We’ve all heard the horror stories. An elderly nursing home patient suffers a traumatic brain injury when falling while attempting to go to the bathroom alone after no one responded to their call for assistance. Or a nursing home resident sustains serious lacerations and abrasions when another resident assaults them in an unsupervised gathering room. Or a bedridden nursing home resident develops bed sores because their caregivers failed to change their position often enough. All of these injuries, and so many more, occur every day in the U.S. because of nursing home abuse and neglect.
If you have made the challenging decision to place your parent or other loved one in a nursing home because you cannot care for them yourself, you are likely worried about the level of care that they receive there. Unfortunately, you may have good reasons to be concerned.
Nursing Home Conditions
With the U.S. population aging at an unprecedented rate, the nursing home population is at an all-time high and likely won’t decline in the foreseeable future. Even the best and most expensive nursing homes are having difficulty hiring and keeping a sufficient number of qualified caregivers on staff. Shorthanded, harried staff often cannot keep up with their respective case loads, and many simply give up, reasoning that the inadequate care and supervision they know they’re giving their patients is better than no care at all.
In addition, medication errors happen all too frequently. A nurse gives the wrong medicine to the wrong patient. Or a patient receives the wrong dosage, either too little, causing him or her unnecessary pain, or too much that could cause death by overdose. The cumulative result of all these problems is an ever greater risk that your loved one will indeed suffer some form of nursing home abuse or neglect that could lead to serious injury or even a premature death.
How a Nursing Home Lawyer Can Help
If you suspect that your loved one’s nursing home is neglecting or abusing him or her, your wisest course of action may well be to engage the services of an experienced local nursing home lawyer. They can review your loved one’s medical and other records and help you and your loved one obtain financial compensation if abuse has, in fact, occurred.
As a knowledgeable personal injury lawyer can confirm, it isn’t always easy to know when your loved one is being abused or neglected. Keep in mind that nursing home abuse can take many forms, including the following:
- Physical abuse
- Emotional abuse
- Sexual abuse
- Financial abuse
- Medical malpractice
- Wrongful death
A lawyer who has dedicated their legal career to helping such victims and their families stands a far better chance than you do of ferreting out abuse, its causes, and who is responsible for it. Don’t let the weight of your worry pin you to the ground. Connect with a lawyer experienced in nursing home abuse and neglect cases today to ask questions and voice your concerns in a risk-free setting.