‘A terrible way to go’: Nursing home resident died from severe bed sores, months of neglect, coroner says

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG/Gray News) – A family is demanding answers after their mother’s death was ruled a homicide from months of medical neglect at an Ohio nursing home.

According to an autopsy report from the Lucas County Coroner, 72-year-old Lucy Garcia died on July 2 from months of medical neglect.

She was a resident for years at the Arbors at Oregon nursing home facility.

Her death was ruled a homicide from complications of a severe bed sore also known as a sacral pressure ulcer (stage IV), according to the coroner’s report.

Nursing home abuse lawyer Matt Mooney said Garcia died a horrible death.

“The bed sore had already progressed to the point it was down to her bone. There are horrific pictures of the bed sore. Horrific pictures. It’s completely inexcusable for someone like Lucy to develop a bed sore so serious in a nursing home setting,” Mooney said.

Local police said they are investigating the case after the coroner presented its findings to the prosecutor.

According to Arbors at Oregon’s website, the facility offers care “focused around each individual,” but Mooney maintains the nursing home failed to provide her with basic care.

“The nursing home represented to the family that they could do that. They could take care of Lucy’s needs, which included making sure she was protected from getting bed sores, and that’s a very basic care needed. It just involves moving patients, getting them out of bed if they’re able. If they’re not, rotating them in bed so that different parts of their body don’t cause pressure on their backside where these sore form. The facility failed to do that,” Mooney said.

WTVG went to the nursing home to speak with the director of nursing and the administrator, but they said they could not comment.

The family’s lawyer said Garcia raised four successful sons as a single mother and that her children are devastated.

“They want some accountability for what happened to their mother. Their mother’s passing was just terrible. No one deserves to pass like this. These bed sores are just a terrible way to … just a terrible way to go. They’re a terrible way to go,” Mooney said.

Mooney said that the nursing home failed Garcia.

“In her golden years at the twilight of her life, she deserved to be treated with dignity and respect, and Arbors at Oregon just did not provide that to her,” he said.

This is not the first time Arbors at Oregon has been under investigation. In 2019, an employee was convicted of patient abuse.

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