Lawsuit Claims Nursing Home Negligence Worsened 72-Year-Old’s Deadly Infection

An Ohio nursing home responsible for the care of a 72-year-old grandfather has been accused of making “profit-driven decisions” that led to his death, with his family”s lawyers accusing the facility of telling the man “they would not assist him to the toilet and he’d need to soil his briefs and wait.” This allegedly led to the grandpa being left in his own feces and waste “for hours at a time,” causing a stage 4 bedsore and deadly infection.

“The bedsore was so large and tunneled so deeply, that the bones of his lower back and pelvis were exposed and visible,” the family of Samuel Frank Ray Sr. says in the complaint for a wrongful death lawsuit filed Monday in Lucas County.

The Michael Hill Trial Law group, which is representing the family, alleges that Arbors of Sylvania — a Toledo-based “skilled-nursing facility” with multiple locations — failed to properly treat and care for the septuagenarian after he was transferred there following hospitalizations in August 2024 for a urinary tract infection and aspiration pneumonia, the firm says.

Ray’s family accuses Arbors of Sylvania staff of placing Ray in “adult diapers” even though he was not incontinent and “knew when he needed to go to the toilet to relieve himself,” according to the complaint. This was allegedly due to “chronic understaffing” at the facility.

“[Staff] told Samuel Frank Ray, Sr., that if he needed to go to the toilet, to instead just soil his depends and the staff would be around to change his briefs,” the complaint alleges. “This resulted in Samuel Frank Ray, Sr., being left laying in his own feces and waste for hours at a time.”

Weeks allegedly went by with Ray having to repeatedly soil himself, his family says, leading to prolonged exposure of the skin on his backside and skin irritation. A care plan was created, which required staff to monitor Ray’s skin for “deterioration and breakdown” on a daily basis, in order to timely detect bedsores in their early stages and prevent them from developing and worsening into open wounds.

“During the month of September, 2024, Arbors of Sylvania’s staff failed to turn and reposition Samuel Frank Ray, Sr., 33 shifts, leaving him laying in one position in bed and thus exposed to prolonged and excessive periods of pressure,” the complaint alleges. “During this same time, Arbors of Sylvania also failed to check and monitor Samuel Frank Ray, Sr.’s skin for areas of breakdown or pressure for 33 shifts, allowing evolving skin breakdown to go undetected until it was too late.”

Ray wound up developing an open bedsore on his coccyx that grew and grew until things eventually turned deadly, his family says. They claim it was a “direct result of Arbors of Sylvania’s flippant adherence to their own care plan and the standard of care to turn and reposition” Ray during his stay, according to the complaint.

On Oct. 7, 2024, Ray was transferred from the nursing home to a local hospital for outpatient treatment of his bedsore on his coccyx. He began experiencing signs and symptoms of sepsis several weeks later and “remained severely compromised from the open bedsore” before eventually succumbing to the “infection and trauma” on Jan. 17, 2025.

“Sam Ray Sr.’s family entrusted Arbors of Sylvania with his recovery,” said Michael Hill, founder of Michael Hill Trial Law, in a statement Tuesday.

“Our lawsuit contends that Arbors of Sylvania denied Sam Ray Sr. even basic care, leaving him lying in his own waste until a wound ate through to bone and infection ravaged his body,” Hill explained. “We’re pursuing this case to secure justice for Mr. Ray and to hold the facility accountable so other families don’t endure the same tragedy.”