ROCHESTER, Minn. – A Rochester nursing home, Waters on Mayowood, has been charged by a state investigator with maltreatment of a dementia patient. The patient had fallen in her bathroom and, despite cries for help, was ignored for 10 hours, the investigator said. When an aide finally responded, the woman was in a pool of blood with head trauma, neck and rib fractures, and arm and leg bruises. She was hospitalized and died a month later. The investigator, from the state Health Department, concluded that the woman’s emergency call button was inoperable. Also, according to the report, Mayowood later found seven other patinents’ call buttons were broken and didn’t fix them promptly. Maywood disagreed with some assertions from the investigator: “The Waters was not aware of any potential malfunction of the call pendant. Immediately following the incident, The Waters tested all resident pendants to ensure proper functioning.”
