If the day comes when you must contemplate a new living situation for and elderly parent, your options may include a Nursing Home, Retirement Community or a Long-Term Care Facility. This can be an emotional time for you and your elderly loved ones.
You may go through the detailed process of visiting and researching various facilities to ensure your loved one will be in a safe and secure community or facility.
When you select the Nursing Home, Retirement Community or a Long-Term Care Facility that you feel the most comfortable with, you have a full expectation that your loved one will receive the best of care, be in a safe environment, and that your loved one will be better off in this new living arrangement. In most cases, this assumption is accurate, and your loved one is safe, secure, and is well looked after.
Unfortunately, nursing home abuse and neglect still occurs in nursing homes and other elder care communities and facilities.
Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect may occur in various forms, and cause various types of physical injuries, medical conditions, mental & emotional distress, and other health and safety issues.
If your suspect that your loved one has been a victim of Nursing Home Abuse or Neglect, we urge you to contact our law firm as soon as possible. We can help determine if abuse or neglect has occurred or is still currently happening to your loved one.
We have extensive experience in holding Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Retirement Communities, and Long-Term Care Centers accountable when your loved one has been the victim of Abuse and Neglect.
Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect is tragic, unforgivable, and yet, preventable. To better understand Abuse and Neglect in Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Retirement Communities, and Long-Term Care Centers, you must first understand that "Abuse" and "Neglect" are entirely separate actions. So let us dive deeper into both situations.
Nursing Home Abuse is an affirmative action or inaction with intent to harm an elderly resident or patient physically, mentally, or emotionally. As despicable as Nursing Home Neglect is, the intentional actions or in-actions of Abuse is especially dehumanizing to the victim and their family. Common actions of Nursing Home Abuse involved actions such as hitting, tripping, pushing, biting, scratching, sexual abuse or inappropriately restraining residents or mental harm such as belittling, demeaning, harassing or threatening residents. Abuse may take the form of intentionally not helping a resident when it is clear the resident is having mobility problems or trying to stand up or get out of bed. Additionally, if a resident is being attacked or abused by another resident, and not stepping in to end the abuse.
Abuse may often also involved deliberately denying a resident essential needs such as food, water, clean clothing, or shelter as a form of retribution or punishment.
To say that some people do not have the required temperament and patience to work with elderly or sick residents is an understatement. These types of people often take their frustrations out on those that cannot defend or stick up for themselves.
If your loved one is or has been the victim of Nursing Home Abuse, will aggressively fight to hold the offending Nursing Home, Retirement Community, or Long-Term Care Center accountable.
Nursing Home Neglect involves a failure to adequately provide the lawful standard of care required by all Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Retirement Communities, and Long-Term Care Centers. These standards include basic needs such as food, water, cleanliness, hygiene, clothing, physical activity, medical treatment or medication and other physical and emotional needs.
Neglect may also occur as a result of under-staffed facilities and facilities with staff members that are not properly trained. This can lead to residents being left alone or ignored, residents missing essential medication, residents falling and injuring themselves, and so much more.
If you believe your loved one is being neglected in a Nursing Home, Retirement Community, and Long-Term Care Center, call our office today! Justice for the Elderly is our Mission!
There are a number of things you can look for if you suspect your loved one may be the victim of nursing home abuse or neglect.
Signs of Abuse or Neglect may include, but not limited to:
Compensatory Damages involve the recovery of compensation you may be entitled to based on the specific circumstances of your case. These damages may involve compensation for a wide array of different circumstances.
Economic Compensatory Damages:
Non-Economic Compensatory Damages:
While Compensatory Damages address recoverable damages, Punitive Damages involve financial compensation as a punishment to the offending party or parties for negligent or intentional egregious actions.
In order to be awarded punitive damages, the burden of proof your attorney must establish in Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect cases is that the evidence establishes a gross and reckless disregard for human life or the safety of persons exposed to that environment.
This proof may be established through:
As mentioned throughout this website, every Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect case is inherently different. The amount that your case may be worth will depend on many factors.
In addition to the various factors that may determine what your case may be worth is how you decide to proceed with your case.
