Los Gatos Weekly-Times Family claims wrongful death in convalescent hospital suit Neglect, poor care are alleged By Jeff Kearns The family of an elderly woman who died in February after a two-month stay at the Los Gatos Oaks Convalescent Hospital has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the facility, alleging that she died from neglect and poor care. Anna Holshevnikoff, 94, spent 60 days at Los Gatos Oaks, until she suffered a stroke and was taken to Community Hospital of Los Gatos Feb. 10. She died 11 days later. The woman's granddaughter, Sheryl Holshevnikoff, claims that the nursing staff at the home didn't notice that her grandmother had suffered a stroke, and that she was the one who discovered that there was a problem. "I could tell there was something wrong with her, but I wasn't exactly sure what," she said. The lawsuit, filed Jan. 20 in Superior Court, alleges that Holshevnikoff was discouraged from moving around the home and from using the toilet because she required assistance. Staff sometimes forced her to lie in her own waste for hours at a time, the suit charges. Holshevnikoff, who was ambulatory, was told to stay in her wheelchair and was not offered any opportunities to interact with others because many of the other patients suffered from dementia, the suit claims. Sheryl Holshevnikoff said she visited her grandmother daily. The suit also charges that Holshevnikoff was served cold, unpalatable food and that her kidneys totally shut down because staff didn't monitor her fluid intake and output. When the staff did notice that she had suffered a stroke, Sheryl Holshevnikoff said, they did not notify a physician promptly, and the physician didn't show up until the following day. The family's lawyer, Susan Guberman-Garcia, who specializes in elder-care abuse cases, said that emergency room staff filed a report with the county Adult Protective Services department after discovering bedsores on the woman. The family did not file a complaint with the state Department of Health Services. "My clients didn't really know there was such a thing," Guberman-Garcia said. The department has not cited the hospital for any violations since Ngai X. Nguyen, the current owner, took over the hospital in December 1997. Neither Nguyen or nursing director Stephanie Emerson returned phone calls for this story. Sheryl Holshevnikoff said she decided to file the suit because she didn't want another family to experience what her family did. Holshevnikoff adds that she was in the process of looking for another home for her grandmother when she was taken to the hospital. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, February 3, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.