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Inset: Robert Spadacini (German Rubenstein/Michael Hill Trial Law). Background: The New York City nursing home where Robert Spadacini allegedly developed a Stage 4 bedsore, pneumonia and sepsis complications that took his life (Google Maps).
An elderly man from New York City, aged 85, entered a nursing home for what was intended to be a brief rehabilitation stay, with plans to reunite soon with his wife. However, a lawsuit alleges that weeks later, he was hospitalized with a deadly Stage 4 bedsore, pneumonia, and sepsis due to the facility’s negligence.
The man, Robert Spadacini, a resident of the Bronx, was admitted to Providence Rest Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in the Country Club neighborhood on November 28, 2023. His admission followed a short hospital stay for issues related to swelling in his legs and breathing difficulties, as stated in a legal complaint filed by his wife, Mary Ann Spadacini, and recently obtained by Law&Crime.
The complaint highlights that Spadacini was supposed to receive short-term rehabilitation care at Providence Rest, intending to return home to live with his wife. It also mentions that two different doctors were responsible for his treatment during his stay.
According to the document, on or around January 12, 2024, Robert Spadacini was transferred from the nursing home to Jack D. Weiler Hospital. Upon arrival, he was found to have a bacterial infection, multi-lobar pneumonia, and was suffering from sepsis.
During his hospital stay, doctors discovered a severe pressure sore, known as a Stage 4 bedsore, in the sacral region. This ulcer had progressed to the point where the full thickness of his skin and underlying tissues had deteriorated, exposing muscle and bone, as detailed in the complaint.
Spadacini was at the hospital for less than two weeks, receiving treatment for his medical complications before he died on Jan. 24, 2024. It was later determined that Spadacini died of “sepsis due to multi-lobar pneumonia,” according to the complaint.
Mary Spadacini’s lawyers, who include attorneys from the New York-based firm German Rubenstein, LLP and nursing home litigation firm Michael Hill Trial Law, allege that Spadacini died due to “careless” and “negligent” treatment he received from “nurses, doctors, attendants and/or employees” while at Providence Rest.
“The severe pain and suffering were caused solely by reason of the carelessness, negligence, malpractice, departure from the accepted standard of care, from the wanton and willful disregard on the part of the defendants,” the complaint says, naming Providence Rest and its affiliates, including the healthcare ministry of the Archdiocese of New York, ArchCare, as defendants.
“The foregoing negligence and malpractice claimed was done with reckless, grossly negligent disregard for the welfare, health, and well-being of Robert Spadacini,” the complaint concludes.
ArchCare and the other Providence Rest affiliates named in the lawsuit did not respond to Law&Crime’s requests for comment on Wednesday.
“Mr. Spadacini entered the nursing home without infection or pressure sores, and weeks later, he was hospitalized with a Stage 4 bedsore, pneumonia, and sepsis,” attorney Michael Hill told Law&Crime. “When those kinds of conditions develop under a facility’s exclusive care, it raises serious questions about whether basic standards of monitoring and treatment were followed and that’s indefensible.”