Miller's Merry Manor: Lift Transfer Injury Tears Resident - IN
What happened next sent the resident to the emergency room with a wound nearly the length of a dollar bill torn into her lower left leg, jagged and open, bleeding steadily, requiring 19 sutures to close.
Federal inspectors cited Miller's Merry Manor for causing actual harm to a resident following a complaint investigation completed October 15, 2025. The citation describes a single transfer on the night of July 30, 2025, and the chain of small failures that made it possible.
The resident had been sitting in her wheelchair. She wanted to go to bed. CNA 1, who had cared for this resident before, transferred her manually into the bed. The resident's skin caught on a piece of the wheelchair during the move. The aide saw the blood and called for help.
The resident had a severely impaired cognitive status and was fully dependent on staff for all transfers, according to a quarterly assessment completed September 10. The mechanical lift requirement had been in place. It was listed on a pocket guide that aides were supposed to carry with them on the floor, a quick-reference card showing exactly what each resident needed.
That night, CNA 1 didn't have one. She told inspectors the guides weren't available because staff had been told they were being updated.
The unit manager said that wasn't true. The pocket guides were always available, she told inspectors during an interview on October 14, and they were updated with every change in care. The LPN on duty that night said the same thing: the guides were always available.
CNA 1 said she had taken care of this resident before and had never been told a mechanical lift was required. Other staff, she said, had told her the resident could be lifted manually into the chair or bed. She said she hadn't known how to get the lift pad underneath the resident while she was already seated in the wheelchair, so she transferred her without it.
There is a version of this where CNA 1 is the story. She worked a shift without a reference guide she believed was unavailable, relied on what coworkers had told her, and made a judgment call that was wrong. She saw the blood and called for help.
But the inspection record points somewhere wider than one aide's decision on one night.
The outgoing aide, CNA 2, had told CNA 1 at shift change that the lift pad would need to go back under the resident when she moved from the chair to the bed. CNA 1 said she understood the resident needed a mechanical lift for transfers. She said it anyway, in the same breath: she was under the impression the resident could be transferred without one.
Those two things cannot both be true. The inspection report doesn't resolve them.
What it does document is the wound. The first assessment after the resident returned from the emergency room, completed August 5 at 11:13 in the morning, described the injury to her left lower extremity in clinical detail: 13.5 centimeters long, 8.5 centimeters wide, 0.1 centimeters deep. Irregular shape. Open wound. Edges unattached and irregular. The surrounding skin was red and moist. There was moderate bleeding. Nineteen sutures.
The resident, whose cognitive status was documented as severely impaired, told staff it hurt a little bit.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Miller's Merry Manor from 2025-10-15 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Additional Resources
Data source: Official federal inspection data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Editorial process: AI-synthesized regulatory data, reviewed for accuracy by our editorial team.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: June 25, 2026 · Our methodology
MILLER'S MERRY MANOR in PORTAGE, IN was cited for violations during a health inspection on October 15, 2025.
Federal inspectors cited Miller's Merry Manor for causing actual harm to a resident following a complaint investigation completed October 15, 2025.
Health inspections identify deficiencies that facilities must correct. Violations range from minor documentation issues to serious safety concerns. Review the full report below for specific details and facility response.