The spokesperson said that Atria continues to work with law enforcement and the California Department of Social Services to fully review and assess that incident. “Our ongoing internal investigation has determined that a staff member filled a pitcher with dishwashing liquid with the intention of dispensing the liquid into the dishwashing machine,” the spokesperson said. “Another staff member picked it up, mistaking it for juice, and served it to three residents. One resident has since passed away, and our sincerest condolences are with the family.” The employees involved in the San Mateo incident will remain suspended until the investigation is concluded. Out of respect for the privacy of the two recovering residents, Atria indicated that it will not share details on their conditions, adding that the “safety and well-being of our residents remain our top priority at all times.”
Staff poured a lye based corrosive into a food pitcher. Another worker came and didn’t notice the smell or that this alleged Juice was at room temperature. That staff or another fed it to three residents, at least one by hand.
The latest dss report involved the dhss boss meeting with the executive director and a regional vp, it wasn’t a usual meeting. The report says nothing about the allegations that Atria has already repeatedly confirmed through its paid spokeswoman to the media.
Years ago a friend employed a babysitter who thought that the dish detergent with a picture of a lemon on the bottle was lemon juice. Turned out the babysitter couldn’t read. She was from a Caribbean country where they spoke a patois and her education wasn’t very good. My friend had assumed she could read English but she couldn’t.
Californians, bookmark that as it’ll lead you to searches for any al or mc.
Turns out dss went there three days after the fatality to confirm that the kitchens are locked. Well whoop ty do, y’all said you don’t even have soap in the mc part for safety.
Fact is if the ingestant passed your kitchen staff, Atria, you have bigger problems.
I dropped off holiday gift bags there a few times for a charity I volunteered for years ago. The residents were in MC and not up to visiting. The place seemed neat, pleasant, etc. What sort of catastrophic breakdown of procedures occurred I can’t imagine.
A tv station went and got complaint records from the state.
The story is here https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/12-complaints-made-against-san-mateos-atria-park-prior-to-senior-dying-from-dishwashing-liquid/ar-AA11kTFk
Joann, the dead dementia resident couldn’t raise a cup of water to her own lips to drink by herself. Someone else poured the poison and administrated it to her.
My question us how did a caustic chemical, even in the wrong container, get to a Dementia patient. It should npbe in a kitchen on a closet used for cleaning supplies only. That closet should be locked at all times. A Dementia resident should not even be wandering into a kitchen. I guess an employee left the bottle where the resident could get it.
Since I worked for a Township, I was obligated to take the Safety and Bloodborn pathogens classes. PeggySue is correct that when chemicals are placed in other containers, they must label the container with what is now inside. The problem here is that even if this had been done, the resident probably could not read the label anyway. So, an employee left the bottle where he should not have.
There will be some firings over this. I have dealt with Osha. I had to have a bulletin board in plain site with all the government mailings on it about safety and such. I had to provide a book with all the chemicals we kept on hand and what to do if someone was exposed to them.
Margaret, the lady who died couldn’t even feed herself. Besides one person pouring a concentrated chemical into a juice container, at least another had to pour it and or manually feed her, compounding the error.
Accidental poisonings are often the result of something being decanted into another smaller bottle or container. It’s a real issue in facilities that get bulk supplies of chemicals, provided in a drum much too big to pour in daily use. I worked with a sheltered workshop where detergent was decanted into a soft drink bottle kept under the sink, and a similar thing happened with chemicals on a local farm. Victims were a resident with an intellectual disability and a child respectively. Not always fatal, but always distressing to everyone concerned. The investigations are horrible for everyone.
I wish that ‘bad’ re-use of soft drink bottles in particular could get more publicity, before disasters rather than afterwards. Never decant into the wrong bottle. These examples I knew personally were over 20 years ago, but it still happens.
All, How did you guys with successful placements figure that out?
See, this place has been the default for “one of the best” for decades for people who are mostly private pay…because things like this are supposed to happen elsewhere.
But the more I look at it, I see Swiss cheese.
The labor pool is the same for all facilities, nice or not.
Part of SOs job at the spca was coordinating annual staff trainings regulated by cal osha that would consistently emphasize that no chemicals be transferred into smaller unlabeled containers.
This so called al/mc didn’t do that. Further, they had workers assisting people to drink this poison directly.
They care less than we had to for stray dogs. Apparently less regulated than spca, too.
My heart is breaking for the helpless seniors and their families. Shameful situation. No explanation is good enough. All involved or in charge should be charged with poisoning.
