Patients at State Veterans Home Assaulted

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Four patients at a state run nursing home for veterans were assaulted verbally or physically when officials of the Scranton facility failed to take action to restrain an assaultive fellow patient.
The incidents at the Gino Merli Veterans Center were detailed in a recent report from the state Health Department which noted that the attacks resulted in actual physical injury including a fractured finger and lacerations and contusions.
In one of the attacks the attacking patient punched another patient who was seated in his wheelchair, knocking him to the floor.
The patient was found lying on the floor, bleeding from a lip laceration and suffering from elbow lacerations.
The patient was later found to have a fractured pinky and required stitches for the mouth wounds.
Questioned about the attack, the victim said, "I was punched in the face by a man with white hair. My wheel chair fell over with me in it."
Surveyors from the health agency reviewed video tapes which confirmed the unprovoked attack.
Yet another victim was punched with a closed fist, the report states. Video of the incident showed the victim was punched five times.
The aggressor was sent to another facility for an evaluation, but was returned to the nursing home before the end of the day.
The final victim was subjected to expletive laced verbal abuse.
"The facility failed to ensure that four patients were free from physical and/or verbal abuse," according to the Dec. 3 report.
The nursing home's managers were also faulted for barring patients from having any visitors even after federal officials lifted a visitors' ban.
The facility filed a plan of correction in which officials said the assaultive patient was kept away from his victims. They also said the visitors ban was lifted.
Officials of the state agency which runs the veterans homes did not respond to questions about the report.
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