Man Says Bedsore Exposed Underlying Bone
3-27-2013 03:04:00


LOS ANGELES (CN) - While he was a patient at Kaiser Permanente’s South Bay Medical Center in Los Angeles County, a man developed a bedsore that got worse after he transferred to a skilled nursing facility to recover from his initial illness, he claims in a complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Mark Morikawa and his wife Lisette are suing Kaiser and Country Villa Belmont Heights Healthcare Center for elder abuse, negligence and Health and Safety Code violations because, “while a patient at Kaiser, Mark developed severe medical problems, which were either not charted and/or not sufficiently addressed by Kaiser, including but not limited to a deplorable sacral pressure ulcer, infection, and other injuries unknown at this time,” the complaint states.

Mark Morikawa was admitted to Kaiser for a neurological condition, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which caused him to periodically be unresponsive and “thereby requiring assistance in turning and repositioning so as to prevent the formation of pressure ulcers. Furthermore, Kaiser was on notice that because of Mark’s medical condition, he was especially susceptible to pressure ulcers and required close monitoring of his skin. Despite the fact that Kaiser was on notice about Mark’s condition, Kaiser failed to prevent the ulcer and also failed to properly chart the pressure ulcer after it developed and failed to take sufficient action to treat and cure it,” according to the complaint.

After being hospitalized at Kaiser from Nov. of 2010 to early Feb. of 2011, Mark Morikawa was transferred to Country Villa, “where Mark’s sacral pressure ulcer worsened. On or about April 20, 2011, Mark went to the emergency room at Kaiser with a Stage IV sacral pressure ulcer that was oozing blood, and had started to expose the underlying bone, and he was experiencing excruciating pain. Despite the horrific condition of the pressure ulcer, Kaiser did not sufficiently address it, failed to find that it had become infected, and discharged him that same day to Country Villa.
On April 27, 2011, Mark was admitted once more to Kaiser for a severe infection of his Stage IV pressure ulcer,” the complaint states. “Mark’s injuries were preventable had defendants provided Mark the level of care they were required to provide under the relevant state and federal regulations, and much less the level of care any decent human being should give to another human being in their custody,” the complaint asserts.

Mark and Lisette Morikawa are represented by Ben Yeroushalmi of Los Angeles.

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