By: Clark Kauffman – Iowa Capital Dispatch
(Red Oak) A western Iowa nursing home has been cited by the state for failing to provide adequate nursing services for a woman whose leg was later amputated.
The Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing has cited the Good Samaritan nursing home in Red Oak with failing intervene when a female resident’s condition worsened, and with failing to properly assess the woman’s impaired circulation in her leg despite a diagnosis related to gangrene.
According to inspectors, the resident was crying and complaining of serious pain in her right leg early in the afternoon of Aug. 3, 2025. The staff provided paid medication through the night and the next morning. By the afternoon of Aug. 4, the staff was documenting that the woman’s leg had turned purple and was cold to the touch, with the woman continuing to experience “extreme pain” in her leg.
Upon admission to a local hospital, the woman was diagnosed with a life-threatening condition and she was transported by air to another hospital where she could be seen immediately by a vascular surgeon.
The surgeon’s physician assistant later told inspectors the woman underwent a “through-the-knee amputation” of her leg on Aug. 7, 2025. When asked whether it would have made any difference had the Good Samaritan staff sent the woman to the hospital earlier, the physician assistant allegedly told inspectors the woman “would not have had to suffer as many days in significant pain.”
The inspections department has proposed, but held in suspension, an $8,500 state fine against the Good Samaritan home for failing to provide residents with the required nursing services. The state fine is being held in suspension while the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services determines whether a federal fine will be imposed.
Currently, the 64-bed Good Samaritan home has a two-star, “below average” overall rating from CMS. In April 2025, during the home’s most recent annual inspection, Good Samaritan was cited for regulatory violations related to environmental hazards, failure to implement resident care plans, services that failed to meet professional standards, treatment of bedsores, tube feedings, food services and infection control.
The Iowa Capital Dispatch was unable to reach the home’s administrator, Mike Early, for comment Tuesday.
