Family claims Mom got further injuries during stay at Aurora rehab center

A family says a stay at a rehabilitation center that was supposed to help a mother recover ended with severe injuries.

The daughter says her mother was moved without the equipment required in her care plan and suffered several additional fractures.

"That's my pride and joy. I don't know what to do without her. She's been a wonderful mother, wonderful grandmother."

Gail Pratt says she trusted Highland Park Rehabilitation and Care Center in Aurora to care for her double-amputee mother, Janice Hopson.

Like any child, she worried about leaving her mother's care in someone else's hands.

Pratt says she had warned staff about the dangers of moving her mother without multiple staff members and without the proper equipment.

"I'd say, 'Look, I think the bed is too high. I think Mother might fall.' I said, 'We've got to be really careful with this height and these marble floors because if she falls, she's really going to be hurt.'"

Pratt says last June, one certified nursing assistant moved her mother without a lift.

She remembers the call she received from the staff.

"Well, Gail, it's pretty bad. They said she has a broken shoulder; she's got fractures everywhere. She said, " Ms. Janice just went through a lot. She's in a lot of pain."

Pratt says staff later told her the nurse had been fired.

But her mother's injuries raised a bigger question: Was this just one employee's failure, or did the problems go further?

"At first, we are just dealing with and observing these catastrophic injuries and figuring out how did this happen, how do we make sure she gets the care that she needs. Then, as we looked into the events more, how she was dropped and the failures that led to her being dropped, that's kind of when we started to see that there were failures not just on a personnel, lower level, but higher corporate level and just kind of the lack of oversight," the familiy's attorney Steven Flaxman said.

As required, Colorado's Department of Public Health and Environment, or CDPHE, investigated the incident and cited the facility for failing to ensure supervision and monitor devices to prevent accidents in Hopson's case.

A CBS Colorado investigation found it was one of 10 citations issued in 2025.

This year so far, the state has issued 27 citations. Half are related to building safety. The others include failures to keep a safe and clean environment, failures to keep the facility free of accident hazards and medication errors.

Flaxman argues the case raises questions about staffing, oversight, and who is ultimately responsible when care breaks down.

"Corners are being cut. There is that lack of oversight, and I think what probably leads to that lack of oversight, of course, is this company looking more out for its bottom line than for its patients. "He said.

CBS Colorado reviewed federal records showing Highland Park is owned by a corporation in California, Sweetwater Care Resources LLC.

The same company over the summer agreed to a $15 million settlement with the California attorney general after an investigation found it had been failing to meet staffing standards set by the state for years. Sweetwater did not admit wrongdoing in that case.

For this Colorado case, medical malpractice attorney Megan Matthews was brought on as co-counsel.

Her previous work includes scrutinizing ownership structures, financial decisions, and staffing affect patient care.

"What happens is these big corporations, and sometimes also private equity groups, are managing these hospitals from afar and really looking at these local, smaller facilities on kind of a line-item level. The number one place we see that line-item budget level by level, and where they are trying to save money, is usually staffing."

Matthews says multiple ownership layers mean less liability and limit what injured patients can recover.

In this case, Highland Park carries $1 million in insurance for the entire facility, $500,000 more than the minimum required by state law.

"That's just fundamentally unfair."

"Even if a patient had $10 million in medical bills or was in a coma or paralyzed by bad behavior, the most Highland Park says they will ever pay is $1 million because their corporate parent isn't related to them for purposes of liability."

Administrators at Highland Park Rehab say they cannot comment on pending litigation and referred CBS Colorado to the facility's five-star rating on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rating page.

Sweetwater has not responded.

For Pratt, this isn't about policy.

She says her mother needed more care than she believes the facility provided, and she wants someone to be held responsible.

"They are not getting the care they need, and they are all getting their money, all their income. It's not right."