Nursing home staff gave man ‘contaminated sandwich’ that killed him, CA lawsuit says
A 71-year-old nursing home resident died after eating a “contaminated sandwich” served to him by staff, a California lawsuit says.
His family has accused the facility of elder abuse and medical negligence, according to the complaint, which was filed in Santa Clara Superior Court on April 18.
Richard Truong was admitted to Vasona Creek Healthcare Center in December 2021 to recover from surgery, according to the lawsuit.
On Dec. 22, 2021, he ate the “contaminated sandwich” and became sick with gastrointestinal symptoms, the complaint says. He began having seizures the following morning.
When the seizures started, nursing home staff called his son but not paramedics, according to the lawsuit.
His daughter then went to the facility, which is located in Los Gatos, about 50 miles southeast of San Francisco, and saw her father “vomiting and experiencing severe seizures with bodily convulsions,” the complaint says. At one point, Truong bit his tongue and started bleeding.
While he was seizing, nurses argued about how to position his body, according to the lawsuit.
He then went into cardiac arrest, and paramedics responded, the lawsuit says. He had a second cardiac arrest and was taken to an emergency room at a hospital.
Hospital staff resuscitated him, but he had suffered brain damage and was placed on life support, according to the lawsuit.
Dan Kramer, a spokesperson for Vasona Creek Healthcare Center, denied the allegations in the lawsuit and said in a statement that facility staff looked forward to “an opportunity to defend ourselves and resolve the allegations in court.”
“Our facility’s principal objective is, and will continue to be, providing the best care for our patients and their families; the health and safety of our residents remain our top priority,” the statement says. “Vasona Creek Healthcare Center and its staff work hard to provide quality care to the residents they serve.”
Lawyers for the Truong family did not respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.
Truong developed sepsis and septic shock “as a result of deplorable, unsanitary conditions and lack of care by (Vasona Creek Healthcare Center’s) employees and agents,” the lawsuit says.
After he was taken to the emergency room, lab testing revealed he had E. coli in his lungs, according to the lawsuit.
He died on Jan. 22, 2022.
Staff at Vasona Creek Healthcare Center failed to provide Truong with adequate care and “intentionally and/or recklessly” put his health in danger by not having properly-trained staff that could recognize and respond to his “worsening conditions,” the lawsuit says.
Their negligence led to a deterioration in Truong’s overall health and his “untimely death,” the lawsuit says.
Truong’s family is seeking an unspecified amount of damages, including medical expenses, compensation for pain and suffering and attorney’s fees.
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