Mediate Michigan

Just after 4 a.m. on July 4, 2009, James Culbert hit the call button from his bed at the Lakeland Center nursing home in Southfield.

Only 51, Culbert was in rehab after an ATV accident. When a staffer arrived, the Redford Township man was flailing and turning blue.

The problem, a state investigation later found, was that the night staff had failed to hook up his ventilator or check his vitals. A respiratory therapist tried to connect the vent. It was too late.

By 5:17 a.m., just hours after he had chatted with family, Culbert was dead. “He died in the worst way. And he suffocated because there was no staff,” said Hala Hamed, a former Lakeland therapist.

Lakeland’s administrator said the staff disagreed with the state’s findings and said the home provides good care.

In nursing homes, where life is already so fragile, a single lapse can be life-threatening. Yet neglect is all too common, according to a Free Press analysis of state inspection reports.

via Nursing homes with good staff, stopgaps still can fail | Detroit Free Press | freep.com.