An Iowa resident recently spoke to Congress about nursing home negligence after her mother died in a nursing home, allegedly due to severe neglect.

Pat Blank is a journalist from Shell Rock, Iowa, and in the year following her mother’s death, she has worked to share information about nursing home negligence with those who can do something about this issue, according to KWWL.

In early March, Blank spoke to Congress about her mother’s suffering and eventual death at age 87. She said that her mother, Virginia Olthoff, had been a resident of the five-star rated Iowan nursing home for fifteen years. Yet before her death in 2018, an emergency room doctor allegedly told her that her mother was “extremely dehydrated and had sodium levels so high she likely suffered a stroke. He also said this did not just happen,” she told Congress.

Instead, her mother’s condition was allegedly caused by negligence at the highly rated nursing home that was supposed to ensure her care. Blank said that before Virginia died, she was very dehydrated, in pain, and losing weight.

The nursing home in question was Timely Mission Nursing Home, located in Buffalo Center, Iowa. Blank’s mother was a resident there for fifteen years and had dementia. When she was treated by the emergency room doctor, he reported possible neglect to the Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals, which Blank said investigated the matter and agreed with his assessment.

According to the state agency, conditions at the nursing home “constitute[d] jeopardy to resident health and safety.” Blank told the Senate Finance Committee that the report from the Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals “read like a horror story.”

“According to numerous staff members, my mother had been drinking very little and eating almost nothing for weeks. Where was my phone call then? The report also said she’d been crying out in pain often—where was my phone call then?” Blank told members of Congress.

Since then, the Timely Mission Nursing Home has been fined a total of $77,000 for neglect by federal authorities, but for Blank, this is not enough. She brought her mother’s story to Capitol Hill and the Senate Finance Committee.

By speaking to these lawmakers, Blank is hoping to help push for positive change in nursing homes, and at the very least holding them to higher standards of accountability.

Blank hopes lawmakers will work towards holding nursing homes—and their staff—more accountable. Because of the findings of the investigation into negligence at Timely Mission Nursing Home, three staff members were fired. But Blank says that each of these staff members found new jobs at nursing homes in other states. She’d like employees to be held accountable, too, along with the institutions.

Filing a Lawsuit Over Nursing Home Negligence

If someone you love has suffered at a nursing home due to negligence, you may be able to file a lawsuit. While filing a lawsuit cannot und other pain and suffering caused by negligence in a nursing home, it can at least start holding those responsible accountable for their actions and inactions.