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Nursing Home Drugging

Michael Agruss

Written and Reviewed by Michael Agruss

  • Managing Partner and Personal Injury Lawyer at Mike Agruss Law.
  • Over 20 years of experience in Personal Injury.
  • Over 8000+ consumer rights cases settled.
  • Graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law: Juris Doctor, 2004.

A recent Superior Court case from Kern County, California has resulted the conviction of a nursing home director, on elder abuse. The director, Gwen Hughes, is going to state prison for three years, guilty of drugging elderly patients into submission, using psychotropic medications. Before trial, Hughes, 59, pleaded no contest to one count of elder abuse leading to death of the patient.

Hughes was the director of nursing at a hospital near Bakersfield; apparently, she ordered twenty-three elderly patients put on powerful anti-psychotic drugs to keep them quiet and submissive for the staff’s convenience. In a press release from the California Attorney General’s office, it was learned that Hughes used to order the drugs for patients who were argumentative, prone to wandering, or noisy; many of the victims were Alzheimer’s or dementia patients. The unnecessary drugs resulted in complications in all twenty-three patients, and contributed to the deaths of at least three.

Hughes told the director of the hospital’s pharmacy to fabricate the doctor’s orders for anti-psychotic drugs, and later forwarded them to the nursing center’s medical director, Hoshang Pormir (who is now performing three hundred hours of community service for negligence—his signature ended up on the doctor’s orders).

Emphasizing there was never any malicious intent, Hughes’ lawyer called it “just a case of negligence that tragically resulted in some deaths.” But the California Attorney General, Kamala Harris, said in her statement, “This defendant maliciously and dangerously drugged patients for her own convenience.” The case represents an unusual court victory, convicting a medical practitioner on convenience drugging of elders.

If someone you care for has suffered injury or death as a result of negligence, you have options. Contact Mike Agruss Law, for a free consultation. We are a Chicago injury law firm representing individuals and families who have suffered an injury or loss due to negligence. A good personal injury attorney can hold the people who caused the injury responsible, winning compensation for medical debt, lost employment income, and suffering.

Mike Agruss Law, will handle your personal injury case quickly, guiding you every step of the way—and the firm will not hesitate to go to trial for you. Our no-fee promise is that simple: Mike Agruss Law, does not get paid attorney’s fees unless we win your case. There’s nothing to risk when you hire us–just the opportunity to pursue justice.

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