IDPH has cited and fined Aperion Care Bradley nursing home after the staff failed to adequately track and report a resident’s symptoms that lead to a delay in treating his stroke.
The resident at issue, a 53-year old man with a mild cognitive issue, kept asking staff to take him to the hospital because of numbness and a “pin and needles” feeling in his right arm, which are common stroke warning signs. He recounted clearly saying “Listen, I know my own body. I knew something was very wrong. I was really scared from the numbness and tingling. I pleaded with my nurse to please send me to the hospital right away but she said No.”
That morning, when the resident first told his nurse of his arm issue around 9 or 10 AM, she only focused on his high blood pressure of 177/102. The nurse admitted “Maybe I didn’t mention his arm tingling to the Nurse Practitioner because I was overly worried about the blood pressure.” So she failed to pass on this stroke indicator. The Nurse Practitioner agreed “They should have informed me if the resident was still having numbness after getting blood pressure medicine.”
The nurse was also supposed to check the resident’s vitals that night because of new medications but the agency nurse never did the required checks. The agency nurse admitted ”I’m not supposed to take vitals unless the nurse tells me to.”
The next morning, a nurse found the resident inexplicably lying on the floor, slurring words, with a droopy face and weakness on one side.
Tragically, a scan at the hospital showed that the resident had already suffered an untreatable stroke with permanent damage. The director of the nursing home acknowledged they neglected handling the resident’s ongoing numbness complaint.
Their lack of monitoring and reporting of his symptoms led to his disability after a preventable stroke.
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