A lawsuit filed on behalf of an Alzheimer’s disease patient says care at a Mission Viejo home for the elderly was so poor that a rat climbed into the former lawyer’s mouth and died, where it was found by staff.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Orange County Superior Court for Sigmund Bock, who was admitted to Paragon Gardens Assisted Living and Memory Care Community in February.

The lawsuit, which says Bock is 72, alleges negligence and elder abuse by the facility, its administrators and parent companies, including Sunwest Management Inc., a Salem, Ore., firm that operates 180 care facilities across the country.

In a statement, Sunwest denied the allegations and said Bock’s attorney was intent on winning the case in the “court of public opinion.”


According to Sunwest, Paragon employees spotted a mouse inside the building and called a pest control firm.

A glue trap was placed in Bock’s room. The trap was “evidently picked up” by Bock, and he was found “holding the trap in his hand. Inside the trap was one small dead field mouse,” Sunwest said.

Attorney Stephen Garcia, who filed the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment.

The state Department of Social Services revoked Paragon’s license in October when six patients were injured, mostly in falls, and understaffing issues surfaced months after a 71-year-old man with Alzheimer’s disease wandered from the facility last June. The man was never found and is presumed dead.


His family has sued the facility, according to the Associated Press.

The state revoked the certificate of Paragon’s administrator and barred her and eight other staff members and administrators from having contact with a community care facility in California.

The company appealed the decision, an action that stays the revocation order, pending an April 25 hearing, said Michael Weston, a Department of Social Services spokesman. The state is investigating the alleged rat incident.

In March, according to the lawsuit, Paragon’s staff failed to check on Bock, allowing “a rat to crawl up” his body, and “enter his mouth, stay in his mouth and die in his mouth.” No date is specified.


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david.reyes@latimes.com