Updates from news are that everyone who was working in the mc on site on Saturday has been suspended. Most senior managers don’t work weekends, how convenient.
One of the two residents still alive is in critical condition.
Oh my God. The security camera caught a worker pouring this caustic bathroom cleaner into a smaller bottle for use, and then another worker thought it was grape juice.
The one who died was on a feeding assist. Her daughter told the news that a dementia patient had poisoned several people with a degreasing product more often found in commercial kitchens.
Theyve gotten sued for negligent death and bedsores too https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/san-mateo-facility-that-served-residents-dish-detergent-faced-complaints-in-past/ar-AA11hWAo
Absolutely heartbreaking -- right down the street from my MIL.
No resident should ever be allowed to handle food for other residents, dementia or not. I have a feeling that place is going to be cleared out of residents by this weekend. No family would leave their loved one there.
Three residents at Atria Park senior facility in San Mateo were accidentally poisoned after drinking dishwashing liquid mistaken for juice and were hospitalized over the weekend, with one woman dying Monday morning. “We can confirm three of our residents were recently transported to the hospital after mistakenly being served dishwashing liquid as drinking juice,” according to a statement Monday from Atria Senior Living. “We have been working with local authorities, who have informed us that one resident passed away. Our sincerest condolences are with the family.”
The incident at the assisted living and memory care at 2883 S. Norfolk St. occurred early Saturday morning, Aug. 27, and resulted in the San Mateo Fire Department being called in, according to Melanie Fuller, a daughter of the resident who died, Gertrude Maxwell. Atria is conducting an internal investigation, with the employees involved suspended until the investigation concludes. Atria said it would continue working with the San Mateo Police Department and the California Department of Social Services to review and assess the incident. Atria said it would take additional action as needed but would not comment further on the issue.
Fuller alleges Atria Park told her family the incident was an accident and that a person with dementia issues provided Ultra Klene to some residents, including her mother, resulting in her hospitalization. Ultra Klene is a dishwashing liquid designed to remove grease and stains.
Fuller said the San Mateo Fire Department was called in the early hours of Saturday morning because several residents complained of stomach pains, with her mother and others affected taken to the hospital. Fuller said her mother was admitted to the hospital around 9 a.m. Saturday but was declared terminal when she arrived, with doctors telling the family she would not survive, instead giving her IV solutions and pain medication. Fuller said her mother was in pain and had severe damage to her mouth, throat and esophagus before her death Monday morning.
“To be tortured like that is unconscionable,” Fuller said. Maxwell, 93, lived in Burlingame before moving to the residential facility and loved the library, town and raising her family in the area. Fuller described her as a wonderful and caring person who worked to better the community. “My mom was a wonderful, wonderful person,” Fuller said. Fuller still has questions about how the incident was allowed to occur and why no one at the facility noticed, particularly as her mother needed help with eating and drinking. San Mateo police confirmed it has opened up a case into the matter and is investigating after learning of the incident. San Mateo detectives are investigating the case jointly with the California Department of Social Services Ombudsman.
“As is the case with all active investigations, we will release information when we can be sure it will not compromise the integrity of the case,” San Mateo police spokesperson Officer Allison Gilmore said.
“Our ongoing internal investigation has determined that a staff member filled a pitcher with dishwashing liquid with the intention of dispensing the liquid into the dishwashing machine,” the spokesperson said. “Another staff member picked it up, mistaking it for juice, and served it to three residents. One resident has since passed away, and our sincerest condolences are with the family.”
The employees involved in the San Mateo incident will remain suspended until the investigation is concluded. Out of respect for the privacy of the two recovering residents, Atria indicated that it will not share details on their conditions, adding that the “safety and well-being of our residents remain our top priority at all times.”
https://www.mcknightsseniorliving.com/home/news/senior-living-provider-experiences-second-ingestion-related-resident-death-in-less-than-a-week/
Staff poured a lye based corrosive into a food pitcher. Another worker came and didn’t notice the smell or that this alleged Juice was at room temperature. That staff or another fed it to three residents, at least one by hand.
The latest dss report involved the dhss boss meeting with the executive director and a regional vp, it wasn’t a usual meeting. The report says nothing about the allegations that Atria has already repeatedly confirmed through its paid spokeswoman to the media.
https://www.ccld.dss.ca.gov/transparencyapi/api/FacilityReports?facNum=415600133&inx=28
Californians, bookmark that as it’ll lead you to searches for any al or mc.
Turns out dss went there three days after the fatality to confirm that the kitchens are locked. Well whoop ty do, y’all said you don’t even have soap in the mc part for safety.
