OAK PARK HEIGHTS, Minnesota — A complaint of neglect against an east metro assisted living facility has been substantiated by state investigators following the death of a resident who became entangled in a bed rail and was left unchecked.
The report completed by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) details the incident, which occurred at Oak Park Senior Living in Oak Park Heights on Dec. 28, 2024. An incident report details how an unlicensed employee went to the resident’s room to help him with a shower around 3 p.m. and found the man on the floor with his arm wedged between the frame of his bed and a bed rail, with his feet pinned underneath his motorized wheelchair. That employee called 911.
The resident told first responders several times that he had been stuck in the bedrail for two days, and that he had requested staff check on him prior to the incident. The man was rushed to the hospital with pressure injuries to his right shoulder and the back of his knee from being trapped in the bed rail. Hospital records show the man developed sepsis (a life-threatening infection) and kidney failure, and died four days later…