The Tribune's expose on nursing homes and the abuses that have occurred keeps making headlines. Today's story is about sexual violence, and sadly, the Somerset again plays a leading role:
In April 2008, police were summoned after midnight to Somerset Place on the North Side after a mentally ill 28-year-old resident told staff that he had beaten, then raped a schizophrenic 53-year-old woman after forcing his way into her fourth-floor bedroom, records and interviews show.
The man told police "he wanted to make a confession," and a police report said he sexually assaulted his female housemate "without the victim's consent." Sent to the emergency room with a blood-filled and swollen black eye, the woman told police and Somerset employees she had been sexually assaulted.
The victim's mother, Dorothy Foster, of Bolingbrook, saw her daughter at the facility the next day. "I just broke down," Foster said. "It was so bad."
But in the end, no arrest was made in the case. According to a police detective's report, the victim refused to cooperate with officers. She and the male resident now live in different facilities. Somerset, another Rothner nursing home, sent a description of the incident to the state Department of Public Health as required by law, and the facility has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case.
Somerset has had seven reports of alleged sexual violence since July 2007, more than any other Chicago nursing home, records show. Federal and state authorities this month moved to revoke its state nursing home license and cut off its federal funding because of citations for abuse, safety breaches and other problems. The facility is contesting those actions. Read the entire story here.
i hope the management of this less-than-well-managed place will be held responsible for this horrid event.
ReplyDeleteLast night there was a ton of pan handling going on by Sommerset residents up and down Argyle, and around Clark street...maybe the mgt. group thinks the heat is off?
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