Fact is if the ingestant passed your kitchen staff, Atria, you have bigger problems.
I dropped off holiday gift bags there a few times for a charity I volunteered for years ago. The residents were in MC and not up to visiting. The place seemed neat, pleasant, etc. What sort of catastrophic breakdown of procedures occurred I can’t imagine.
The story is here https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/12-complaints-made-against-san-mateos-atria-park-prior-to-senior-dying-from-dishwashing-liquid/ar-AA11kTFk
And more valuable, the database is here.
https://www.ccld.dss.ca.gov/carefacilitysearch/FacDetail/415600133
The state took action on very few complaints from them, but then again most other facilities have maybe 0-4 complaints.
Since I worked for a Township, I was obligated to take the Safety and Bloodborn pathogens classes. PeggySue is correct that when chemicals are placed in other containers, they must label the container with what is now inside. The problem here is that even if this had been done, the resident probably could not read the label anyway. So, an employee left the bottle where he should not have.
There will be some firings over this. I have dealt with Osha. I had to have a bulletin board in plain site with all the government mailings on it about safety and such. I had to provide a book with all the chemicals we kept on hand and what to do if someone was exposed to them.
I wish that ‘bad’ re-use of soft drink bottles in particular could get more publicity, before disasters rather than afterwards. Never decant into the wrong bottle. These examples I knew personally were over 20 years ago, but it still happens.
How did you guys with successful placements figure that out?
See, this place has been the default for “one of the best” for decades for people who are mostly private pay…because things like this are supposed to happen elsewhere.
But the more I look at it, I see Swiss cheese.
The labor pool is the same for all facilities, nice or not.
This so called al/mc didn’t do that. Further, they had workers assisting people to drink this poison directly.
They care less than we had to for stray dogs. Apparently less regulated than spca, too.
One of the two residents still alive is in critical condition.
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/peninsula/san-mateo-atria-poisoning-cleaning-chemical/2990364/
And the da is not getting involved because not intentional or criminal.
Since when is that the standard?
Theyve gotten sued for negligent death and bedsores too https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/san-mateo-facility-that-served-residents-dish-detergent-faced-complaints-in-past/ar-AA11hWAo
But the story itself says that another dementia resident, not staff, instigated the poisoning.
No resident should ever be allowed to handle food for other residents, dementia or not. I have a feeling that place is going to be cleared out of residents by this weekend. No family would leave their loved one there.
“We can confirm three of our residents were recently transported to the hospital after mistakenly being served dishwashing liquid as drinking juice,” according to a statement Monday from Atria Senior Living. “We have been working with local authorities, who have informed us that one resident passed away. Our sincerest condolences are with the family.”
The incident at the assisted living and memory care at 2883 S. Norfolk St. occurred early Saturday morning, Aug. 27, and resulted in the San Mateo Fire Department being called in, according to Melanie Fuller, a daughter of the resident who died, Gertrude Maxwell. Atria is conducting an internal investigation, with the employees involved suspended until the investigation concludes. Atria said it would continue working with the San Mateo Police Department and the California Department of Social Services to review and assess the incident. Atria said it would take additional action as needed but would not comment further on the issue.
Fuller alleges Atria Park told her family the incident was an accident and that a person with dementia issues provided Ultra Klene to some residents, including her mother, resulting in her hospitalization. Ultra Klene is a dishwashing liquid designed to remove grease and stains.
Fuller said the San Mateo Fire Department was called in the early hours of Saturday morning because several residents complained of stomach pains, with her mother and others affected taken to the hospital. Fuller said her mother was admitted to the hospital around 9 a.m. Saturday but was declared terminal when she arrived, with doctors telling the family she would not survive, instead giving her IV solutions and pain medication. Fuller said her mother was in pain and had severe damage to her mouth, throat and esophagus before her death Monday morning.
“To be tortured like that is unconscionable,” Fuller said.
Maxwell, 93, lived in Burlingame before moving to the residential facility and loved the library, town and raising her family in the area. Fuller described her as a wonderful and caring person who worked to better the community.
“My mom was a wonderful, wonderful person,” Fuller said.
Fuller still has questions about how the incident was allowed to occur and why no one at the facility noticed, particularly as her mother needed help with eating and drinking. San Mateo police confirmed it has opened up a case into the matter and is investigating after learning of the incident. San Mateo detectives are investigating the case jointly with the California Department of Social Services Ombudsman.
“As is the case with all active investigations, we will release information when we can be sure it will not compromise the integrity of the case,” San Mateo police spokesperson Officer Allison Gilmore said.