State didn’t cite nursing home after man’s bedsore death
Henry Frazier left a Rocky Ford nursing home with a fist-size necrotic abscess from a bedsore — and died in hospice.
A jury awarded the family $3.2 million for negligence by Pioneer Healthcare, a nursing home in a building where Frazier had once worked as a janitor.
An expert found Frazier had suffered 16 facility-acquired infections in his time at Pioneer and an “appalling” 34 injuries.
National safety panels consider Stage 4 bedsores such as Frazier’s to be “never events,” so unthinkable in a health facility that they include electrocuting a patient or amputating the wrong limb.
And yet the state’s review of the case produced no citation, no penalty and no consequence for Frazier’s wound or death.
Colorado Avalanche Milan Hejduk, left, is in the team practice at Family Sports in Centtenial, Colorado, Tuesday, December 20, 2011. Photo by Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post