Nine arrested after patient dies at Suffolk nursing home

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Schneiderman said an anonymous Medford whistleblower later informed authorities of the circumstances. Other employees charged in connection with the woman's death include:

•Kimberly Lappe, 31, of Medford, a registered nurse who also allegedly failed to respond to the visual and audio alarms for almost two hours despite being inches away from the monitors. Despite video evidence to the contrary, prosecutors claim that Lappe also falsely claimed in notes written a day after the incident that nurses had responded to the alarms and that the resident was in stable condition.

•Victoria Caldwell, 50, of Medford, a licensed practical nurse who allegedly claimed to investigators that the resident was alive and “looked up at me” when in fact the resident had likely been dead for some time. 


•Christina Corelli, 37, of East Patchogue, an aide who allegedly falsely claimed that the resident’s respiratory alarms were not beeping and that the resident was breathing normally when records show that the alarm system had been activated for the entire time Corelli was in the room with the resident.


•Patricia DiGiovanni, 62, of Port Jefferson, an aide who was assigned to sit at the resident’s bedside but who prosecutors said did not respond to alarms ringing at the resident’s bedside.

Additionally, Yolanda Monsalvo, 47, of Nesconset and Catherine Reyes, 49, of Ridge, were both charged with first-degree falsifying business records and willful violation of the health laws for neglecting other residents and providing false statements to conceal the neglect. A resident with dementia in Monsalvo’s care sustained a traumatic head injury and a broken arm when Monsalvo allegedly left the building instead of monitoring the resident; a resident assigned to Reyes’s care was utterly neglected by Reyes to the point that he was found in deplorable and dangerously unsanitary conditions, Schneiderman said.

A spokesman for the home, Hank Sheinkopf, said that the nine employees have been placed on administrative leave. He took issue with Schneiderman's claim that the facility has been mismanaged.

“This facility provides much-needed assistance to thousands of seniors and almost 400 jobs to local residents. Not only does the facility meet all safety protocols mandated by the state, it has a history of going beyond what is required," Sheinkopf said. "Over the past five years, the facility has done increasingly well on its Department of Health inspections, and on its most recent review last August, did not receive a single infraction. We are very concerned by the charges filed by the attorney general ... but we know that these allegations are not indicative of the excellent quality of care that we and our dedicated staff provide to residents. All employees charged by the attorney general have been placed on administrative leave, but because we believe that people are innocent until proven guilty, they will continue to be paid while these issues are under review. “

Schneiderman also filed a civil lawsuit on Tuesday charging the home’s owners with fraud, based on a long history of criminal conduct by employees of the facility, and corporate looting. The lawsuit alleges that rather than investing in better staffing and improved supervision to remedy "the longstanding history of neglect and dangerously inadequate care, the home’s owners slashed salaries and supplies." Meanwhile, prosecutors said, they regularly paid themselves nearly as much in salary as they paid to all 400-plus employees combined. The complaint alleges that the owners failed in their obligations to ensure proper care for residents and siphoned millions of Medicaid dollars intended to provide necessary care and improve residents’ quality of life.

“Nursing home residents are among our state’s most vulnerable citizens,” Schneiderman said in a statement. “Today’s arrests and lawsuit send a message that we will not tolerate anyone being neglected or denied life-saving medical treatment while individuals line their own pockets with tens of millions of dollars that Medicaid intended to provide resident care. We must and will do everything in our power to protect our vulnerable nursing home residents from being preyed upon by those who are entrusted with their care, yet fail to fulfill their duties to provide necessary care.”

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