BOCA RATON, FL (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2025) — The estate of Donna Thomsen has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Menorah House in Boca Raton, claiming the nursing home failed to respond to a week of rapid medical decline last spring. The case, Estate of Donna Thomsen v. Terrace of Boca Raton, LLC d/b/a Menorah House; MH SNF OPCO, LLC d/b/a Menorah House, was filed Dec. 2 in Palm Beach County Circuit Court as Case No. 502025CA012506XXXAMB. These are allegations only, taken from the civil complaint.
According to the filing, Thomsen was admitted to Menorah House on May 3, 2024, after treatment at Select Specialty Hospital in Lake Worth. According to the lawsuit, Donna Thomsen entered the facility with good health and she could walk with assistance and manage her finances and phone operations by herself. Thomsen reportedly needed advanced wound and ostomy treatment because she had abdominal fistulas. That was the setup.
The suit states that the patient’s health condition began to worsen rapidly after entering the facility. Between May 8 and May 14, Thomsen’s condition “abruptly deteriorated,” with confusion and paranoia setting in. Her daughter, Tiffany, reported that she couldn’t use her phone anymore and, by May 10, couldn’t feed herself. The charge nurses received continuous updates from family members who asked for fundamental medical tests which included urinalysis and cultures and laboratory exams to detect infections and drug side effects. The staff members ignored her medical condition because they believed she remained in “her normal status”, according to the lawsuit.
From there, the estate alleges a series of lapses. The facility allegedly failed to schedule a swallow study so they removed water from her bedside which the family believes resulted in dehydration. The lawsuit states she had not passed urine for several days. According to the lawsuit, she did not receive any catheterization or bedpan assistance throughout her entire hospital stay. A sterile specimen container stayed alone and vacant on the floor next to her bed, the estate alleges.
By May 14, the complaint says, she was barely responsive. The estate claims the nursing home didn’t transfer her to the hospital until several hours after the daughter insisted on it.
The ER staff at Boca Raton Regional Hospital discovered flies and maggots coming out of her abdominal wound dressings when they treated her at the hospital, according to the suit. The patient presented with severe sepsis and kidney failure and a big pelvic abscess because of her inability to urinate. The patient received stabilization treatment but lost all her previous abilities. She remained bed-bound, moved through several facilities, and entered hospice later that year. She died on October of 2024. The estate attributes her death to complications allegedly caused by the lack of care received at the nursing home.
The two corporate defendants face legal action for violating resident rights under Section 400.022 of Florida law which includes the right to medical information and proper care and dignified treatment. The complaint presents various medical negligence allegations because staff failed to address family concerns and performed delayed medical evaluations and kept using neuro-sedatives after patients showed negative reactions and did not give necessary food and water and let infections and maggot infestations occur and maintained poor documentation and delayed hospital transfers and lacked proper staff oversight. The estate maintains that these medical mistakes resulted in infection and sepsis and renal failure and pain and loss of dignity and disability and medical costs which ended in her death.
The estate of Thomsen receives legal representation from Coral Springs-based attorney Kenneth R. Segal. The lawsuit demands financial compensation while requesting a jury to decide the case through a trial.
The original complaint, as filed with the Palm Beach County Clerk of Court, can be downloaded here.
Florida has very, very poor regulation and inspection of nursing homes compared to many states. Menorah should be shut down immediately. If one patient was treated like this there are likely others—who may not have family members to advocate for them—in similar circumstances. Horrific!