Nursing home abuse and neglect put vulnerable residents at serious risk, leading to malnutrition, dehydration, infections, and preventable injuries. When facilities fail to provide adequate care, residents suffer, and families are left feeling helpless. Lack of supervision, improper medical treatment, and unsafe conditions can result in devastating harm. Understanding the warning signs, knowing your legal rights, and holding negligent facilities accountable are crucial steps in protecting your loved ones. Learn how to take action and seek justice.
November 5, 2024
3 min
Dolores Niederhelman died 4 days after being violently attacked and both of her shoulders were broken by another resident. The nursing home did not send her to the hospital, and she declined over the following days until she was comatose–dying at the hospital shortly after she was finally sent.
The physical assault was captured on the facility’s surveillance camera that was placed in Ms. Niederhelman’s room. The facility not only failed to properly examine Dolores following the brutal attack, but it also did not tell Dolores’ family members about what occurred. This ultimately led to a delayed diagnosis of injuries as none of her family members or subsequent healthcare providers were aware of the events that took place prior to her arriving at the hospital in the condition she was in.
Michael Hill Trial Law is pursuing a lawsuit on behalf of Dolores Niederhelman’s family against Ohio-based nursing facility Three Rivers Healthcare Center located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Three Rivers Healthcare Center is part of the Communicare Family of Companies–which is one of the largest nursing home chains in Ohio and the United States.
The case alleges negligence, wrongful death, and violations of nursing home resident rights laws. The lawsuit is Estate of Dolores L. Niederhelman v. Three Rivers Healthcare Center aka 3R Operating Co, LLC, et al. and is pending in Hamilton County, Ohio, Case No. A 2400404.
The lawsuit states that Ms. Niederhelman became a resident of Three Rivers Healthcare Center on March 5, 2021. Dolores was admitted to the skilled nursing facility with a past medical history of Alzheimer’s dementia, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and hypothyroidism. On September 16, 2021, Ms. Niederhelman was placed in a secured unit for behaviors. She required placement in the secured unit because she was a vulnerable adult and her cognitive impairment prevented her from being independent.
Three Rivers Healthcare Center implemented a video monitoring system to protect residents in the secured unit as their cognitive disabilities are likely to lead to behaviors that pose harm to themselves and others like wandering, falling, assaulting other residents, and being assaulted by others. Ms. Niederhelman’s son agreed to and signed a consent form to give the facility permission to use the video monitoring system to protect his mother. The consent form included the following language, “If evidence of abuse is discovered, it will be reported following all legal and statutory requirements.”
The lawsuit states that just before midnight on January 26, 2023, the video monitoring system recorded the following events:
The lawsuit states that this lifting of Ms. Niederhelman was an abusive violation of the standard of care and most likely worsened her shoulder fractures.
The lawsuit asserts that the nurse’s post-fall assessment was negligent and abusive and that the standard of care required nursing staff to perform a thorough evaluation for trauma and fracture, call 911, and have her transported to the emergency department. It further states that the aggressive lifting of Ms. Niederhelman under the left shoulder and by the right arm more likely than not worsened Dolores’ bilateral shoulder fractures and caused further pain and suffering.
The lawsuit states that at 11:35PM, one of Three Rivers Healthcare Center’s nurses documented that she received a call that Ms. Niederhelman was on the floor and another resident was straightening her bedding. The documentation notes that Dolores was checked on with no complaints of pain and put back into bed. The nurse further documented a post-fall documentation note which included that no injuries occurred, the physician and family members were notified at 11:30PM and no complaints of pain were reported.
In reality, however, Ms. Niederhelman’s son was not notified of the attack on January 26, 2023 at 11:30PM.. The lawsuit alleges that it is likely the nurse similarly did not contact the physician as a reasonable physician would have sent Ms. Niederhelman to the hospital if notified of the physical abuse that occurred.
It wasn’t until January 27, 2023, that a Three Rivers Healthcare Center employee ordered bilateral shoulder x-rays for Dolores due to trauma and pain. The x-rays revealed that both of Ms. Niederhelman’s shoulders were fractured as a result of the attack.
The lawsuit details countless failures on the part of the facility and facility staff members, which ultimately led to her death. The failures include but are not limited to:
Eventually, Ms. Niederhelman was sent to the hospital after being comatose, having hypoxic respiratory failure with labored respirations, and breathing at 32 breaths per minute. The lawsuit states that the Three Rivers Healthcare staff failed to provide any medical treatment to Ms. Niederhelman and failed to communicate to one another about her healthcare information. It is outlined that the staff failed to provide Dolores with any treatment including supplemental oxygen despite having acute hypoxic respiratory failure and air hunger manifested by severe tachypnea and audible rhonchi.
Once she arrived at the hospital, it was communicated to the hospital staff that Ms. Niederhelman had a fall at the nursing home the night before. The physical assault and bilateral shoulder fractures were not reported to the hospital staff, which in turn made it more difficult for the hospital staff to properly evaluate Dolores and give her appropriate care. This led to additional harm.
Ms. Niederhelman continued to decline due to the complications of the stress from the fractures, her immense physical pain, and her being bed bound resulting in the development and worsening of infections.
It was confirmed at the hospital that Ms.Niederhelman had an infection with organ dysfunction consistent with sepsis. The manifestations of organ dysfunction included hypoxic respiratory failure, acute kidney injury, altered mental status/coma, and hypotension.
Unfortunately, over the next three days, Ms. Niederhelman’s health status continued to decline. She died on January 30, 2023.
The lawsuit claims, amongst other things, that Three Rivers Healthcare Center failed to provide proper care and treatment to Dolores Niederhelman, which they should have known she required. The lawsuit further claims that Three Rivers Healthcare Center was chronically and systematically understaffed and points to publicly available records from Medicare demonstrating that the facility was below average in staffing for registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and aides.
“Our firm is deeply committed to seeking justice for the family of Dolores Niederhelman. The nursing home’s failure to protect its residents and their subsequent mishandling of the situation, from not evaluating the victim after the attack to misleading the family about the nature of her injuries, is utterly unacceptable. This kind of negligence not only violates the trust families place in these facilities but also endangers the lives of the most vulnerable members of our society. We will continue to pursue accountability for these egregious actions to ensure something like this does not happen again,” says trial attorney Michael Hill.
The Three Rivers Healthcare Center is a part of the Communicare chain. There are numerous Communicare-owned nursing home facilities located throughout the State of Ohio.
Michael Hill is a nationally recognized attorney who exclusively handles cases against long term care facilities. Michael and his firm, Michael Hill Trial Law, handle nursing home abuse and neglect cases across the country. If you have any questions about cases involving Three Rivers Healthcare, Communicare, or any other nursing home, assisted living facility, or group home, you can contact Michael Hill Trial Law at www.protectseniors.com, by sending an email to info@protectseniors.com, or by calling (800) 659-2712.
