Owner of Seattle elder-care facility charged with allowing resident's bedsores to become fatal

From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

King County prosecutors have filed criminal charges against the owner and manager elder-care facility on allegations that they allowed a wheelchair-bound woman to develop bedsores that ultimately led to her death.

In court filings, Kirkland police contend that Effie Jane Tutor, manager of the Houghton Lakeview Adult Family Home, allowed an 87-year-old resident there to develop bedsores so severe that the bones of the woman were exposed. That woman, Jean Rudolph, died under hospice care June 19, 2008, due to in part to bone infections associated with the pressure sores, according to court documents.

Her relatives began noticing that Rudolph's condition was declining weeks before her death, according to court documents.

Visiting Rudolph in April 2008, the woman's niece "was appalled by how thin her aunt looked," a Kirkland detective said in court documents. Rudolph had lost weight and seemed to be poorly cared for.

Rudolph, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, was initially treated for bedsores May 4, 2008, according to police. Twenty-two days passed before she received any follow-up care; by then, police say, she'd developed seven deep bedsores requiring hospitalization.

Following her release from the hospital, Rudolph was transferred to her son's home where she received end-of-life care. At the time, she weighed 68 pounds -- just more than half of what she'd weighed months before.

Interviewed by police, Tutor's estranged husband said he'd seen Rudolph days before she was removed from the home, according to court documents.

"I looked down and (Rudolph's) clothes looked like they hadn't been changed in two days," the man told police.

As Rudolph's ailments came to light in May 2008, the Department of Social and Health Services launched an investigation into conduct at the adult family home.

According to statements from the department, investigators closed the home in August 2008 after finding that Rudolph and two other bedridden residents had gone without proper care. Additionally, investigators found that employee records had been falsified and that staff failed to notify law enforcement when a resident reported losing $120.

A department spokeswoman said the home remains closed.

Also charged Thursday afternoon was Patti Goodwill, the owner of the home who prosecutors allege encouraged Tutor to falsify incident statements and failed to report neglect at the Kirkland facility, as required under state law.

Tutor has been charged with first-degree criminal mistreatment, a felony. Goodwill faces a lesser charge, failure to report, a gross misdemeanor.

Both defendants are scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 16 at the King County Courthouse in Seattle. Tutor has been jailed on $75,000 bail; Goodwill remains free pending the case's resolution.