition is highly contagious, and is known to spread quickly in nursing homes and other facilities, where people are in close contact all the time.
Intense itching and pimple-like rashes are the most common symptoms. If you look closely, you can see evidence of the mites burrowing under the skin. If a patient scratches too hard or too much, open sores can develop, leading to infections. On average, the mites live for a month or two.
When a healthcare worker, administrator, or any other professional working within the confines of a nursing home fails to provide the reasonably expected level of care they owe, it is the weak and disadvantaged who suffer. You and your family may be entitled to compensation if your loved one has endured such injustice, pain and suffering.
At the premier law firm of Plaxen Adler Muncy, P.A., we provide strong and determined representation for victims nursing home negligence throughout Maryland. From our nine offices throughout the state, we can serve you in the most convenient manner possible to help you obtain financial recovery for your losses due to your loved one’s injuries in a nursing home setting. To set up a free appointment about your case, call us today at 410-730-7737 or email us through our contact form.
Bruce Plaxen was honored as the 2009 Maryland Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Maryland Association for Justice. For more information on his legal background, please visit his attorney bio.