Professional Incompetence

A case regarding the wrongful death of a resident at Courtyard Estates at Hawthorne Crossing in Iowa was recently settled. The case revolved around the late Lynne Stewart who was frozen to death at only 77 years old. In the early evening, the resident was said to have exited the assisted living center, and despite falling on the ground just outside the facility’s door, she was left in the cold for up to 15 hours.

Temperatures that night got down to -11 degrees. Multiple employees received repeated alerts regarding the resident’s whereabouts, yet no action was taken. Furthermore, staff was required to check on each resident every hour, and Stewart’s door alarm had gone off since the beginning of her 15-hour absence.

While one employees admitted to ignoring the alarms, Dwala Marie Lehman, the facility administrator, testified that she could not recall if she responded to the alarms or not. Lehman has since been charged with professional incompetence, but is allowed to retain her state license and only need to participate in 10 hours of education training. In other words, forcing a resident within your care to be left on the ground in freezing temperatures, only warrants a few hours of training as a consequence.

Meanwhile, in an effort to establish justice for Stewart’s cruel and early death, the facility paid a measly fine of $6,500. This is after finding that the facility did, in fact, not provide its employees with the minimum dementia-care training that is required.

This is the scary reality for residents in homes all over the country: they are trapped in facilities who promise to care for them, and then blatantly disregard this promise, only to receive a slap on the wrist for their detrimental actions.