Tulsa Nursing Home Where Man Burned Previously Cited For Inadequate Supervision

A man's death in a fire at a Tulsa nursing home 10 days ago is drawing attention to the care provided at the home.

A 68-year-old man died after his clothes caught fire while he was smoking.

An advocate for nursing home safety says the staff should have been more alert to what was happening, especially after state inspectors cited Parks Edge for inadequate supervision previously.

The fire department and police were called to Parks Edge at 8:00 on a Friday night with a report a man was on fire just outside the building.

The 911 call came from someone driving by.

"This individual passing by saw him, in the wheelchair, on fire," Officer Leland Ashley said.

The man in the wheelchair was 68-year-old Roger McNerney. He and another resident, both in wheelchairs, were outside smoking.

Something happened, and McNerney's clothes caught on fire, and the other resident couldn't put it out.

Ashley said, "The passerby reported that when she first saw him, he was engulfed in flames. The witness who was with him said his shirt and pants were on fire."

Park's Edge hasn’t commented yet.

State regulators previously criticized the facility for inadequate supervision of smokers.

Last October, a resident went out to smoke on a cold night and was found on the ground eight-and-a-half hours later.

She survived.

Park's Edge fired a nurse and aide and revamped training.

Wes Bledsoe, an advocate for patients in nursing homes, says the two situations likely stem from the same issues.

“That screams problems, huge problems, with the staff being understaffed or undertrained, or unsupervised, but they certainly weren't monitoring the patients like they should have been,” he said.

Other state inspections found too many cases of the nursing home using bed rails, which are not allowed except in very specific situations.

Our partner, The Frontier, has more on this story here.

Tulsa Fire Department report:

Parks Edge Complaint Report, October 2015: