Woman who sued Northlake nursing home for malpractice dies
By Mark Taylor Post-Tribune correspondent December 9, 2011 2:23PM
Mary Ann Jackson, of Gary, in her room at the Lawrence Manor Healthcare Center in Indianapolis Monday Feb. 15, 2010. | Provided Photo~Sun-Times Media
Updated: January 11, 2012 8:05AM
Mary Ann Jackson was a fighter with an indefatigable spirit and fierce will to live who defied physician predictions of her death for years.
But on Nov. 28, Jackson, 53, a Hammond native, died at the Lawrence Manor Healthcare Center in Indianapolis of natural causes. Her funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Divinity Funeral Home, 3831 Main St., East Chicago.
What happened to Jackson contributed to the closing of the Merrillville nursing home where she was a resident for 11 months. The Indiana State Department of Health and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ordered Northlake Nursing and Rehabilitation Center of Merrillville closed nearly 18 months ago after numerous complaints and failed inspection surveys relating to patient care and safety.
Jackson’s stay at Northlake was likened by her sister, Shelli Jackson of Indianapolis, to “an ordeal from hell.”
Mary Ann Jackson, a mother of three and grandmother of six, nearly died two years ago after suffering severe pressure ulcers and infections that stripped the flesh from her legs and buttocks all the way to the bone. One hospital recommended amputation of her legs and another advised hospice care and the cessation of lifesaving drugs and treatments.
“But my sister refused to die and she wouldn’t give up,” Shelli Jackson said.
In September 2008 Jackson had been discharged from Community Hospital of Munster after suffering a stroke and entered Northlake with a single, minor pressure sore. Shelli Jackson said her family directed her sister to Northlake because the nursing home claimed to specialize in treating pressure ulcers and skin wounds, bedsores that are not uncommon in patients who are not turned enough.
During her stay at Northake, however, the ulcer did not heal and instead deepened and spread. The state cited Northlake for failing to appropriately treat the bedsores of Jackson and several other Northlake patients, along with other failures to care for patients, before ordering the facility closed in May 2010.
Mary Ann Jackson visited the hospital, both as an inpatient and as an emergency patient, 12 times during the 11 months she spent at Northlake.
“You could see the muscles and ligaments down to the bone. Her bedsores were so bad she was stuck in a fetal position with her legs glued together,” Shelli Jackson recalled.
In 2009, Mary Ann Jackson sued Northlake for negligence and malpractice, alleging that the nursing home breached its contract to care for her and failed to treat and prevent her pressure ulcers, causing pain and irreparable harm.
In November 2009 Mary Ann Jackson was transferred to Lawrence Manor in Indianapolis, but was hospitalized to treat her multiple problems. She required surgery to separate her knees.
“The doctors didn’t think she’d live a week. They told me I should prepare for her dying. She had heart failure. Her kidneys weren’t functioning and she had sepsis. I’ll never forget that day,” Shelli Jackson remembered. “I was crying. The doctors kept telling me she wasn’t going to survive... But Mary Ann said: ‘I ain’t dying. They don’t know what they’re talking about. Just keep fighting for me.’ And I said, ‘When you get better, I’m going to bring you home.’ ”
Rick Lipscomb, Lawrence Manor’s director of social services and admissions, said he’d never seen a case like Jackson in 21 years as a social worker.
“She had one foot in the grave,” Lipscomb said in a 2010 story about Northlake. “I don’t know how she didn’t die. I’ve seen animal carcasses on the side of the road that looked better than when she arrived here...”
Lipscomb said Mary Ann Jackson recovered from her wounds and her health improved during her two-year stint at the nursing home. “She received excellent care here and enjoyed a relatively good quality of life in her time with us. She had a strong will to live.”
Mary Ann Jackson, is survived by two of her three children, Clayton Jefferson of Milwaukee, and Serina Jefferson of Madison, Wis., and six grandchildren.
“She was so outgoing. Everybody liked her,” Shelli Jackson said. “Mary Ann was a happy person who didn’t complain or worry a lot. She loved friends, family and food. Food was her passion. She expressed herself through the food she made for the people she loved. It seemed like her whole existence was to prove if you had a relationship with God that absolutely anything is possible. She knew that she shouldn’t have survived. But she showed that with faith and love and good care, you can live longer than anyone believes possible.”
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