CANFIELD, Ohio — In a News 5 exclusive, a daughter claims that a nursing home didn’t take care of her mother and that poor care led to her mom’s painful death. We are following through on our nursing home investigations with the exclusive interview with the daughter and her new lawsuit against Windsor House at Canfield.
“My mom is the one who made me who I am today,” said Christine Oliver. “She was the strongest woman I’ve ever known.”
Oliver’s mother, Judy Marsh, would get around her hometown in a wheelchair. Marsh had multiple sclerosis, but she didn’t let that stop her.
“She would always go up to Giant Eagle to get her prescriptions and visit the bakery and go see everybody,” said Oliver. “Everybody knew her. She took Christmas gifts to the people at Giant Eagle.”
MARSH’S STAY AT WINDSOR HOUSE AT CANFIELD
Marsh was only supposed to be in Windsor House at Canfield in December of 2024 “for short-term rehabilitation,” according to the lawsuit.
“Being in a wheelchair for 30 years, (she) never had pressure sores,” said Oliver.
The lawsuit states “inadequate care….caused (Marsh) to develop full-thickness pressure sores” on her buttocks.
The pictures are very graphic, showing the skin had been ripped off, the suit states the size of the sore “measured 246 centimeters squared” and “bacterial cultures…of (Marsh’s) pelvic bones…(were) infected with multiple bacteria, including E.coli.”
___________________________
Because of the graphic nature of these photos, we have chosen not to embed them in this story. If you would like to see them, you can click the links to view them. We are sharing them because the family believes it’s important to show what happened.
Warning: Viewer discretion is advised.
___________________________
NATIONAL WOUND CARE EXPERT WEIGHS IN
We sent Marsh’s photographs to Cindy Broadus, who is the executive director of the National Alliance of Wound Care and Ostomy.
“Those stage 4’s are very, very difficult to heal,” she told us after seeing Marsh’s wounds.
“What does a stage 4 bedsore mean?” we asked.
“Stage 4 pressure injury is, basically, you can see bone, muscle, underlying tissue, underlying structures,” explained Broadus.
She said serious and deadly bedsores like this can be caused by blocked blood flow. “Then you don’t get the nutrients and the oxygen to the area and the tissue starts to die,” said Broadus.
LAWSUIT: MARSH’S PLAN NOT FOLLOWED
Oliver’s lawsuit reads the home “implemented turning and repositioning in (Marsh’s) care plan…” but “there are multiple entire shifts where...” they “did not turn …(Marsh) at all.”
Cleveland attorney Matthew Mooney is one of Oliver’s lawyers.
“We have a facility that knows that Judy Marsh needs repositioned and turned in bed to protect her from bedsores, and they still aren’t doing it,” Mooney said.
The suit also stated “nurses performed wildly inaccurate skin observations...(and said) that she had ‘no open areas’ in spite of her large pressure wounds….”
“They would lie to me,” said Oliver. “They would tell me that she had a small sore and that it was healing, it was getting better.
The suit claimed the home “often left (Marsh) in soiled linens…for extended periods of time without cleaning her up, which caused her skin to become irritated and led to additional breakdown.”
“That is not only a danger of creating bedsores for someone like Judy, that is a violation of her basic human dignity,” Mooney said.
The lawsuit stated a doctor “identified the legal cause of Marsh’s death to be sepsis due to her decubitus wounds,” otherwise known as pressure sores or bedsores.
WE CONTACTED WINDSOR HOUSE AT CANFIELD
We contacted the administrator at Windsor House at Canfield, leaving messages requesting an interview. When we finally reached him, he was brief, saying he had no comment. When we tried to ask another question, he hung up on us.
In a court filing, the nursing home denied the allegations and wrote that the “defendants are immune from liability related to any and all of (the) claims in this case.”
RESIDENT #61
Inspection reports in 2024 showed various deficiencies at Windsor House at Canfield, including, in a June report, there was “Resident #61,” also known as Nancy Taylor’s dad.
“He was very charismatic. He never met a stranger,” said Taylor, describing her father, Bill Eaton.
Taylor told us she would find Eaton in his own vomit and waste. She said she asked for help from the nurses.
“She had said, ‘Well, you know, there’s only one nurse and one nurse’s aide working tonight. We will get to him as soon as we can.’”
The June inspection showed that in April of 2024, Eaton “was at risk for pressure ulcers and had no pressure ulcers,” and there were “new areas of skin damage and groin swelling.”
“They took the brief off, and that’s when we noticed that his private area was just swollen to twice its size, purple,” said Taylor. “It just looked so painful.”
The inspection stated there was “moisture associated damage…to (his) buttocks…” and the home “failed to provide coordination of care between hospice and facility staff…related to pressure ulcer prevention.”
“Why can’t the nursing home do their job?” asked Taylor. “When I worked, I had to do my job, and I had to answer to people.”
NURSING HOME CITED BY OHIO DEPT. OF HEALTH
The Ohio Department of Health cited the home, and the inspection report showed the facility ordered re-education, audits and audit reviews. By late July of 2024, the home was back in compliance.
This was all less than a year before Oliver’s mother started having her bed sore problems.
“How can this still be happening if the Board of Health has gone in there and how could’ve it not gotten better?” asked Taylor.
For Oliver, when her mother died in April of last year, it was very difficult.
“And I said, ‘Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! My mom is gone. My mom is gone,'” she told us with tears in her eyes.
She said she knew what she had to do: speak out and help others.
“I’m sorry, but that is what happened to my mother, and I don’t want to see anybody else go through that,” said Oliver. “And I don’t want to see anyone else suffer like she did.”
Shortly after our conversation with the administrator of Windsor House at Canfield, attorneys for the home filed a gag-order motion trying to prevent you from hearing from those involved with the case. The attorneys argued that media attention “taints the potential jury pool.”
The judge has not yet ruled on the gag order.
Other nursing home investigation
Earlier this month, we told you about Harvard Gardens in Cleveland and how a resident there was allegedly harassed by staff.
WATCH:
RELATED: 'This was scary,' says paralyzed man who called 911 for help
