October 15, 2002 - The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in a weeklong series that began Sunday, is reporting that hundreds of elderly patients in nursing homes are dying from neglect. Summary from AP/Yahoo. (link is no longer available)

According to the report, most of the deaths are caused by neglect traced to caregivers whom the elderly rely on for food and liquid, and for turning them in their beds to prevent life-threatening sores. Statistics from 1999 on more than 500,000 nursing home deaths show that starvation, dehydration or bedsores are listed as the cause on 4,138 death certificates.

In Arkansas, coroner Mark Malcolm reviewed about 100 questionable nursing home deaths that occurred from 1993 to 1999. He determined that the death certificates listed the incorrect cause of death in more than 30 percent of the cases. In response, the Arkansas Legislature passed a law requiring nursing homes to notify a coroner of every death.

Here is the full Special Report of Neglected To Death from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.


[This message has been edited by Gary Peterson (edited 11-20-2002).]