The family of Lulua Pearl Ingram has filed suit in Snohomish County Superior Court against Aldercrest Health and Rehabilitation Center located at 21400 72nd Ave. W. in Edmonds. The suit alleges that the death of the 76-year-old woman was the direct result of negligence by the facility and staff, specifically naming its then-medical director Dr. Bhupinder Walia, MD.
According to papers filed with the court, Ingram died on Aug. 15, 2020, from acute sepsis brought on by a “pattern of neglect that constitutes abuse of a vulnerable adult under RCW 74.34” in the treatment a urinary tract infection [UTI]. The plaintiffs claim that the treatment she received was “below the standard of care,” and resulted in “the painful death of a vulnerable adult.” They further allege that Aldercrest employees “failed to meet the basic standards of assessment and serially withheld antibiotics that would have saved Lulua Pearl Ingram’s life.”
The neglect detailed in the suit alleges “failure to perform a proper examination, failure to follow procedures and protocols specifically mandated for prevention of infection and skin breakdown, failure to timely discover the patient’s condition.” The suit also notes that a written facility policy focused on UTI’s titled “Bowel and Bladder” does not include monitoring, evaluating or reporting vital information, revealing a “pattern of corporate negligence and neglect.”
They further allege that as a result of Aldercrest’s acts and omissions Ingram “experienced physical and mental pain, anxiety, distress, shock, humiliation, agony and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, severe pain and suffering that resulted in death.”
The plaintiffs are seeking to recover damages for expenses (e.g., funeral, medical, etc.), and compensatory damages for loss of her love, affection and companionship. They have also made a good-faith request for mediation and will delay court action while pursuing this avenue.
Aldercrest Health and Rehabilitation Center has recently rebranded as Edmonds Care, and is part of the Gig-Harbor based Caldera Care network of nursing care facilities.
Officials at Caldera Care weren’t available for comment.
— By Larry Vogel
Shame on any facility that would allow this neglect and abuse to occur to someone to whom they were entrusted to care for! Aldercrest is not the first; it’s one of MANY care facilities that have caused harm to vulnerable people. There really needs to be much better inspections of these places and much more stringent and frequent quality of care checks. They need to be held accountable BEFORE tragedies like this occur. They need to be given higher fines and more random audits for starters. I still have the letter sent to me from Providence Hospital in Everett where they, too, admitted that they had fallen “below the standard of care” for my mom. I will keep that letter for the rest of my life. I wish I had sued the hell out of them for what they put her through. I hope Ms. Ingram’s family gets the maximum award allowable by law because even that will not be enough. Life is precious. Every life is precious! My sincerest sympathy goes out to the family of Ms Lulua Pearl.
It’s frightening to think that the elderly and the vulnerable can be treated this way in nursing homes we need to have constant state inspections done to bring them up to high standards
My father-in-law died from neglect at the hands of these places.
Good for this person to hold them accountable.
My wife spent two months at Aldercrest in 2016 and four weeks in 2018; each time she received excellent care. I cannot speak about the years since then.
It’s sad that nursing homes pay low or minimum wages, so they cannot get enough competent workers to care for our parents and loved ones.
This is what is also happening to our hospitals. We need higher pay and limit the number of patients for all nursing staff at hospitals and nursing homes in WA.