Owner of Folsom Adult Care Home Pleads Guilty to Abuse in Client's Death

Owner of Folsom adult care home pleads guilty to abuse in client's death

By Andy Furillo

Nov. 10, 2010

The owner of a now-shuttered Folsom adult residential home has pleaded guilty to felony elder abuse in the death of a client.

Adriana Lucica Catuna, 49, faces up to a year in county jail when she is sentenced Dec. 15 in Sacramento Superior Court.

Deputy Attorney General Steve Muni, who prosecuted the case, said Catuna entered her plea Monday on the agreement she would not "initially" be sent to state prison.

Catuna was charged with elder abuse resulting in great bodily injury in the death three years ago of Georgia Fitsos, 82.

In a wrongful-death lawsuit, one of Fitsos' sons claims he found his mother alone in the Broadstone Residential Facility on Aug. 12, 2007, "having extreme difficulty breathing."

The suit said Catuna was attending a birthday party at the time and left Georgia Fitsos in the care of an attendant "who spoke very little English, did not recognize the urgency of the situation and did not know enough English to call 911."

Fitsos' son called an ambulance and had her rushed to Mercy Hospital in Folsom, where she was treated in the emergency room for an open bed sore on her hip, sepsis, malnutrition and dehydration, according to the suit.

She died Oct. 13, 2007, in a skilled nursing facility, the suit said.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee


Abridged
SOURCE:    SACBEE


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