The lawsuit filed Tuesday against Paramount Senior Living at Cranberry seeks more than $35,000 in damages.

SEVEN FIELDS — A lawsuit was filed Tuesday on behalf of an 83-year-old woman whose family alleges a staff member at the skilled nursing home where she lived photographed her partially nude and then disseminated the picture on social media.

The lawsuit seeks more than $35,000 in damages and was filed in Butler County Court by Pittsburgh-based law firm Robert Peirce & Associates against Paramount Senior Living at Cranberry. The facility is one of 13 senior living centers operated by Canonsburg-based Paramount Health Resources.

“Every family’s worst nightmare became reality when these images were taken and distributed,” attorney Rob Peirce, who represents the family, said in a news release. “Paramount failed to live up to its promises and failed my client in the highest degree.”

Peirce said the woman’s family was notified in January by the nursing facility following an investigation tipped off by an anonymous call to the Butler County Area Agency on Aging. The woman was unable to report the incident because she has dementia and is unable to communicate, according to Peirce.

Court documents reveal the woman moved into Paramount Senior Living at Cranberry in 2014. The incident involving the picture is alleged to have taken place this past New Year’s Eve. The lawsuit alleges that “several members of Defendant Paramount’s staff participated in taking and then sharing over Snapchat a photograph and/or video that depicted (the victim), an 83-year-old dementia resident, naked below the waist.”

The lawsuit further said the woman knew her picture was being taken and that she was trying to conceal herself.

Peirce said the woman’s children were not made aware of the situation and subsequent investigation until days later. And according to the lawsuit, a review of the woman’s chart’s from 2014-2019 showed “there is no reference to this incident ever occurring or of any Defendant Paramount employee being reprimanded or educated.”

Peirce told The Eagle on Tuesday that family members moved the woman out the facility as soon as they were notified of the investigation. The lawsuit alleges that Paramount attempted to cover up the incident and did not fully cooperate with the investigator.

The lawsuit further alleges that “had this incident not been anonymously reported to the Butler County Area Agency on Aging, Defendant Paramount would have failed to acknowledge and/or investigate this matter at all.”

The lawsuit claims the nursing facility was negligent, careless and reckless, and violated several of the woman’s patient rights.

The attorney said the facility’s administration told family members that an employee admitted to taking the woman’s picture while she was in a shower chair. However, the employee did not admit to the woman being naked from the waist down at the time of the picture, nor that the image was disseminated on social media via Snapchat and Facebook.

Peirce said the family contacted his law firm to further investigate. He said the matter is also being investigated by police, but Peirce does not know if charges have been filed.

According to its website, Paramount Senior Living at Cranberry is in Seven Fields and works specifically with residents who have Alzheimer’s or dementia.

“Paramount Senior Living disputes the characterization of its actions in plaintiff’s complaint,” Chase Darmstadter, regional director of operations for Paramount Health Resources, said in a news release. “We are sickened by the actions of this employee and do not tolerate this behavior in our senior living communities.”