SAN JOSE, Calif. (CN) – An elderly dependent patient died because his care providers were more focused on financial gain than on providing required levels of care, his daughter claims in a suit filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court.

Assurhadoun G. Khofri, by and through his successor-in-interest, Dorida Yaghoub, and Dorida Yaghoub individually, Jan. 22 sued Golden Oak Holdings, LLC, doing business as Vasona Creek Healthcare Center, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, doing business as Kaiser Foundation Hospital – San Jose, The Permanente Medical Group, Inc., and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. for elder abuse, violations of residents’ rights and wrongful death.

Plaintiff Yaghoub’s father, Khofri, was over the age of 65 and mentally incompetent when he was admitted to defendant Vasona’s “skilled nursing facility,” the action states.

Khofri’s changing condition was not adequately documented in his records or communicated to his attending physician, the action alleges, and the attending physician did not properly monitor his condition. “Kaiser owed a duty to Khofri…to provide an ongoing patient assessment. Defendants did not comply with their requirement of law in their care of Khofri,” the suit states.

“The defendants were the knowing agents and/or alter-egos of one another,” the suit claims, “making each of them vicariously liable for the acts and omissions of their co-defendants, their agents and employees.”

Khofri was malnourished, dehydrated, and had pressure ulcers and sepsis (a life-threatening infection spread throughout the bloodstream), as well as a urinary tract infection and other infections, that cumulatively led to his death, according to the suit. These conditions resulted from a lack of basic custodial care, the suit states.

“These injuries were not the product of isolated failures but rather the result of prolonged neglect and abuse that arose out of four calculated business practices by defendants: (1) understaffing; (2) relentless marketing and sales practices to increase resident and patient census despite knowledge of ongoing care deprivation; (3) ongoing practice of utilizing unqualified and untrained employees who, by law, were forbidden to administer nursing care to residents; and (4) ongoing practice of recruiting heavier care residents for which the nursing home received higher reimbursements, despite the dangerous levels of staff who were incapable of meeting the needs of the existing resident population,” the action claims.

Yaghoub seeks general and special damages, exemplary and punitive damages, and legal costs. 

The plaintiffs are represented by Adam J. Peck of Peck Law Group, APC, in Van Nuys, California.