Lake Shore Health Care and Rehabilitation Centre is being sued by the family of Michael Lewis.
Michael Lewis, a wheel-chair bound patient at the facility, was taken to the patio area where he usually goes to smoke.
The area was unsupervised by staff at the time when Lewis’ shirt caught fire after lighting his cigarette. With no one outside to help, he rolled himself back inside the center where frantic, untrained employees scrambled around before spraying the man with a fire extinguisher and then rolling his foam covered body back out to the patio. With minutes passing no one checked his vitals and the man went into cardiac arrest by the time emergency personnel arrived before he died.
Lewis’s sister, Lisa Couch, made clear her disgust. “He sustained burns like from mid-thigh up to the eyebrows,” she said. “The horror, to think my brother is on fire and no one is there?”
While the lawsuit is still pending, representatives from the center have already said staff members are receiving new training to handle such emergencies.
Another nursing home, Virginia-based Carriage Hill Health & Rehabilitation Center, was fined $1.5 million this summer after an unattended wheelchair-bound patient sustained burns while smoking.
The nursing home’s security camera caught it all on tape. Click here to see why the family of Michael Lewis is furious about the incident and filing a lawsuit.
