By Spencer Hunt and Debra Jasper
The Cincinnati Enquirer

An hour after she ate lunch in her Cincinnati nursing home, Kathleen Ann Kaiser started vomiting. Fluid came out of her nose, and she struggled to breathe.

Workers called three times before a company-employed nurse came to the North Bend Road home operated by ViaQuest Inc.

Although Ms. Kaiser, 44, sounded like she "was trying to talk under water," an ambulance wasn't called for 2 1Ú2 hours after she first fell ill, a state Health Department report says.

Ms. Kaiser spent four days on a respirator and died on Dec. 13, 1999.

The Health Department threatened to decertify the 24-bed home in May 2000, citing it for poor staff training and health care and for not reporting if anyone watched over the weak and bedridden Ms. Kaiser while she ate.

The department dropped its threat after ViaQuest trained workers in emergency procedures and hired another nurse to oversee all medical duties and services.

A report by the Hamilton County mental retardation board, given to the Enquirer by ViaQuest, shows that Ms. Kaiser had frequently been hospitalized for breathing fluids into her lungs over the past 15 to 16 years.

Sara Selbe, a ViaQuest director, says the staff did watch over Ms. Kaiser, even though it wasn't documented. The death, while traumatic, was not totally unexpected with a resident who had a long history of digestive problems, Ms. Selbe says.

"Those things will happen," she says.

Ms. Selbe also notes that the county's investigation was closed without any mention of problems.

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