A nursing home operator with facilities in both Illinois and Northwestern Indiana is again facing charges of neglect, this time over the case of an 83-year-old patient whose leg was amputated, allegedly because staff at one of the company's homes repeatedly failed to feed her.

A lawsuit filed recently in Cook County Circuit Court by Libby Johnson on behalf of her mother, Barbara Brison, accused South Shore Nursing and Rehabilitation Center LLC and its parent, Care Centers Inc., of numerous types of abuse.

Care Centers is a nursing home conglomerate that operates 26 facilities and 4,224 beds in the Chicago and Northwest Indiana area, including facilities in Lansing, Chicago Heights, Dyer, East Chicago, Merrillville, Hobart and Valparaiso.

This is the second lawsuit in the last two months filed against Care Centers Inc., alleging serious neglect at one of its facilities.

South Shore on Chicago's south side is managed and operated by Care Centers.

According to the lawsuit, Barbara Brison, a South Side resident, was not properly fed on 88 occasions between July and December 2005. Brison became dehydrated and more susceptible to infection as a result of the missed feedings, the lawsuit alleges.

The Illinois Department of Public Health investigated and found that Brison did not receive feedings on a significant number of occasions. Robert Rooth, Brison's attorney, pointed out that she had diabetes and was particularly vulnerable to the devastating infections that led to her leg being amputated.

Stephanie Peterson, a spokeswoman for Care Centers and South Shore at 2649 E. 75th St., said they had not yet received the lawsuit and declined to comment further.

Rooth said his client depended upon the staff at South Shore for her survival and that she was not properly taken care of.

"Certainly the failure to provide feedings as documented by the Illinois Department of Public Health is outrageous," Rooth said.

Brison had two leg amputation surgeries in March 2006. The lawsuit claims that South Shore is responsible for allowing the infections that made these operations necessary. After the operations she returned to South Shore where she remained until her death in October 2006.

"The family was looking for other homes, but before they could place her somewhere else she passed away," Rooth said.

Care Centers is a defendant in a lawsuit filed in January relating to neglect and abuse at Prairie Manor Nursing Home in Chicago Heights.