Hopefully, justice will prevail

Here is an article about a nursing home company indicted in 2004 for the death of a resident.
Life Care Centers of America Inc. was finally indicted in the preventable death of an elderly woman whose body was found in her overturned wheelchair at the bottom of the front stairway of an Acton facility.

Life Care Centers of America Inc., which owns and operates the Life Care Center of Acton, was charged with manslaughter, abuse and neglect of a long-term care facility resident, and making a false Medicaid claim in connection with the death of 74-year-old Julia McCauley on April 17, 2004.

Attorney General Martha Coakley said that beginning in 1999, a physician had ordered McCauley to wear a device called a WanderGuard, which would set off an alarm and lock the doors of the facility if she approached them. The order also required nursing home staff to check the device daily to ensure it was functioning properly.

On the day she died, McCauley went through the front entryway of the Life Care Center and fell down the stairs. She was not wearing the WanderGuard device.

The corporation will face a maximum fine of just $1,000 on the manslaughter charge, and no corporate official faces prison time.