In many Nursing Home and Abuse cases, an experienced Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawyer will be able to successfully negotiate a settlement that is fair and reasonable. The difference between hiring experienced legal counsel to represent you and you speaking directly with the Facilities legal team yourself is that experienced legal counsel will fight to ensure that your best interests and rights are protected.
When you speak directly to the facility or insurance company yourself, they will not be looking out for your best interests. They will often play on your desperation to settle quickly without legal representation. The settlement they offer will typically have little or no regard for the long-term and full extent of your loved ones injuries.
Experienced legal counsel will be proactive in ensuring the facility or insurance company is fully aware that you have a firm understanding of all injuries, how those injuries may affect your loved ones future, their quality of life, future medical treatment, and any other factors that will play a roll in your loved ones life in the future. Especially when the injuries are long-term or permanent in nature.
At the Atlanta Senior Justice Center, we will aggressively seek justice and a fair and reasonable settlement on your behalf. If that cannot be accomplished, we are prepared to hold the Nursing Home, Retirement Community, or Long-Term Care Center accountable at trial.
While taking a Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect case to trial may potentially result in a higher compensation and damages verdict, you must also be aware that a trial may also result in receiving no settlement or award by a judge or jury at all.
Unless otherwise instructed, the jury verdict in a Civil Litigation case must be Unanimous, with a burden of proof of a “preponderance of the evidence,” or “more likely than not.”
In a civil litigation case, you can seek a specific amount of compensation and damages, however, if you win your case, the jury (or judge) may also have the discretion to decide what amount of compensation and/or damages you are to be awarded.
Everything relating to how much your case may be worth, how much you may be able to negotiate as a fair and reasonable settlement, or to win your case at trial may all hinge on how strong the evidence is and how it supports your legal claim. Also a factor may be how effective your attorney can present and establish the validity of the evidence for the claim of Abuse and Neglect in settlement negotiations and when necessary, at trial.
Any preventable death is a tragic event. When the preventable death happens in a facility that is specifically designed to keep your loved one safe and secure, it is especially horrific.
Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Retirement Communities, and Long-Term Care Centers have a legal duty to provide the required standard of care. When willful or abuse or neglect leads to the untimely death of an individual in one of these facilities, they should be held accountable using every available resource under the law.
Surviving family members may seek justice in the form of civil litigation for the unnecessary and untimely death of their loved one. In addition, those responsible may also face criminal charges as well.
In all wrongful death cases, personal injury attorneys must prove that the defendant owed the victim a duty of care. Then they must prove that the defendant, in this case – a nursing home – breached their duty of care to the resident. This breach of duty was the cause of injury (physical, mental or financial) or death of the resident and caused the resident to suffer damages as a result of the breach.
If your loved one was the victim of a wrongful death in a Nursing Home, Assisted Living Retirement Community, or Long-Term Care Center, our law firm is ready to aggressively fight for your rights, and justice for your loved one's untimely and preventable passing.
Aspiration Pneumonia is a condition that is caused by food, saliva, vomit or liquids accidentally enter the airway and go into the lower respiratory tract / lungs.
Aspiration Pneumonia refers to inhalational acute lung injury. Many nursing home and elderly care residents are susceptible to Aspiration Pneumonia because they may have trouble clearing their own airway while coughing. If Nursing Home, Assisted Living Retirement Community, and Long-Term Care Center staff are not paying attention or are not properly trained, the risk of Aspiration Pneumonia increases.
The risk of Aspiration Pneumonia increases even further if the elderly individual has or has a history of the following medical conditions:
If the staff does not see the initial signs of a potential Aspiration Pneumonia situation, there are secondary signs that a resident is or has contracted Aspiration Pneumonia:
All of these symptoms should be noticeable to the facility staff, and should immediately be reported to medical staff or medical attention arranged for the elderly resident.
A failure to seek medical attention for an elderly resident may indeed be an act of negligence.
Aspiration Pneumonia is not simply a consequence of aging. A nursing home patient who is neglected is more likely to suffer from this infection because they may not receive assistance during meal times where there is an increased likelihood of having food travel into the airway. Furthermore, if they are left unattended for long periods of time, the nursing home staff would not notice the symptoms of the pneumonia and be unable to help the elderly patient seek hospital treatment in time for a successful outcome.
