Inset: Robert Spadacini (German Rubenstein/Michael Hill Trial Law). Background: The New York City nursing home where Robert Spadacini allegedly developed a Stage 4 bedsore, pneumonia and sepsis complications that took his life (Google Maps).
An 85-year-old New York City man went into a nursing home for a “short-term” rehabilitation stint with a “plan to return” to his wife soon after, only to be hospitalized “weeks later” with a fatal Stage 4 bedsore, pneumonia and sepsis due to the facility”s “carelessness,” a lawsuit says.
Robert Spadacini, a Bronx resident, had arrived at Providence Rest Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in the borough’s Country Club neighborhood on Nov. 28, 2023, following a “brief hospitalization” for lower extremity swelling and shortness of breath, according to a legal complaint filed by his wife, Mary Ann Spadacini, which was obtained this week by Law&Crime.
“[Spadacini] was admitted to Providence Rest for short-term rehabilitation with a plan to return to his home, where he lived with his wife,” the complaint says, noting how two different doctors were tasked with treating him.
“On or about January 12, 2024, Robert Spadacini was admitted to Jack D. Weiler Hospital from the nursing home,” the document explains. “Spadacini had a bacterial infection, multi-lobar pneumonia, and was in sepsis.”
Once at the hospital, physicians discovered that Spadacini had a “pressure sore, bedsore, or skin ulcer of the sacral region categorized as a Stage 4 ulcer,” meaning the full thickness of his skin and underlying tissues of the sacrum area had “died off exposing muscle and bone,” per the complaint.
Spadacini was at the hospital for less than two weeks, receiving treatment for his medical complications before he died on Jan. 24, 2024. It was later determined that Spadacini died of “sepsis due to multi-lobar pneumonia,” according to the complaint.
Mary Spadacini’s lawyers, who include attorneys from the New York-based firm German Rubenstein, LLP and nursing home litigation firm Michael Hill Trial Law, allege that Spadacini died due to “careless” and “negligent” treatment he received from “nurses, doctors, attendants and/or employees” while at Providence Rest.
“The severe pain and suffering were caused solely by reason of the carelessness, negligence, malpractice, departure from the accepted standard of care, from the wanton and willful disregard on the part of the defendants,” the complaint says, naming Providence Rest and its affiliates, including the healthcare ministry of the Archdiocese of New York, ArchCare, as defendants.
“The foregoing negligence and malpractice claimed was done with reckless, grossly negligent disregard for the welfare, health, and well-being of Robert Spadacini,” the complaint concludes.
ArchCare and the other Providence Rest affiliates named in the lawsuit did not respond to Law&Crime’s requests for comment on Wednesday.
“Mr. Spadacini entered the nursing home without infection or pressure sores, and weeks later, he was hospitalized with a Stage 4 bedsore, pneumonia, and sepsis,” attorney Michael Hill told Law&Crime. “When those kinds of conditions develop under a facility’s exclusive care, it raises serious questions about whether basic standards of monitoring and treatment were followed and that’s indefensible.”
