December 2006: A 26-year-old patient who sought treatment for addiction, Leo Grassini, dies after staff members fail to check on him for 24 hours, despite a doctor's order that he be monitored very closely.
Timeline of events at Aurora Las Encinas Hospital
November 2007: Grassini's father, Lawrence, alerts state and federal regulators, urging an investigation to prevent "future predictable deaths."
April 2008: Jeffrey Hearn, 28, admitted for treatment of drug addiction, dies of an overdose of contraband prescription medications smuggled in by another patient.
April 2008: Alex Clyburn, 23, is found dead in his room after being prescribed medication for drug addiction; staffers do not follow a doctor's order to continuously monitor him.
May 2008: A memo from the nursing director warns staff members they can be fired if caught sleeping on the job.
August 2008: A 43-year-old bipolar patient, Timur Otus, hangs himself with a plastic bag from the beam of a dilapidated shed.
August 2008: A 14-year-old girl reports being raped in her hospital room by a 16-year-old patient. Sources say hospital staffers and the suspect's probation officer were sleeping during the assault.
November 2008: Inspectors say the hospital could lose federal funding.
May 2009: Officials say the hospital is again under federal compliance.
June 2009: A suicidal patient swallows a battery from a TV remote control. A week later, she breaks her bathroom's mirror and swallows shattered glass.
August 2009: Chronic under-staffing has compromised patient care, former employees allege in a lawsuit against the hospital's owner.
August 2009: A suicidal patient tries to hang herself, using the strings on a hospital gown that have been attached to a faucet handle on a bathroom sink. She survives.
January 2010: Federal officials say the hospital may lose its federal funding.
Source: Times reporting by Rong-Gong Lin II
FEATURED
MORE:
Advertisement
