AMHERST — A former nursing assistant at the Center for Extended Care at Amherst has sued the nursing home for wrongful termination after she was fired days after raising concerns over the quality of care given to a resident.
Vanessa Brower, a certified nursing assistant (CNA) from Springfield, filed a lawsuit in Hampshire Superior Court last week, alleging that she had been disciplined and subsequently fired by her superiors after advocating for a resident in the nursing home’s dementia and Alzheimer’s unit in late 2018.
David Ianacone, an administrator at the nursing home, said he was not aware of the allegations and declined to comment.
According to the lawsuit, Brower, who had worked at the nursing home on a per-diem basis since April 2018, was working on Dec. 27, 2018, when she went to wake up a resident that morning. Brower reportedly found the resident soaked in her own urine with a large bedsore.
After washing the resident, the lawsuit alleges, Brower asked her supervisor to change the person’s soaked wound dressings, as a CNA is prohibited from doing so. The supervisor allegedly told Brower she didn’t have time, at which point Brower protested as she believed the bedsore could become contaminated, the lawsuit said.
“[Brower’s] supervisor stated that she would just ‘dope’ [the resident] up to get her to stop wailing and screaming,” and Brower was later given a written warning, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit also states that the director of nursing allegedly told Brower she was being insubordinate, dismissing comments that Brower just wanted to help the resident, while raising the possibility of suspending Brower.
“[Brower] further explained that any time she has raised concerns over the quality of care for the residents at (the nursing home) — her concerns are dismissed and never addressed,” the lawsuit reads.
After signing a statement she had written about the incident, Brower was reportedly told to go home and take a couple of days off. According to the lawsuit, the resident died the next morning.
In the following month, the lawsuit states that Brower tried to pick up shifts but was told there were none available, eventually being ignored by staff. Brower’s employment was terminated on Jan. 2, 2019, according to the suit.