In late August 2016, 82-year old Ruth Murray, a resident with Alzheimer’s disease at Emerald South Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in Buffalo, sustained fatal injuries in an attack with another resident at the facility after mistakenly walking into the resident’s room. Three days later, she died.
With the help of the attorneys at Brown Chiari, Emerald South Nursing Home was fined $10,000 as a result of the incident — the largest penalty allowable under current law.
Although this was a huge victory, fines for incidents at nursing homes are still rare. In response, Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz is joining with NYS Assemblyman Sean Ryan to call on the state legislature to support a newly-presented NYS law that would increase the maximum fine for nursing home offenses to $50,000. Ryan has sponsored the measure at the state level.
