Laurie Kash was quoted in a recent Watchdog article in the Democrat and Chronicle.
From the article:
Some advocates say the Department of Health does not adequately address neglect or mistreatment in the deficiency reports, and families are forced to file lawsuits in order to document problems and hold nursing homes accountable.
“We were very committed to bringing it into the public record,” said Laurie Kash, whose mother suffered a serious fall in 2006 at the Jewish Home in Brighton. For more than a week, staff was unresponsive to her complaints of being injured, Kash said. The family brought in their own physician, who determined Gertrude Kash had suffered a spinal fracture, and that lack of prompt treatment led to irreversible paralysis from the chest down. She died in 2009.
Kash said the family sued after a Department of Health investigation concluded no harm had occurred. “We knew that what happened to my mom couldn’t have happened in a vacuum.” She said it was only through the discovery process that the family was able to get access to medical records and take depositions from doctors and staff. “We saw every inch of the way where my mom was neglected,” she said. “It was traumatizing to learn what really happened.”
As part of the settlement in her lawsuit, Kash insisted that she not be blocked from discussing her mother’s experience. But often, these cases end in settlements which keep those details secret and prohibit the families from discussing what happened.
Laurie Kash’s guest essay in the D&C from April 3:
