88 Year Old Left Unsupervised at Assisted Living Facility
An assisted living facility (ALF) is a place where senior citizens can live that need some help with activities of daily living but do not need skilled nursing care. Often those living in ALF's have some form of dementia and therefore need some level of supervision.
Most ALF caregivers have their jobs because they have a strong desire to help people. Unfortunately, however, some are only looking for a pay check. It appears Episania Fitzgerald of Largo Florida, is one such caregiver. According to tbo.com, she was in charge of 21 residents of a local Clearwater ALF when she decided to leave the residents unattended for two and half hours on October 31, 2008. While she was gone, an 88 year old resident fell in the bathroom and injured herself. Another resident called 911 for help.
When Pinellas Suncoast Fire Rescue arrived, the workers called the Pinellas County Sheriff because there were no facility caregivers present. According to the Sheriff's office, when deputies caught up to Fitzgerald, she apparently admitted she left another resident in charge when she left to provide home health care services somewhere else. Apparently Fitzgerald's desire to make money working two jobs was stronger than her desire to supervise the ALF residents. As a result, she has been charged with one count of abuse and neglect of an elderly person and one count of possession of Vicodin, a controlled substance.
Many people expressed outrage in there comments on Tbo.com over the fact that one caregiver was in charge of 21 residents. Given the number of residents Fitzgerald was in charge of, it doubtful her presence would have made a difference to the outcome in this case. The real problem with ALF's in Florida is that the minimum staffing ratios do not provide for enough staff to properly supervise all of the residents. Anyone that is truly outraged by this story should lobby their state legislators to raise the minimum staffing levels. In addition, support personal injury lawsuits against such facilities instead of condemning them as the product of greedy lawyers and people just out for money. The truth is that most personal injury lawyers that bring such lawsuits are doing so because they have a strong desire to bring about a change. Furthermore, most clients bring such claims in hopes that the financial penalty will deter the conduct in the future.
Scott Distasio
Tampa personal injury lawyer
DISTASIO LAW FIRM
HELPING INJURED PEOPLE
OFFICES: TAMPA
888-595-0022
