FRESNO NURSING HOME IS FINED $80,000 IN PATIENT’S DEATH
Home > Blog > FRESNO NURSING HOME IS FINED $80,000 IN PATIENT’S DEATHState investigators say the man had problems swallowing and choked on a meatball that should have been chopped or sliced. The cook and nursing assistant who served the meal were fired.Raintree Convalescent Hospital had known the patient had problems swallowing, according to an investigation by the California Department of Public Health.The man stumbled out of his room, pale and unable to speak. After a nurse unsuccessfully attempted the Heimlich maneuver, paramedics were able to suction the meatball out of the man’s airway, but he was pronounced dead at a hospital emergency room. The nursing assistant and cook were immediately suspended and later fired, said Antonio Sandoval, assistant administrator at Raintree Convalescent Hospital.
Sandoval said the cook failed to follow the directions for the patient’s meal by not mashing up the meatball. He also said the nursing assistant failed to look atthe meal card on the patient’s tray — which would have been a second chance to catch the error — before serving the lunch. “Neither one did their job,” he said. MARCH 20, 20089