If your loved one developed Aspiration Pneumonia or other medical complications or conditions, we urge you to contact our law firm as soon as possible.
Bedsores develop when an individual's blood supply to the skin is cut off for a periods ranging for 2 to 3 hours without movement or relief to allow the blood supply access to the skin. Having the blood supply cut off from the skin causes the skin cells to die.
First the skin will begin to turn red, become painful, the skin will eventually turn purple. After a period of time the skin may then break apart causing clotted or broken wounds that may become infected if not properly treated.
If an individual has been left alone without being moved, transferred to a wheelchair, or other relief for the skin and blood supply, there is a very good chance that the individual may also be left sitting in their own urine and/or feces for a period of time. Especially when the individual is incontinent and requires special care.
Nursing Homes and other Elderly Care Facilities are required by law to ensure that immobile residents receive the appropriate standard of care. This includes ensuring immobile residents are regularly monitored, kept mobile, turned over, or transferred to a wheel chair to avoid getting bedsores.
They are also required to regularly monitor and check on patients that are incontinent or need assistance in going to the toilet.
While visiting your loved ones in a Nursing Home or other Elderly Care Facility, if they are always in the bed when you arrive, you smell bad orders such as feces, urine, or other foul odors, your loved one may indeed have bedsores and been subjected to forms of neglect.
If you suspect Nursing Home Abuse and /or Neglect, we urge you to seek contact our law firm.
Throughout your life, no-one has been around your loved ones more than you. You know all their tendencies, their temperament, their facial expressions, and other mannerisms.
When you visit your loved ones and he or she exhibits:
... These may be signs that your loved one is over medicated, under medicated, or even given the wrong medication.
Anytime a nursing home resident is given medication by the staff, the name of the drug, the amount or dosage of the drug, the time the drug was issued or administered, and who the individual that administered the drug was is supposed to be documented.
Many times, Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Retirement Communities, and Long-Term Care Centers are understaffed or employ staff members that are not properly trained. Unfortunately, disorientation and confusion is commonly the result.
If you believe your loved one is the victim of Nursing Home Neglect or abuse, we urge you to seek the legal advice and representation of experienced legal counsel.
A fall by an elderly person can often result in serious injury, and sometimes even lead to a premature death. Research by America's Health Rankings reveals just how frequently a elderly fall may result in serious injury. They report that one in every 5 falls by an elderly person results in serious injury. The serious injuries are reported as broken bones, fractures and serious head injuries.
Many residents of Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Retirement Communities, and Long-Term Care Centers have mobility issues or an unsteady gait when walking, standing up, sitting down, or getting in or out of bed.
When an elderly resident in Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Retirement Communities, and Long-Term Care Centers have these types of physical issues, the Facilities and the staff are fully aware of the responsibility they have to ensure the elderly resident is safe and properly cared for.
When hard falls and serious injuries occur, the fall may have been a direct result of abandonment, neglect, or the staff failing to responsibly monitor or assist a resident that was having problems walking, standing up, sitting down, or getting in or out of bed.
If you suspect that falls and injuries are the result of negligence on the part of the Nursing Home, Assisted Living Retirement Community, or Long-Term Care Center, we urge you to contact our law firm as soon as possible.
Each and every Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect case is inherently different. The victim and what he or she has been subjected to are different, just as the evidence that is gathered in the case. The severity of the injuries our trauma will be different in each case. Whether or not the Nursing Home, Retirement Community, or Long-Term Care Centers knew of the abuse or neglect, should have known, or if facility policies or inadequate staffing or training played a roll or facilitated the abuse or neglect may be an elements of your case.
As an experienced Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect law firm, we will discuss every aspect of your abuse and neglect claims with you. We will assess the situation, evidence, injuries, and everything that may be an element of your potential case. We will then provide a clear picture of if you have a lawful means of holding those responsible for the abuse and/ or neglect you or a loved on has been subjected to.
