Jan 22, 2009 11:00 pm US/Eastern
I-Team: Facility Facing Suit After Patients Death
Reporting
Jim Osman
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
Moving a parent or relative out of their home and into an assisted living facility can be one of the toughest personal decisions a person will ever make. And in making it, you must trust that the people paid to care for your loved one will look out for their health and safety.
But as CBS 3's Investigative Reporter Jim Osman reports on a Delaware County facility that is facing a lawsuit after the death of one of its patients.
Jimmy Reilly is part of Philadelphia's history appearing on American Bandstand.
"He loved to dance," said his sister Joan Scipione.
From his days on American Bandstand, to being an avid runner, to his time doing odd jobs for his family, Scipione says her brother lived a full life.
But that life ended in an assisted living home in Delaware County.
"I miss him so much," said Scipione. "I go to his grave, he's not too far from my house."
The alarming way Jimmy died leads us to a place called Torrey House in Haverford, Pennsylvania.
Torrey House is an assisted living home owned by CareLink Community Support Services.
Doctors ordered caretakers to visit the 66-year-old Jimmy who suffered from mental illness. Caretakers were to check in on him hourly.
But that didn't happen. That's not surprising according to a former caretaker at Torrey House who worked there at the time of Jimmy's death in 2007.
"I got outraged," said the former caretaker.
She agreed to talk to us if we concealed her identity.
"It was not a good experience," she said. "People didn't care anymore and they weren't helping the patients."
The caretaker who spoke to us did not have direct responsibility for Jimmy.
She says patients were often left in soiled clothes while co-workers loafed on the job.
"I've seen from my own two eyes residential counselors sleeping on the job," she told us.
On a February morning in 2007, caretakers thought Jimmy had gone missing.
It wasn't until after an hour and a half that caretakers forced their way into Jimmy's locked bathroom and found him drowned in a bathtub.
"I was shocked, I just could not believe my brother was dead," said Scipione. "It was probably the worst day of my life."
Jimmy's death prompted Pennsylvania state inspectors to cite Torrey House with 12 personal care home violations.
That includes the drowning incident. Poor sanitary conditions, a lack of fire inspections and allowing patients to administer their own medications when they shouldn't were also cited violations.
In May 2007, the state pulled the facility's license and issued a provisional license.
Torrey House eventually got its license back in November 2007.
But since then, the home has been slapped with 33 additional violations including expired medications, a blocked fire exit and unsanitary conditions.
"I loved Jimmy," said Scipione who has filed a lawsuit against the assisted living home.
She hopes it might erase the image that Jimmy drowned and died alone.
"He needed help and there was no one there," said Scipione.
"We want to make sure we hold CareLink responsible so the other institutions in the state of Pennsylvania recognize that if they do the same things, they're going to have a problem," said Jeffrey Killino who is Scipione's attorney.
CareLink Community Support Services which runs Torrey House declined to be interviewed on camera.
In a statement to us, Carelink's CEO Eileen Joseph emphasized that all of the violations found by state regulators were corrected and the facility currently has a regular license to operate.
Joseph issued this statement concerning the death of Jimmy Reilly:
"We were deeply saddened by the death of Mr. Reilly. Unfortunately, because this matter is now in litigation we are prevented from making any specific comments until the case reaches a resolution."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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