Maryland residents with severe mobility issues suffered bedsores, infections, and falls, as well as emotional trauma from isolation and lack of sunlight, because state health officials failed to properly oversee their nursing homes, a new lawsuit alleges.
They have been "left without a lifeline to the agency responsible for investigating allegations of abuse, neglect, and other serious rights violations," said Ashley Woolard, an attorney from the Public Justice Center that filed the suit last week in U.S. District Court.
Liam McGivern, a senior attorney at Justice in Aging, said he hoped the lawsuit would bring short-term relief for residents and long-term changes to the system.
"There needs to be state surveyors on site assessing these facilities, reviewing the records, and talking to residents," he said. "Everything we found is what the surveyors would have found if they'd gone out there."
