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2 Hous. J. Health L. & Pol'y 297 (2002)
The Graying of America: Protecting Nursing Home Residents by Allowing Regulatory and Criminal Statutes to Establish Standards of Care in Private Negligence Actions

handle is hein.journals/hhpol2 and id is 307 raw text is: 2 Hous. J. HEALTH L. & POL'Y 297-335 297 Copyright © 2002 Jennifer N. Phan, Houston Journal of Health Law & Policy ISSN 1534-7907 Tim GRAYING OF AMERICA: PROTECTING NURSING HOME RESIDENTS BY ALLOWING REGULATORY AND CRIMINAL STATUTES TO ESTABLISH STANDARDS OF CARE IN PRIVATE NEGLIGENCE ACTIONS Jennifer N. Phan INTRODUCTION The following incidences illustrate that we should never cease to be shocked by Man's inhumanity to Man, no matter the circumstances.1 On January 3, 1994, nurse's aide Loretta Gadley slapped an eighty-six year-old woman on her face and head; hit a seventy-six year-old wheelchair-bound man; and further physically abused an eighty-five year-old woman. All of these actions occurred between 6:30 p.m. and 7:25 p.m.2 All three victims suffered from Alzheimer's disease and were residents at the nursing home that employed Gadley from January 1989 until one month after the attacks.3 Gadley was convicted of the abuse, but the judge suspended all jail time I Beverly Enterprises-Florida, Inc. v. Spilman, 661 So.2d 867, 874 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1995) (Sharp, J. concurring specially) (confirming a judgment of $720,000 in compensatory dam- ages and $2 million in punitive damages against a nursing home which had so neglected a patient that the patient died from a bedsore). The evidence supported that the acts and omissions by the nursing home warranted a punitive damage award in the amount of $2 million dollars. 2 Matt Gryta, Nurse's Aide Spared Jail Time in Attack on Three Elderly Patients, TBE BUFFALO Ne vs, Nov. 29, 1994, at Local 5 (highlighting the fact that, despite years of ongoing lobby- ing, the state of New York has failed to enact felony charges to use against elder abusers for this type behavior).

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