California IN BRIEF : MARTINEZ : Burn Fatality at Rest Home Probed

A nursing home is under investigation after the death of a resident who suffered second-degree burns on up to 75% of her body. Bernadette Blaine, 36, died Sunday in the burn unit of Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley. A semi-comatose accident victim, she had lived at Community Convalescent Center for less than a year when employees called an ambulance Friday because she was “convulsing and had a rash,” said county nursing home ombudsman Lois McKnight. “She was scalded from a tub bath. The skin was peeling off her legs, she was blistered on her back and the lower part of her breasts were purple,” McKnight said. “She might have been burned as early as Thursday.” Community Convalescent operator Joe Nadler said he knew of nothing that could have caused the burns that led to Blaine’s death.