Nursing home is sued over deaths of two residents

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Metro
November 29, 2001

BY BILL SMITH
      Of the Post-Dispatch

Relatives of two former nursing home residents filed wrongful death lawsuits against a south St. Louis County nursing home Wednesday, alleging the home and its staff failed to provide the women with adequate medical care.

Mamie Miller, 78, and Nellie Frick, 89, died within 12 days of each other in December.  Both were residents of Integrated Health Services of S. Louis at Gravois, 10954 Kennerly Road, according to lawsuits filed in St. Louis Circuit Court.

A suit filed by Miller’s daughter, Clara Shoals, says that Miller died Dec. 16 of pneumonia that went undetected.  The other suit, filed by Frick’s sister, Grace Moss, said Frick died Dec. 4 of complications from a head injury suffered a day earlier in a fall.  Each suit asks for damages "in excess of $25,000."

The families are represented by attorneys David Terry and Brad Blake of the Johnson, Fellows, Blake and Terry law firm in St. Louis.  That firm also represents the families of two of the four women who died from heat-related causes at the Leland Health Care Center in University City in April.

Integrated Health Services is based in Maryland and operates 300 nursing homes nationwide, according to Robert Gill, a company spokesman.  He said Wednesday that the company does not comment on ongoing litigation but said, "our goal is always to provide the best care possible to all of our residents. We believe we are doing just that."

Copyright 2001, St. Louis Post-Dispatch