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Nursing Home LitigationThere are over 1.5 million elderly and dependent adults now living in nursing homes throughout the country. As a result abuse and neglect has become a widespread problems. Some nursing homes provide good care, but too many are subjecting helpless residents to needless suffering and death. Residents in nursing homes are dependent on the nursing home staff for most or all their needs such as food, water, medicine, toileting, grooming, stimulation and turning. But the sad truth is that many residents in nursing homes are starved, dehydrated, over-medicated, and suffer painful pressure sores. Residents are often isolated, ignored and deprived of social contact and stimulation. In an effort to maximize profits, nursing homes utilize insufficient and poorly trained staff. Care givers are often overworked and grossly underpaid.. This often results in rude and abusive behavior to residents. Inadequate training and supervision often lead to abuse and neglect of patients. Mercy Carter Tidwell has extensive experience in nursing home litigation. Together with some of the most experienced attorneys in nursing home litigation, our firm has handled the trial and appeal of significant nursing home cases. Our firm is respected for its diligence, ability and insight in these cases. What is abuse and neglect? Abuse and neglect in a nursing home can include: assault, battery, sexual assault, sexual battery, rape, unreasonable physical constraint, or prolonged or continual deprivation of food or water, and use of a physical or chemical restraint or psychotropic medication for any purpose not consistent with that authorized by the physician. Neglect is the negligent failure of any person having the care or custody of an elder or a dependent adult to exercise that degree of care which a reasonable person in a like position would exercise. Neglect includes; failure to assist in personal hygiene, or in the provision of food, clothing, or shelter, failure to provide medical care for physical and mental health needs, failure to protect from health and safety hazards, failure to prevent malnutrition, and failure to prevent the development of decubitus ulcers. Every day nursing home residents are injured, abused, or harmed due to neglectful or abusive nursing home care. Frequently, the resident and family are not informed of how the injury occurred. Injuries can be indicative of the care delivery system at a nursing home and unfortunately sometimes the injury can be fatal. What kind of injuries are typical of abuse and neglect? Some of the injuries that result form prolonged neglect. These injuries have been recognized by the medical community as preventable in nearly all nursing home residents through the implementation of ordinary nursing care.
You should watch for signs of these conditions in a bedridden family member or family member that needs assistance with daily care. What can you do? If you have a family member already placed in a nursing home, there are steps you can take and problems to look for to help ensure that your family member gets adequate care. Federal law requires that all patients have a plan of care developed for them. Ask to see the plan of care and read it carefully. Obtain a copy and keep it with you when you visit your family member in order to verify that the required care is being provided. Make sure that your family member is drinking enough water and eating well. You need to closely watch for any weight loss by your family member. Nutritious food and enough fluid intake are vital to help prevent diseases and to keep skin from deteriorating and breaking down. Dehydration and malnutrition can also cause confusion and dementia which can be misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's disease. Malnutrition and dehydration can cause diseases that are life threatening, including urinary track infections, kidney .failure, skin breakdown and can lead to decubitus ulcers (bedsores), confusion and dementia, and a weakened immune system. If your family member is immobilized in bed or in a wheel chair, they are at risk for bedsores (pressure sores or decubitus ulcers). Pressure sores start out as reddened areas that do not blanch when pressed and then cause the underlying muscle and veins to break down, bleed and become infected. It is a direct sign of lack of care. The nursing home should develop a plan of correction for healing and prevention. Do not let pressures sores go untreated or they could cause a life threatening situation. Monitor your family member for signs of confusion and/or dementia in the nursing home. These symptoms are not a pare of normal aging. These symptoms are usually caused by some type of disease or can be triggered by malnutrition or dehydration. Make sure that your family member is fully bathed at least three times a week. These baths are very important to prevent skin breakdown especially if he or she is immobilized. Watch for any signs of pneumonia or other infectious diseases. Older, bedridden residents have a harder time recovering from illnesses if they are not treated promptly. If these life threatening illnesses are treated in time in a hospital a good quality of life can be achieved. If any nursing home facility is resistant to your involvement and is uncooperative with you, you need to go to the highest level, usually the Administrator and the Director of Nursing. If you are unsuccessful with the Administrator, you may want to think about transferring your family member to another facility. Mercy Carter Tidwelll and Nursing Home Litigation Mercy Carter Tidwell has extensive experience in nursing home litigation. Together with some of the most experienced attorneys in nursing home litigation, our firm has handled the trial and appeal of significant nursing home cases. Our firm is respected for its diligence, ability and insight in these cases. We have board certified attorneys in personal injury trial law, civil trial law and civil appellate law. If you have a family member or loved one that has suffered abuse or neglect in a nursing home you can contact us at: Mercy Carter Tidwell, L.L.P. 
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