Chicago Tribune - November 23, 2004
David Mendell

In settling the federal suit, two companies and four managers admitted no wrongdoing. Two former employees had alleged that the owners and managers of Maxwell Manor nursing home billed the federal and state government for care that was never administered and permitted routine sexual assaults, theft and improper medical care that, in some cases, resulted in death.

"It was an atrocious case," said Robin Potter, an attorney for the whistle-blowers, Joyce Toomey, a former facilities program coordinator, and Larry Austin, a former psychiatric rehabilitation services coordinator. "No one exaggerated the conditions."

The case began in February 2000 when Toomey and Austin filed a whistle-blower lawsuit against owners and operators of the home, which the former workers deemed "a house of filth, terror and death."

They alleged that between October 1998 and June 30, 2000, Maxwell Manor residents were "routinely abused, neglected, mistreated, sexually assaulted, medicated as a form of punishment, unsupervised and otherwise untreated for their mental health, physical disability and substance abuse problems."

The lawsuit also alleged that the seven-story, 276-bed facility at 4537 S. Drexel Blvd. was operated in a physically hazardous manner. According to the suit, chronic conditions included "bulging ceilings, crumbling walls, rodent and insect infestations, pervasive mildew and hazardous fire alarm and electrical systems."

Attorneys for the managers did not return messages for comment Monday.

Toomey, 53, of Villa Park, said Monday that she still vividly recalls the patients who endured daily abuse. She said she was fired in July 1999 after documenting the abuse and alerting the facility's upper management.

"I still know their names. I still see their faces. I remember their stories," Toomey said Monday, reading from a court statement she filed in the case. "I know that these broken, vulnerable people deserved better than they received. I know what should have been done for them. ... and what I couldn't make the defendants do for them still haunts me."

Managers of the nursing home, the lawsuit alleged, engaged in a pattern of fraud that included falsifying patient charts to make it appear they were being treated and medicated, as well as failing to report patient accidents, abuse and assaults.

In one case, Toomey said, a woman fell into a coma for days before medical personnel were called. She died within days.

In another, an AIDS patient went without medication and fell gravely ill before dying, Toomey said.

"This was not your typical bedsore case," said Colleen McLaughlin, another of Toomey's attorneys. "This was much more. This was a hellhole."

Maxwell Manor residents, who were mostly black, ranged from young adults to the elderly, and most suffered from a physical or mental disability.

The lawsuit remained under seal until Monday, when the settlement was announced. Under terms of the agreement, the federal government would receive $1 million and the state would get $610,000, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Toomey and Austin will share $313,950 from the state and federal portions of the settlement, out of which $288,000 goes to their attoneys.

The settlement involved ABS Long-Term Care Management Co. Inc. and MBA-LTC Inc.; Samuel and Joseph Brandman and David Abell, who owned ABS and MBA; and their employee David Brand.

In June 2000, several months after the lawsuit was filed, federal and state authorities closed the nursing home after finding unsafe, unsanitary and hazardous conditions. The facility had a long history of problems, with various owners being fined on several occasions and a beating death occurring in 1992.

The lawsuit is still pending against the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based nursing-home owner, Rabbi Efroim Stein, and a company he operates, National Voluntary Health Facility No. 4. Stein was convicted in 2002 of bilking hundreds of thousands of dollars from a taxpayer-funded group established to help Jewish World War II survivors. He could not be reached for comment Monday.

041123
CT041118

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2004. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .