Three former licensed practical nurses say a Warren, Ohio nursing home pushed them out of their jobs after they reported stolen narcotics, recurring insulin-supply shortages, and patient neglect to state health inspectors. Miranda Curtin of Youngstown, Marilyn Hazlerig of Leavittsburg, and Leanne Shafer of Warren filed suit Oct. 7 in Trumbull County Court of Common Pleas against Washington Square Healthcare Center, its operator Harbor Operator LLC, several affiliated AOM Healthcare companies, and three of the facility’s nursing administrators.
The case leans on two Ohio statutes built for exactly this situation — the Nursing Home Whistleblower Act and the state’s broader Whistleblower Protection Act — plus claims that two administrators made false statements during the state’s own investigation and that the defendants conspired against the nurses once they'd gone to regulators.
What the nurses say they reported
According to the complaint, the three nurses raised the alarm on more than one problem. They say narcotics meant for residents went missing. They say the facility ran out of insulin needles repeatedly, and at least once went an entire week in May without any — forcing staff, according to the suit, to improvise under an unwritten policy of taking one resident’s prescribed medication and giving it to another resident who needed it instead. And they describe residents left in soiled clothing and bedding for extended periods, not bathed, not checked on, while supervisors did nothing to fix it.
Every nurse who has ever worked a skilled nursing floor knows the math in this complaint by heart: not enough supplies, not enough staff, and a chain of command that would rather the problem stayed quiet than fixed. Reporting it is supposed to be the safe move — it’s literally what the whistleblower statute exists to protect. If three LPNs can still end up fired for doing exactly that, the lesson every other nurse on that floor takes away isn’t “speak up.”
The firings, and the hospital’s response
The lawsuit doesn’t name the three administrators as prominently as the corporate defendants, but it accuses two of them of lying to state investigators once the complaints surfaced. Aaron Hetrick, regional director of operations for AOM Healthcare and a named defendant in the suit, disputed the claims outright: “We completely deny the allegations.” Washington Square did not respond to a request for comment on its policies for reporting patient-care problems or on whether the facility has adequate medical supplies on hand.
Curtin, Hazlerig, and Shafer are seeking back pay and other compensation for what they call wrongful, retaliatory terminations. No trial date has been set.
A facility already flagged by the state
The lawsuit isn’t the only record of trouble at Washington Square. Medicare’s Care Compare tool lists 31 health deficiencies at the facility, more than triple the 9.2 national average and well above Ohio’s 10.5 average. State surveyors found conditions amounting to immediate jeopardy to residents during a July 17, 2025 inspection — the most serious finding a nursing home inspection can produce. None of that establishes whether the three nurses were fired unlawfully; that's the question a Trumbull County judge or jury will eventually have to answer. But it's the backdrop the nurses say they were trying to fix when they picked up the phone to the state.