How Bad Can Nursing Homes Get? Neglect Can Leave Residents Infested with Parasites.

When you combine a neglectful, nursing home and staff, residents who are unable to care for themselves and unsanitary conditions, you can end up with a living nightmare for the residents. Unfortunately reports of nursing home residents suffering from infestations of maggots sometimes occur.

Maggots are the larval stages of flies. After a fly lays its eggs, the maggots emerge and feed on whatever they can find. All too often those eggs are laid on residents who become hosts to these parasites.

A Medicare inspection report for a Pennsylvania nursing home states that maggots were found in a patient’s feeding tube. The nurse filling out the report described “worm like bugs found crawling all around the PEG tube and surrounding tissue.” The report claims feeding tubes were not properly changed and there was improper pest control, two of the 31 deficiencies found by inspectors in October 2015, according to CBS 21 in Harrisburg. The Golden Living Center in Upper Allen Township where the incident took place is one of twenty Golden Living Centers being sued by the Pennsylvania Attorney General for deceptive marketing and failure to provide basic services to residents.

A 78-year-old resident of an Alabama nursing home was found to have a maggot infestation in her feeding tube in 2002, according to the Gadsen Times. The resident was sent to the hospital, treated and returned to the nursing home. The maggots were found to be from blow flies, which often fly around garbage, dead animals and excrement. Incredibly, the state health department found the facility was in “substantial compliance” with federal regulations.

A 92-year-old woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease who was living in a nursing home in Illinois had 57 maggots pulled out of her left ear by hospital personnel in 2012. The infestation was one basis for a legal action against the facility by her husband, according to CBS Chicago. The resident was supposed to be getting ear drops at the time, and her husband questioned whether she was actually getting that treatment. It was estimated the maggots had been in her ear for two to three days.

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services cited one of the state’s nursing homes in 2014 after it received an anonymous complaint of maggots being found in a resident’s chest wound, according to the Bangor Daily News. A resident complained to a nurse about a burning and itching in their chest area, bandages were removed and the staff saw maggots coming out of a chest wound. An inspection found the facility allowed flies into the building when it “failed to ensure the environment was free from hazards associated with windows with broken and missing screens.”

There have also been incidents where maggot infestation has been found in bedsores (also known as pressure ulcers or decubitus ulcers).

If you or a loved one has suffered because of neglect and unsanitary conditions in a Maryland nursing home, we can help you stop the harm and hold those responsible accountable for their actions. At the Law Offices of Roger S. Weinberg, you’ll find compassionate support and experienced advocates to help your family through the tough times. Call 410-825-3161 today to schedule a free consultation.