CA - Three assisted living facility residents mistakenly served dishwashing liquid as drinking juice, one dead, 27 Aug 2022

[imstilla.grandma]

Three residents of an assisted living facility were mistakenly served dishwashing liquid as drinking juice and one has since passed away, Nexstar’s KRON has learned.

Saturday morning around 8:30 a.m., three ambulances were called to the Atria Park Senior Living facility in San Mateo to treat patients, according to San Mateo Consolidated Fire. Three people were taken to the hospital after “mistakenly being served dishwashing liquid as drinking juice,” Atria Park confirmed in a statement to KRON.

KRON spoke with one family who said their loved one passed away following the incident. Marcia Cutchin said that her family first heard of the incident involving her mother, 93-year-old Gertrude Elizabeth Murison Maxwell, when an Atria staff member called to report that she had ingested a substance and an ambulance was being called.

Gertrude Elizabeth Murison Maxwell

“We can confirm three of our residents were recently transported to the hospital after mistakenly being served dishwashing liquid as drinking juice. We have been working with local authorities, who have informed us that one resident passed away. Our sincerest condolences are with the family. When this occurred, our staff immediately contacted authorities, and the residents were transported to the hospital for evaluation and treatment. We are conducting our own internal investigation, and the employees involved have been suspended until this investigation concludes. We will continue working with the police and Department of Social Services to fully review and assess the incident, after which we will take additional actions as needed. The safety and well-being of our residents remain our top priorities at all times. Out of respect for the people involved, we cannot comment further.”
ATRIA SENIOR LIVING

Woman dead after residents served dishwashing liquid at California senior living facility

Three residents of an assisted living facility were mistakenly served dishwashing liquid as drinking juice and one has since passed away, KRON4 has learned.

www.wavy.com

 

[WingsOverTX]

How horrible!

"...Maxwell arrived at the hospital with “severe blistering of her mouth and throat and esophagus.” Upon her arrival at the hospital, Maxwell’s family was told there was nothing the medical team could do to treat the blistering.

According to Cutchin, she and her family were told first responders believed the dementia patients had ingested the substance on their own. But, it would be impossible for Maxwell to do that, Cutchin said, because her mother was unable to feed herself.

“Many people, like my mother, you have to hold a cup to her mouth and tip it into her mouth,” Cutchin said.

Maxwell leaves behind eight children and 20 grandchildren, loved ones said."

Woman dead after residents served dishwashing liquid at California senior living facility

Three residents of an assisted living facility were mistakenly served dishwashing liquid as drinking juice and one has since passed away, KRON4 has learned.

www.google.com

 

[TGIRecovered]

I hope Gertrude's family pushes for a thorough investigation.

 

[Shamrock1]

Sounds like something like Eco-San or a concentrated commercial detergent. There have been a number of lawsuits over the years involving these dangerous, corrosive substances. Sometimes the product is left in a line. Even a small sip can be catastrophic to a healthy/young person.

 

[charminglane]

Horribly painful and sad.

 

[moonriverfarm]

May the payouts in lawsuits be huge.

 

[JMapes]

Sounds like something like Eco-San or a concentrated commercial detergent. There have been a number of lawsuits over the years involving these dangerous, corrosive substances. Sometimes the product is left in a line. Even a small sip can be catastrophic to a healthy/young person.

This happened to my parents at a Marie Callender's restaurant. A pitcher was filled with sanitizing solution in the kitchen to sanitize the nozzles of their soft drink machine. Someone put ice in the pitcher and took it out to the dining room to serve to guests. My parents both had emergency endoscopies to assess the damage, and were prescribed Nexium to repair the esophageal corrosion.

One of the most distressing parts of what happened is that no one knew where the MSDS (material safety data sheet) was to find out what sanitizing liquid was ingested and what to do next. My father had the worst of it. He attempted to vomit up the liquid (which is okay, sometimes, depending on what you ingested), but it only caused more damage to his esophagus on the way back up.

This should not be happening, To anyone, anywhere, ever.

 

[MsMarple]

This happened to my parents at a Marie Callender's restaurant. A pitcher was filled with sanitizing solution in the kitchen to sanitize the nozzles of their soft drink machine. Someone put ice in the pitcher and took it out to the dining room to serve to guests. My parents both had emergency endoscopies to assess the damage, and were prescribed Nexium to repair the esophageal corrosion.

One of the most distressing parts of what happened is that no one knew where the MSDS (material safety data sheet) was to find out what sanitizing liquid was ingested and what to do next. My father had the worst of it. He attempted to vomit up the liquid (which is okay, sometimes, depending on what you ingested), but it only caused more damage to his esophagus on the way back up.

This should not be happening, To anyone, anywhere, ever.

I'm so sorry your parents were subjected to unnecessary pain because of someone's carelessness. As horrible as it is I can understand a situation where the liquid was placed in a container meant to hold food. I hope your parents sue!

What I'm having trouble understanding is how dishwasher detergent got to the care patients if not from a similar situation. IOW, where did it come from? The home keeps talking about it being an "accident" but no one is giving details.

I ask because I have a commercial dishwasher. Mind you it's a small one, the same size as a regular dw. It sanitizes by heat not chemicals but the detergent is still very corrosive. In the back of the machine are two pumps connected to lines that go into containers of detergent and drying aid. It's all mechanized so I never come in contact with either liquid.

So where did the detergent come from?

"We can confirm three of our residents were recently transported to the hospital after mistakenly being served dishwashing liquid as drinking juice. We have been working with local authorities, who have informed us that one resident passed away," the statement said. "Our sincerest condolences are with the family. When this occurred, our staff immediately contacted authorities, and the residents were transported to the hospital for evaluation and treatment."

While her family initially picked the facility because they are "highly regarded," she told the news station they need to do more to ensure the safety of their residents. She said her mother had broken her hip twice in the past six months, but one break was not reported by the facility or treated.

Woman Dead After Seniors Served Dishwashing Liquid at Car...

Two other residents were also hospitalized after being accidentally served the toxic liquid in place of juice, according to Atria Senior Living.

www.newsweek.com

ETA:
Atria told her family the substance was an “alkaline cleaning solution that eats protein,” when they were first informed of the incident.

Woman dead after residents served dishwashing liquid at senior living facility

Three residents of an assisted living facility were mistakenly served dishwashing liquid as drinking juice and one has since passed away, KRON4 has learned.

fox8.com

So maybe some kind of degreaser or was it a degreasing detergent for a dishwasher? I sure hope LE does a thorough investigation!

 

[neesaki]

https://www.mcknightsseniorliving.com/home/news/accidental-dishwashing-liquid-poisoning-leaves-1-resident-dead-2-hospitalized/

Not the first time​

Dishwashing liquid has been involved in other tragic incidents at senior living communities.

The widow of a 95-year-old senior living resident who died in 2021 after mistakenly drinking dishwasher liquid recently filed a lawsuit against Sunrise Senior Living.

According to the lawsuit, Elmer Wisecarver, who moved into the memory care unit at Sunrise of Lenexa in Kansas in 2020, drank what he thought was cranberry juice from a cup left in the kitchen by an employee, the Kansas City Star reported. An employee allegedly poured detergent containing sodium hydroxide into a cup with the intention of adding it manually to a dishwasher that was not dispensing dishwashing liquid properly.

A Sunrise Senior Living spokesman told McKnight’s Senior Living that the company does not comment on ongoing legal matters.

In 2015, a jury awarded $5 million to the family of a Michigan senior living resident with dementia who died after ingesting dishwashing detergent. And in 2017, the Minnesota Department of Health found a memory care community responsible for the death of a resident who was left unattended and drank a lethal amount of dishwasher detergent.

 

[LoveyG]

Holy cow. They were given LYE!

ETA from above, BBM: Atria told her family the substance was an “alkaline cleaning solution that eats protein,” when they were first informed of the incident.

 

[SaguaroSpirit]

May the payouts in lawsuits be huge.

And may there be charges filed, because I do not see HOW this could have been accidental.

 

[Laughing]

And may there be charges filed, because I do not see HOW this could have been accidental.

Horrendous negligence, at least.

jmho ymmv lrr

 

[NoseyRecluse]

[deleted my post] it was meant to be a reply to another post, not a standalone!

 

[MsMarple]

And may there be charges filed, because I do not see HOW this could have been accidental.

Horrendous negligence, at least.

jmho ymmv lrr

I'm agreeing with both of you! IF what poisoned the residents was detergent meant to be used in the home's dishwasher then someone used it in a way that it was not intended. If not outright murder then manslaughter at the least IMO.

IOW I think someone intentionally poured the detergent into a container, maybe not to poison anyone but to use it in an off label way like sanitizing counters, cleaning floors or something like what @JMapes said upthread about cleaning a spray nozzle, maybe as a way to cut costs.

My detergent as I noted above, is intended to dispense directly from the original container which is then automatically diluted with water according to the specs on the dispensing pump. Never, ever to be poured out for some other use, especially into a food grade container.

This makes me so mad!

 

[HMSHood]

I wonder if this was accidental or on purpose.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Alisia Rivera Mendoza, 35 of East Palo Alto, was charged April 11 with two counts of felony involuntary manslaughter and three counts of felony elder abuse by the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office. Three residents of Atria Park of San Mateo drank the dishwashing fluid on August 28, according to a wrongful death lawsuit, and two of them died shortly thereafter.

“In my opinion the blame needs to be directed toward the corporation, not toward the individuals in this case,” Kathryn A. Stebner told Bay Area News Group in September. “The people who work at these facilities should not always be the fall guys for things like this that happen, and I’m afraid that everyone’s going to point the finger at the low-paid employee and I think that is the wrong place to point the finger.”

The suit blamed poor management and a lack of staffing for the deaths of Schroder and Trudy Maxwell, also 93.

In response to the charges, Atria Senior Living issued a statement saying that the company “will continue to cooperate with the authorities throughout this process. We took immediate action in response to this incident, including reviewing and reinforcing our training and policies on chemical safety. As always, we remain focused on the safety, health, and well-being of all our residents.”

MSN

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Apparently, employees usually ordered 1-gallon containers of the soap, which fit inside the dishwashing machine, but had recently received 5-gallon containers. Staff members would reportedly pour the excess soap into a pitcher in the kitchen, but one employee mistook the unlabelled liquor for juice and poured it into three glasses for residents. Three elderly residents drank it and immediately became ill.

According to ABC7, the report said that "upon being served, [one resident’s] lips began to swell and was black and red in color, and [another] yelled after drinking out of the juice cup and then sat down."

Bay Area Nursing Home Could Lose State License After Investigation into Elderly Residents Dying by Poison Last Summer

The state is trying to shut down Atria Park in San Mateo after the conclusion of its investigation into residents mistakenly being served dishwashing liquid as drinking juice that resulted in two deaths, but the company is appealing.

sfist.com