Resident 33 was alone in the shared shower room adjacent to her bedroom on August 10 when she felt unstable while dressing. She leaned on the sink to steady herself. The fixture wobbled off the wall, crashed to the ground, and cut her back as she fell on top of it.
"The sink was wobbly prior to the day of her fall," the resident told inspectors on September 23.
The 115-pound woman said staff acted quickly and got her to the hospital fast. She received sutures for the laceration but told inspectors she had no continued pain and the wound had healed.
The sink was old and mounted only to wall studs without support legs, according to Maintenance Director 116. When it fell, water lines broke and flooded the bathroom. A nurse shut off the water supply, but the maintenance director had to return that night to prevent further flooding.
Nobody performed routine maintenance checks on sinks at the facility.
"I did not know the condition of the sink prior to 08/10/25 as I did not perform any routine maintenance checks on sinks in the facility," the maintenance director told inspectors.
The day after the incident, he conducted a sink audit and found three other wall-mounted sinks similar to the collapsed fixture. He could not recall any reports of those sinks being in disrepair.
The facility administrator blamed the resident for the collapse, claiming she applied excessive force to the fixture.
"If the resident had not leaned on the sink, it would not have fallen causing her to fall to the ground," the administrator told inspectors. She believed the resident "had to have applied greater force than 115 pounds in order for the sink to have come loose and fallen to the floor."
The administrator acknowledged the building's age made it impossible to determine how old the wall-mounted sink was, but insisted she believed it was in working order before the fall. She denied the resident suffered pain from the injury.
No witnesses saw the fall. The resident told staff she was changing clothes when she grabbed the sink for support.
The maintenance director verified a replacement sink arrived at the facility on September 10, went into storage, and was being installed during the September inspection more than a month later. The new fixture would include a support structure.
Federal inspectors found the facility failed to ensure residents were free from accident hazards. The violation caused actual harm to the resident and affected few people at the 120-bed facility.
The resident had been forced to travel to the other side of the building for basic hygiene tasks like washing her face and brushing her teeth before the incident. The shared shower room where the sink collapsed served the entire South unit.
Cridersville Nursing and Rehab, owned by Fundamental Long Term Care Holdings, has faced previous federal violations. The facility's overall Medicare rating is three stars out of five.
The August sink collapse occurred during what inspectors classified as routine resident care. The woman was simply getting dressed after her shower when the decades-old fixture gave way under the weight of someone seeking stability.
State inspectors discovered the violation during a complaint investigation in September, more than a month after the incident. By then, the resident's wounds had healed, but the dangerous sink had remained in place for weeks after the collapse before replacement began.
The facility's maintenance practices left other similar sinks unchecked throughout the building until after the injury occurred. Only then did staff audit wall-mounted fixtures to identify potential hazards.
Resident 33 continues living at the facility. She no longer needs to travel across the building for basic hygiene needs.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Cridersville Nursing and Rehab from 2025-09-25 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
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