The Terry Law Firm has filed a lawsuit against Green Park Senior Living Community, owned and operated by Green Park Leasing Co, LLC and ten related corporate entities for the wrongful death of a former resident. Gary Bangert died on March 5, 2019 due to dehydration and Diabetic Ketoacidosis. His wife Cindy hired the Terry Law Firm to pursue this lawsuit on her behalf.

The lawsuit is the result of a lack of consistent monitoring and direct care of Gary Bangert. While residing at Green Park Senior Living, Gary depended on those providing him with medical care to monitor his medical condition and timely and properly administer correct dosages of medication.

Allegations of the Lawsuit

Upon his admission to Green Park Senior Living, the facility knew that Gary had a history of diabetes, moderate kidney disease and renal insufficiency. His medical condition required that he remain well-hydrated and that meals be provided regularly. Blood sugar levels must also be frequently and consistently monitored and responded to with the correct insulin dose. Green Park Senior Living failed Gary Bangert on these issues, specifically failing to check his blood sugar when required.

On March 4, 2019 Gary’s condition notably changed. A staff member documented that he was not responding to his name and his skin was noticeably pale. According to the lawsuit, when ambulance personnel arrived, they noted that, “1 staff member advised that the patient has been like this for over a week.”

When Gary arrived at the hospital lab work indicated several key lab values were significantly abnormal.  Gary was diagnosed with diabetic ketoacidosis and acute kidney injury due brought on by significant dehydration. Gary died a day later of diabetic ketoacidosis and renal failure.

You can read the full petition here.

Green Park Senior Living’s Previous Problems

Gary Bangert was admitted to Green Park Senior Living on December 14, 2018. In September 2018, just three months before his admission the facility received a citation by state inspectors for failing to meet professional standards by failing to administer insulin for 13 of the 31 residents sampled. The month after his admission, Green Park Senior Living was again cited by government inspectors for failing to follow physician orders related to the checking of blood sugars and the implementation of insulin.

One month later, in February 2019, Green Park Senior Living was cited for not complying with the state regulatory rule that requires all facilities to employ a sufficient number of employees to provide quality care to residents. State officials gave the facility until March 18, 2019 to correct their staffing problem.

On March 26, 2019 government inspectors determined that Green Park Senior Living had failed to correct the staffing failures for which they were cited in February 2019. State inspectors also determined that Green Park Senior Living had also failed to comply with state regulatory rule 19 C.S.R. 30-85.042(47) which states: “There shall be a safe and effective system of medication distribution, administration, control and use.”

More About Green Park Senior Living?

Green Park Senior Living Community located at 9350 Green Park Road, St. Louis, MO 63123, is owned and operated by Green Park Leasing Co, LLC. Medicare identifies Green Park Senior Living  as a “Special Focus Facility”, meaning they have more problems than other nursing homes with about twice the average number of deficiencies. Special Focus facilities tend to have more serious problems than most other nursing homes, including harm or injury experienced by residents. This pattern of serious problems also tends to persist over the three years before the date the nursing home was put on the Special Focus Facility list.

Green Park Senior Living received 34 complaints in the last three years that ended in a state citation, and a total number of 13 health inspection citations. The Missouri average is 8.6 and the National average is 8.2.

Corporate Relationships

Plaintiff alleges that Green Park Senior Living was part of a joint venture involving at least ten other corporate entities, all of which are owned by the same people or entities as the facility.  Every other corporate entity is based in Ohio and shares the exact same address. Through “related party transactions” these other corporate defendants removed over $1.6 million from the facility which is roughly the same amount as the cost of all of the licensed nurses at the facility.

The lawsuit alleges that “defendants engaged in a systematic process of ensuring that Green Park Senior Living maintained the high occupancy and acuity rate possible while providing insufficient staff to meet the individual needs of Gary Bangert during his residency at the facility”.

Lead attorney David W. Terry states, “Green Park Senior Living has an obligation to make certain there is an adequate number of properly trained personnel to meet the needs of each individual resident. Unfortunately, these standards were not upheld by Green Park Senior Living and those failures ultimately led to Gary’s death.