While no two abuse and neglect cases are the same, we can inform you of what types of "compensatory damages" and "punitive damages" you may be able to seek.
There are numerous Federal and State Laws designed to ensure Nursing Homes and other Elder Care Facilities provide a safe and secure environment, and provide a standard of care for residents under their care.
With all of these Federal and State Regulations, one would think that nursing home abuse and neglect are words that you would never hear in a court of law. Unfortunately, abuse and neglect are not only still occurring, but are increasing in frequency throughout the country.
Malnutrition and Dehydration is an all to common occurrence in Nursing Homes and other Elder Care Facilities.
If you find that your elderly relative appears malnourished, such as if they are emaciated, lack energy, experience sudden weight loss, have sunken eyes or otherwise appear to have not been eating right, it may be a sign of abuse or neglect.
Signs of Dehydration include: cracked lips, dry skin, croaked voice, unusually pail skin, your loved one complains of dry mouth or sensitive throat. Dehydration may also result in dark yellow and strong-smelling urine, feeling dizzy or lightheaded, constipation, of feeling dizzy.
If you observe that your loved one appears Malnourished or Dehydrated in a Nursing Home or other Elder Care Facility, contact our office today.
It is not uncommon to see a resident of a Nursing Home, Retirement Community, or Long-Term Care Center who has the occasional bump or bruise.
When you begin to notice that your loved is displaying frequent or severe bumps, bruises, and other more severe injuries, you should be seeking valid answers by the care givers and administration. You should also ask to see any documentation of the injuries to your loved one.
If you do not feel comfortable with the explanations that you are given, or if the injuries have not been properly documented, you should seek the legal advice and potential representation of an experienced nursing home abuse and neglect lawyer.
Common unexplained physical injuries may include:
While one or two injuries may be adequately explained, an increase in frequency of injuries are almost certainly signs of abuse.
Nursing homes are responsible for keeping residents clean and comfortable.
They must keep the premises well-kept, such as by washing sheets, clothes and towels, cleaning rooms and bathrooms, emptying trash cans and otherwise keeping the residents out of the filth.
Nursing homes are also responsible for ensuring that residents are bathed and clean, that they brush their teeth and are otherwise hygienic.
Look out for unsanitary conditions such as mold, mildew, old garbage and old food, and ensure that your loved one does not appear dirty, unwashed or unkempt with untrimmed nails or unbrushed teeth.
If you observe any of these unsanitary or poor hygiene conditions in the Nursing Home or other Elder Care Facility that your loved one resides, your loved one may be the victim of nursing home abuse or neglect.
The percentage of elderly residents and patients in Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Retirement Communities, and Long-Term Care Centers who are mistreated and/or abused is shocking. To think that a facility that is specifically designed to provide a safe, secure, and accommodating environment engages in abuse and neglect toward those in their care is simply unfathomable and unforgivable.
According to The National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA), the statistics compiled the the organization has publicly recognized the horrific frequency of Abuse and Neglect in Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Retirement Communities, and Long-Term Care Centers.
Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Statistic Show That:
Following the national attention nursing home abuse and neglect received in the media in the mid-2000's, virtually everyone believed the number of abuse and neglect cases would dramatically decrease. In less than a decade, statistics show just the opposite. Abuse and neglect cases are dramatically on the rise.
In a recent 5 year study , there has been up to a 75% increase in verified abuse and neglect claims. Not only have abuse and neglect cases increased, leading to civil litigation that holds Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Retirement Communities, and Long-Term Care Centers accountable, but criminal charges and convictions against individual abuse and neglect offenders have also risen.
If you suspect that your loved one has been the victim of Abuse and/or neglect in a Nursing Home, Retirement Community, or Long-Term Care Center, seek the legal advice and representation of a qualified, passionate and aggressive nursing home abuse and neglect lawyer.
Nursing Home Neglect is something no loved one should have to endure. If your loved one has been the victim of Nursing Home Neglect, we are ready to give justice a voice!
If your loved one has been a victim of nersing home neglect , we are ready to fight for you. Call us Toll Free 833.701.9222 to discuss your nursing home neglect case. Get someone on your side who will be honest and direct. Call today.
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