Alando Williams, a long-time Berkeley staple, was admitted to Brookdale Wellness in Oakland in December 2022 and passed away less than a month later at age 64. His daughter Kyomi, represented by Ed Dudensing, alleges that, although the nursing home was aware of his medical conditions, staff administered sedatives, and left him to suffer falls, ultimately leading to his death. Ed spoke with the East Bay Times about the facility involved in this case, which has faced scrutiny for its practices and regulatory issues, including concerns over staffing and medication errors.
On June 3, CBS News covered the story of Ruby Frazier, a Dudensing Law client who was a victim of elder abuse and neglect at Oakland Heights Nursing and Rehabilitation in Oakland, CA.
Before Ms. Frazier’s admission to Oakland Heights, she was a relatively healthy 87-year-old and entered the facility in a medically stable condition and with no skin injuries.
In May 2024, Dudensing Law reached a $5.5 million settlement against an assisted living facility located in California. The settlement was on behalf of a cognitively impaired individual who, because of improper supervision and negligence, left the facility unsupervised, and died as a result.
When the 87-year-old patient was admitted to the residential care facility, she was highly functional but suffered notable cognitive impairment, including “sundowning,” a state of confusion experienced in the late afternoon and lasting into the evening. Even with noted cognitive impairment, her charts maintained by the facility did not contain a documented elopement risk nor a care plan for her cognitive decline.
Dudensing Law secured a $4 million settlement in April 2024 on behalf of a victim who died from complications related to pressure sores while under the care of a Long-Term Acute Care Hospital (LTAHC) in California.
In 2017, a 72-year-old patient was admitted to the facility at issue following a diagnosis of quadriplegia. Because of this condition, she was known to be at high risk for developing pressure sores, yet the staff failed to take proper precautions to prevent sores from developing. The staff neglected medical advice to turn and reposition the patient over 75% of the time during day and night shifts. By the time the resident was discharged from the facility and treated at a hospital, the infected sores were too advanced for her to recover from, leading to her death.
In April 2024, Dudensing Law secured $4.5 million on behalf of an elderly victim of reckless neglect by a California assisted living facility. In this case, the victim suffered an infection that led to amputation. This gruesome fate would have been wholly avoidable had the facility properly cared for Mr. Dudensing’s client.
Dudensing Law reached a $5 million settlement in February 2024 against an assisted living facility in California. The case is on behalf of a patient who suffered multiple falls in the facility, ultimately leading to his death.
The patient, a former high school teacher and assistant principal, was admitted to the assisted living facility in September 2021, following a Parkinson’s diagnosis and signs of dementia that put him at high risk for falls. He was admitted to the facility without the necessary physician assessment to understand his needs and establish a care plan. Within his first month as a resident, he suffered an unsupervised fall in which he broke his wrist. The facility failed to create an incident report for this fall.
Elder abuse attorney Ed Dudensing represents Cheryl Doe, a 79-year-old woman, and her son Robert, in a February 2024 lawsuit against the Windsor Healthcare Center of Oakland regarding the alleged rape, elder neglect, and fraud she was victim to while under its care for Alzheimer’s and dementia.
A preliminary investigation by Dudensing law found that after Robert’s mother was raped by another resident, he was not informed until days after the incident. Rather than the managerial staff at the center, a certified nursing assistant was the one who told Robert about both the assault and the center’s intentional concealing of the attack. Emboldened by the center’s inaction after the first attack, the offender again accessed Cheryl’s room where he retaliated, leaving bruises and wounds on her body.
Windsor Healthcare Center of Oakland sits under Brius Management Company, a large nursing home operator similar to others Dudensing Law has brought cases against, citing abuse of the vulnerable elderly population entrusted in their care. Widespread understaffing of nursing facilities subjects residents to dangerous conditions, and by seeking justice for victims and holding these companies accountable, Dudensing Law strives to ensure that senior citizens receive the care they deserve.
“This really strikes at the heart of the fundamental obligation of nursing homes — keep your patients safe,” said Ed Dudensing. “They have a history of failures of care that not only involves resident-on-resident abuse, like this case, but other areas of neglect as well.”
In the wake of new nursing home staffing requirements announced by the Biden Administration in April, many healthcare organizations are voicing concerns about a lack of necessary funding. Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of AHCA/NCAL which represents 14,000 nursing homes, went as far as to claim that the mandate will ultimately lead to widespread nursing center shutdowns and resident displacement.
Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, Dudensing explained that the cries of poverty from the nursing home industry are easily debunked by the fact that “private equity money, venture capital” and other investments “are still flowing into these facilities at record rates… and balance sheets are very easy to manipulate.”
Earlier this year, KFF Health News reported that “for-profit groups own about 72% of the roughly 15,000 nursing homes in the United States, which serve more than 1.3 million residents.”
While representing Sam Rios, a former Sacramento State professor who died due to complications from pressure sores after residing in a nursing home, Dudensing went beyond suing just the nursing home, also naming its partner companies as defendants. He proved that this highly profitable conglomerate, including a private equity firm, paid high salaries to its top executives while the nursing homes it owned suffered from understaffing and low quality of care for its residents. In March 2024, the suit ended with a jury verdict of $5.9 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages.
With these new mandates in place, Dudensing has emphasized that it is crucial that the state of California identifies understaffed, high-risk facilities and ensures that the requirements are met. With some of the most vulnerable groups of society at risk of abuse, fraud, and injury, large for-profit groups must be held accountable in maintaining adequate staff numbers and pay in their facilities.
The U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging is investigating “walkaway deaths” at assisted living facilities, where residents wander off or are left unattended, leading to fatal outcomes. Senator Bob Casey sent letters to CEOs of major assisted living facility corporations, particularly in California, regarding reports of workforce shortages and inadequate care.
According to renowned elder abuse attorney Ed Dudensing, these deaths can be caused by exposure to inclement weather, pedestrian accidents, lack of access to vital medicine and other situations where elderly people are especially vulnerable.
The issue is especially critical for California due to its climbing elderly population, with over 6.1 million residents aged 65+, many of whom will soon enter the care of assisted living facilities. Assisted living facilities are a crucial part of the healthcare industry but often face staffing shortages and lower training requirements compared to skilled nursing facilities, posing significant risks to residents.
Private equity firms have increasingly invested in assisted living facilities, driven by profitability. Research suggests that when private equity firms acquire healthcare facilities, patients face higher risks and lower quality of care.
“Californians have long prioritized access to quality health care. We need to encourage federal, state and local governments to take a vested interest in the required quality of care at assisted living facilities, and advocate for the rights of those who are no longer able to advocate for themselves,” said Dudensing.
Dudensing Law currently is representing family members in a lawsuit against Colony Capital (now known as DigitalBridge), Formation Capital, and others, regarding a walkaway death in which the victim walked out of a 2nd floor door that was unarmed and unalarmed, fell down a flight of stairs, and froze to death outside. Walkaway deaths like this are simply unacceptable.
Sacramento elder neglect attorney reaches settlement for senior citizen who was allowed to choke to death on a hotdog
January 30, 2024 — Dudensing Law has retrieved $625,000 on behalf of a victim who choked to death while under the care of a Stockton assisted living facility. Dudensing Law discovered an untrained and overworked staff running the facility. The case involved an 88-year-old woman who was not given access to her dentures and given a whole hot dog to consume unsupervised. When the victim choked and lost consciousness, staff failed to intervene with the Heimlich maneuver. Instead, the assisted living facility staff waited for an EMT to arrive who was able to easily dislodge the food from her airway. This failure on the facility’s part caused the victim to die within days.
