As reported in the Albany-Times Union, this morning, the daughter of Albany resident Roger Sanford filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court against the Albany County Nursing Home, its Executive Director Larry Slatky, and other Nursing Home staff, for civil rights violations and wrongful death.

On March 1, 2018, Mr. Sanford’s daughter found him alone in his Nursing Home room, gasping for air, drenched in sweat, with an oxygen tube dangling from his nose. This followed months where Mr. Sanford was often unchanged, unfed, unmedicated, unwashed, unshaven, and even covered in his own urine and feces, the Complaint alleges. Mr. Sanford died as a result of the Nursing Home’s reckless disregard for his life.

A New York State Department of Health investigation found that the Nursing Home violated federal laws by failing to provide Mr. Sanford with basic life support or CPR; failing to follow professional standards of practice; and failing to provide Mr. Sanford with necessary respiratory care.

As alleged in the Complaint, when Mr. Sanford’s daughter complained to Executive Director Slatky about her father’s poor care, Mr. Slatky boasted that a relative of a Nursing Home employee worked in the Department of Health’s complaint department and would make sure any complaint against the Nursing Home disappeared.

“My hope and prayer is that our lawsuit will force Albany County Nursing Home to provide much safer care and services and that reckless and negligent deaths will be prevented. My father suffered horrifically, he was grossly neglected, he was denied basic medical care and he died prematurely because staff refused to get him to the hospital for days or even bother to call 911 when he was in a dire medical emergency. It broke my heart to find my father lying in his bed gasping for air, sweating profusely with no one there to assist him or help save his life.” said Lori LaRock, Mr. Sanford’s daughter.

“We expect nursing homes to take care of our loved ones, not to let them suffer and die alone,” said Ilann M. Maazel, lead counsel, and a lawyer at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel. “Albany County Nursing Home’s treatment of Mr. Sanford was unconscionable and indefensible.”

“No one should have to endure what Mr. Sanford’s family went through,” said David Berman, another lawyer for Mr. Sanford’s family. “Albany County Nursing Home must be held accountable for Mr. Sanford’s suffering.”