State Blamed in Beating Death of Patient

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

"There was blood everywhere."
That's how one employee of a Pennsylvania veterans home described the scene when a patient was found recently with what turned out to be fatal injuries.
The 95-year-old victim had been beaten by a fellow patient who also was found in the second floor room at the Gino Merli Veterans Center in Scranton on April 22.
The detailed minute by minute description of the deadly confrontation was spelled out in a 10-page report just made public by the state Health Department.
The report faults the home itself for failing to protect the patient.
"The facility failed to prevent the physical abuse of one resident which resulted in serious bodily and physical injury and subsequent death of one resident," the report states.
Officials of the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, which runs the home, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
From extensive interviews and reviews of surveillance tapes,and hospital records, the state inspectors reconstructed the bloody April 22 scene where 95-year-old Leonard Fiume was fatally beaten.
The report also details the fact that the deadly confrontation was not the first time the two had clashed.
In fact the 78-year-old Alzheimer's patient who inflicted the injuries had previously hit the victims's wife, also a resident of the home.
Fiume and the 78-year-old had a direct confrontation a little less than a month earlier when the two, both confined to wheelchairs, began kicking each other and the 78-year-old punched the 95-year-old in the face.
Just four days before the final clash the 78-year-old became very agitated with staff and shook a fist at one of them.
Video of the April 22 event showed that the 78-year-old and Fiume entered Room 220 separately about eight minutes apart. Neither of them was assigned to the room. They were in the room together for 11 minutes "during which time Resident 2 (the 78-year-old) had physically assaulted and seriously injured Resident 1 (the 95-year-old) resulting in Resident 1's death."
At 1:14 p.m. a nurse passing in the hallway heard a wheelchair alarm go off. The alarm indicated a patient was no longer sitting in the wheelchair.
The nurse tried to enter the room but the door was blocked. She then went to the the next room and reached 220 through a shared bathroom.
She found Fiume lying on the floor with his wheelchair blocking the door. The 78-year-old was in the room and told the nurse, "He (Fiume) just started hitting me. He came from behind. I tried to protect myself."
Blood spatter was observed on the walls, door and doorway, the report states. There was blood spatter on the pillow on the 95-year-olds wheelchair, according to the report.
The 95-year-old had a laceration on the right side of his temple. Subsequent tests showed he had a subdural hematoma on the left side of his brain. The report noted that the 95-year old was taking anti-coagulant medications making him more susceptible to bleeding.
The 78-year-old had blood on his hands and complained of pain. Both were sent to a local emergency room, but the 78-year-old was released the same day.
The report states that Fiume's condition worsened over night and any surgery was ruled out. He was transferred to hospice care on April 26 and died the same day.
According to the report after the 78-year-old returned to the home he was placed under constant watch.
The report states that Fiume's cause of death was "blunt force head trauma and local police determined it was a homicide"
The victim's son declined to press charges, the report concludes.