By Sharon Turco
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A Pleasant Ridge woman has filed a wrongful death lawsuit accusing an Avondale nursing home of failing to properly care for her 84-year-old aunt, ultimately leading to her 2000 death.

Peggy Shelton-Collins, 43, filed the suit in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court accusing Oak Pavilion Nursing Center of feeding Alma Goode food when she was supposed to be tube-fed, failing to take her to the hospital for a high fever and allowing her blood sugar to rise above normal levels.

She says her aunt spent the last months of her life in pain.

The suit names the Oak Street nursing home and its corporate parent, HCR Manor Care Inc., and asks for more than $25,000 in damages.

"This was my last elder," said Mrs. Shelton-Collins, who visited her aunt at least once a week. "She couldn't talk, but I could talk to her.

"We had a connection," she added, her voice cracking.

Rick Rump, director of corporate communications for HCR Manor Care, said Tuesday he could not comment on the lawsuit because he had not seen it.

Mrs. Goode died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Clifton on Dec. 21, 2000 - five days after her family asked nurses at Oak Pavilion to take her to the hospital.

She had been in the nursing home since October 1998, with a diagnosis that included Alzheimer's, dementia and seizure disorder.

Upon admission to Good Samaritan, doctors found Mrs. Goode had a temperature of 104.7 degrees and a high glucose level, the lawsuit said. Physicians "noted that the condition of the decedent was the exact opposite of what the nursing home reported," the suit said.

Doctors noted: "The patient looked unkempt" and "(patient) is obviously not well taken care of," according to the lawsuit.

HCR Manor Care operates 300 skilled nursing centers in 31 states. Forty-two are located in Ohio.

The Ohio Department of Health last evaluated the nursing home in June 2001. It had 28 deficiencies, compared to the state average of six, according to results on the Medicare Web site. None caused more than minimal harm and all were fixed within two months.

Mrs. Shelton-Collins said she wants family members of other residents to be aware of what happened to her aunt.

"People need to know they have to look after their loved ones themselves even when they are in a nursing home," she said.

E-mail sturco@enquirer.com