The Illinois Department Of Health has cited and fined The Grove Health & Rehab Center when a resident with a history of seizures experienced a serious medical crisis when staff failed to give her prescribed seizure medication for nearly a month. As a result, the resident began experiencing multiple seizures, ultimately needing to be transferred to the hospital for further care.
The incident in question began when the resident’s neurologist ordered a new seizure medication (Trileptal/oxcarbazepine). The plan was specific: start with 300 mg twice a day for one week, then increase to 600 mg twice a day. However, due to a critical error, a nurse misread the order and simply discontinued the medication entirely after the first seven days, ignoring the instruction to increase the dose.
As a result, the resident went without this crucial medication and began experiencing multiple seizures. The timeline of events was devastating:
– Day 1: She had “seizures back to back” and was so weak she needed to go to the emergency room
– Day 2: She experienced three more seizures
– Day 8: Another seizure in the dining room
– Day 9: Multiple seizures, including one during breakfast and another during dinner
The situation became so severe that the resident was eventually transferred to a regional hospital. When hospital neurologists reviewed her case, they were alarmed by what they found. As noted in the hospital records, “It appears that her seizures were likely due to sub-optimal management of her medications while she was in the nursing home.” The hospital staff had to specifically ask “why she was not taking the oxcarbazepine 600 mg bid prescribed to her.”
When questioned about this serious error, the facility’s Director of Nurses explained, “I have looked into how the oxcarbazepine was discontinued. I reached out to pharmacy and when [the nurse] looked at the order she only read the first part of 300 mg for seven days and went into the computer and discontinued the medication.”
The Medical Director acknowledged the severity of the error, stating “Any medication ordered should be given as ordered.” However, he was hesitant to directly link the medication error to the resident’s deterioration, saying “the resident is a very complicated case not getting the oxcarbazepine did not help her but I am unable to say if it harmed her because she was such a complicated case.”
The situation ultimately resulted in the resident having to transfer to a different facility closer to Springfield, after experiencing at least 10 documented seizures over a nine-day period – seizures that might have been prevented had she received her prescribed medication.
One of our core beliefs is that nursing homes are built to fail due to the business model they follow and that unnecessary accidental injuries and wrongful deaths of nursing home residents are the inevitable result. Our experienced Chicago nursing home lawyers are ready to help you understand what happened, why, and what your rights are. Contact us to get the help you need.
