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Nursing Home Abuse Suspect to Testify Against Two Co-Accused

One of three suspects in a shocking nursing home abuse scandal in Kern County has accepted a plea bargain, and will testify against the other two accused. Debbie Gayle Hayes, who is a former pharmacist, has accepted the plea bargain to testify against the two other staff members at the facility where the abuse occurred.

Hayes worked at the skilled nursing center, which is run by the Kern Valley Health Care District. She, along with former nursing director Gwen Hughes, and medical director Dr. Hoshang M. Pormir, are alleged to have drugged more than 20 residents at the nursing center to control them. The patients, many of them suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, were ordered to be medicated by Hughes. These patients were injected with unnecessary doses of psychotropic drugs, and many of them experienced serious side effects because of these medications.  These side effects included slurred speech, weight loss, tremors and psychosis. As a result of the medication, three residents of the facility died.

Investigators at the time described the case as the most outrageous they had ever seen. Patients were held down, and forcibly given the medication. Hughes dominated the facility, and ordered staff to drug all patients, except the quietest ones. Pormir went along with these orders, and began administering the medications to elderly persons who had absolutely had no need for these drugs. Hayes has told investigators that she went along with Hughes’ orders because the latter had worked in such facilities before. It was later found that Hughes had worked at a convalescent home in Fresno, and had been fired in 1999 for overmedicating patients.

Hayes has now agreed to testify against Hughes and Pormir. She pleaded no contest to conspiracy to obstruct justice, and has been handed a sentence of three years probation, and a jail term of one year. But she won’t have to go to jail if she cooperates with officials, and completes her probation without any complaints. As part of the plea bargain, 10 other counts against her were dismissed.

People who choose to place their loved ones in a nursing care facility find these to be a safe haven for them when it gets increasingly harder to take care of them properly. Patients who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia need 24-hour care, and a skilled nursing care facility can provide such care. Most of these facilities do an excellent job of caring for elderly persons. However, there are several facilities where standards lag severely.  In fact, California nursing home abuse lawyers frequently come across cases of elder abuse that show the highest degrees of torture and violence against helpless elderly persons.

• If you have a loved one in a facility, make sure that you visit regularly and look for common signs of abuse.
• Look for bruises on the body, cuts or wounds
• Look for any unexplained injuries.
• Listen carefully when your loved one complains of being slapped or pushed around.
• Look for any signs of use of physical restraints.
• Check if your loved one is receiving proper care for their medical conditions.
• Look for signs of poor care, like bedsores, dehydration, malnutrition, poor hygiene, dirty clothes, unsanitary conditions in the room etc.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of nursing home abuse. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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