ELDER ABUSE AND NURSING HOME NEGLIGENCE CASES

Unfortunately, as people age, they become more vulnerable to abuse, neglect, and exploitation. This is especially true for people living in long-term care facilities and nursing homes. Abuse and neglect results in persons suffering a variety of physical and psychological injuries, which result in pain, suffering, and loss of quality of life. An injured person is entitled to compensation for these losses, when they are caused by intentional or negligent actions of the nursing home or its employees. The injured person can make a personal injury claim against the nursing home, its employees, or both.
One of the most common cases of nursing home negligence involves people who develop bedsores. Victims of this type of negligence can be elderly, or younger people who are confined to a nursing home as a result of serious on-the-job injuries or automobile accidents. Other forms of abuse might involve actual physical or sexual assaults on the elderly perpetrated by nursing home employees. We recently had an elderly client who suffered from Alzheimers Disease. She was in a long-term care facility and was supposedly being cared for by people who specialized in caring for Alzheimers victims. While a resident of this long-term care facility, she was physically assaulted by an employee. This assault resulted in a fall in which she sustained a fractured hip. Unfortunately, she was not able to survive the surgery to repair her hip and she died. After suing the long-term care facility, and conducting discovery, we determined that the employee who assaulted her had no training whatsoever working with Alzheimers patients and, in fact, had recently worked at the facility as a kitchen employee.
If you have a family member in a nursing home or long-term care facility it is important that you check on them regularly. If you see signs of abuse or neglect, document them and seek legal help.