DAVIS
used to go there and stay
with her because, at the time,
I was a corrections offi cer.”
Deborah lives in Suffolk
County, and when she stayed
with Davis, she would stay the
whole week, and bring her kids
along with her. She and her
sisters had confl icting work
schedules, and it wasn’t possible
for someone to be at the
house at all hours. They decided
it had become too dangerous
for their mother to stay
at home by herself any longer.
“We thought it would be
best to put her somewhere that
she can get the help that she
needs,” Roberts said. “That’s
the reason why we put her in
the nursing home, to get better
care, to be around more people
her age to talk to, and stuff like
that.”
Her sister, Vale, a home
care attendant, did most of
the footwork of fi nding a suitable
nursing home, Roberts
said, and she was happy with
the Linden Center. Vale, who
lives in Queens, and their sister,
Cheryl, who lives in Brooklyn,
could visit regularly, and
Davis’ diabetes and high blood
pressure were managed well.
In 2016, her health took a
turn, and she became mostly
bedridden and nonverbal, and
much more reliant on the Linden
Center’s staff. To prevent
pressure sores, which are common
and can be quite serious
among older people who spend
most of their time sitting or
lying down, her doctor prescribed
COURIER L 20 IFE, JANUARY 14-20, 2022
protein supplements
and instructed the nursing
home to turn Davis every two
hours, to keep her from lying
on one spot for too long.
Roberts fi rst became concerned
about her mother a few
months before she was hospitalized
in December, she said,
when Davis developed a sore on
her left ankle. It was wrapped
in bandages when Roberts arrived,
and, she said, when she
asked to see it, staff said they
didn’t want to unwrap it again,
because her sister had recently
visited and taken a look at it.
“I didn’t want to cause any
problems, so I just let it go,”
Roberts said.
In December, Vale visited
Davis after work, still wearing
her home health attendant uniform,
which was the same uniform
staff at the Linden Center
wore. She went to Davis’ room
and sat her up, Deborah said.
“That’s when somebody, a
staff member working there,
said, ‘Why do you have Ms.
Olive sitting up, she has a
stage three bed sore,” she
said. “That’s when everything
opened up, everything came to
the surface. My sister, she said
to them, ‘You’re talking about
my mother. She has a stage
three bed sore, and no one told
me anything?’”
Regulations ignored
New York State has strong
regulations as part of public
health law to guarantee the
rights and treatment of nursing
home residents, said John
Dalli, a longtime elder abuse
and nursing home negligence
lawyer who represented Davis’
case in court. But they are
rarely enforced, and nursing
homes don’t usually face penalties
for violating them.
Once Vale found out about
the bedsore, it was her sister
Susan Roberts Bradley,
a nurse living in Texas, who
demanded the nursing home
transfer their mother to the
hospital. “The nursing home
didn’t want to send her to the
hospital,” Dalli said. “It was
apparent to me, and the jury
certainly agreed, that they
didn’t want her to be sent to
the hospital because the nursing
home knew if she got sent
to an emergency room, the
hospital is going to take a picture
of this bed sore, and document
it as a signifi cant pressure
injury.”
By then, the pressure sore
was stage 4, the fi nal and most
severe classifi cation, and so
deep that part of Davis’ sacral
spine was exposed.
Bradley got a private autopsy,
a rare request, Dalli
said. The coroner’s report said
the infected injury had contributed,
in part, to Davis’ death.
He fi led a lawsuit against the
Linden Center seeking damages
under public health law.
Records from the Linden Center
showed gaps where Davis
was supposed to be receiving
wound treatment, her protein
supplements, or having her
position changed.
Sitting in the courtroom,
Roberts prayed for the
strength to get through as she
listened to the opposing lawyers
talk about her mother,
making it sound like Davis
was responsible for her own
death, she said.
“I just feel like I let my
mother down, and I couldn’t do
anything because I just didn’t
know, I just didn’t know,” she
said. “If I had known.”
The settlement
The jury ordered the Allure
Group to pay $750,000 in
total — $375,000 for violating
Davis’ rights and $375,000 for
her pain and suffering.
The Allure Group’s insurance
company, GuideOne, has
indicated that they will not
pay out, and will likely appeal
the decision, Dalli said. Guide-
One and the Allure Group declined
to comment.
Roberts said the verdict was
comforting, but a little hollow.
“I think that in this country,
nursing homes should be held
more accountable for their actions,
they should be put out
of business for the way my
mother was treated,” she said.
The family matriarch
After her mother’s death,
Roberts warned her friends
from placing their parents in
nursing homes.
“I talked to my son, I said,
please don’t put me in a nursing
home, please keep me
home until my time comes.”
Davis and her four daughters
immigrated to the U.S.
from Trinidad and Tobago —
Davis fi rst, in the 60s, she said,
with her daughters following
in the 70s and 80s. Davis was
the matriarch, the head and
glue of the family, Roberts
said. She loved window shopping
and dancing and the annual
parades on Eastern Parkway.
“My mom was a peaceful,
loving, religious person,
a sweetheart,” she said. “We
loved her so much, too much.”
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