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Lita Santos when she became a resident at Hudson View Care and Rehab in 2007.
(Photo courtesy of Francis Dorrit)
A $1 million settlement was reached two years after a long-term resident of Hudson View Care and Rehab in North Bergen lost her life when bedsores went untreated.
In February 2011, Lita Santos began to lose weight, and by the end of July she had lost 25 pounds.
Eventually, the "high-risk," bed-bound woman needed assistance including feeding and changing her position in bed.
She was 84 pounds when the nursing home staff discovered a stage II bedsore. It became infected and progressed to a worse stage two weeks later.
She died of a massive blood infection on April 28, 2012. An autopsy ruled the infected bedsores caused her death at the age of 76.
"If they would've done the right thing, this wouldn't have happened," Lita's son, Juan Santos, said.
"The nursing home care provided to Lita Santos fell below acceptable standards when it ignored the regulations. Simply providing adequate nutrition and repositioning would have prevented the bedsore that became infected and caused her death five months later," said Francis Dorrity, an attorney for the Santos family.
According to settlement facts provided by Dorrity, nursing home records show no monitoring of her food intake or re-positioning her.
"All the money in the world can't bring her back," Santos added. "She was my best friend — a fantastic mother and grandmother," he said.
The $1 million settlement was reached on June 17, prior to trial.
According to health.usnews.com, Hudson View Health Care Center has 5 stars by heath inspection, nursing staff and measures of medical quality.
No one at the Rehab center could be reached for comment.