Understanding Your Rights and Options When Suing a Nursing Home for Negligence

If your elderly loved one has been a victim of nursing home negligence, you can engage an experienced medical malpractice attorney to seek damages and compensation

We currently live in an aging society, with about 16% of the population being over age 65. As such, more and more elderly individuals are in need of healthcare and in many instances, need to reside in a nursing home. You trust the caregivers in the nursing home with the lives of your older loved ones. Unfortunately, in some instances, the nursing home negligence may cause harm to an elderly loved one . Statistically , seniors are at a higher risk of abuse and neglect when isolated from their families.

If your elderly loved one has been a victim of nursing home negligence, you can engage an experienced medical malpractice attorney to seek damages and compensation for the negligence of a nursing home, adult home, assisted living facility, nurse, doctor, or other healthcare professionals who may be at fault for your loved one’s injuries.  You may be entitled to recover compensation for their negligence and the damages it caused your elderly loved one.

Traditional medical negligence (in a nursing home or any other medical facility) is a failure of a healthcare provider to meet the standard of care in their treatment of a patient, which usually caused some harm to the patient. In the nursing home context, negligence can, unfortunately, also be coupled with abuse. Nursing home abuse is characterized by intimidation, physical harm, infliction of pain, punishment, and mental suffering. The nursing home resident may suffer from a lack of proper care, water, food, clothes, hygiene, or essential medical care.

So, how can you tell if a nursing home negligence and/or abuse? Since you may not be a regular visitor to the home, you may notice some signs from your loved one, such as;

If you notice such signs from a loved one, you should start asking questions about your loved one’s care. If your loved one is physically injured or emotionally distraught, talk to the nursing home administrator or manager to understand why.

The main types of nursing home negligence are listed below. If you notice any red flags with a loved one and the management does not or cannot explain the cause, you may want to speak with a nursing home abuse and neglect attorney/medical malpractice lawyer about the situation. 

Physical negligence is simply failing to attend to the physical needs of the resident. In some extreme cases, providers ignore and neglect residents, either unintentionally or as punishment, which can cause serious harm. An older person requires special attention and care— that’s why they are in a nursing home. Failing to provide that care can result in severe injuries or even death.

Emotional negligence occurs when the elders are defamed, bullied, ridiculed, made fun of, taunted, teased, harassed, threatened, and otherwise subjected to verbal or emotional harm by a caregiver.

Sexual Abuse

Unfortunately, sexual abuse in a nursing home does occur in some of the most egregious and heinous ways.  Victims are often afraid and/or unable to report the abuse or misconduct, resulting in prolonged harm.

Financial Abuse

Some caregivers may also engage in financial abuse, such as stealing money or credit cards from a resident, transferring assets, stealing positions, or even changing their Will.  This is a very serious type of abuse and can go unnoticed until the individual dies or runs out of money.

Do you believe that you or your loved one has suffered as a result of medical malpractice or medical neglect? You need to talk to an experienced team of local lawyers today.

The lawyers at Cardaro & Peek, LLC have the experience and resources necessary to investigate and litigate all types of medical claims throughout Maryland and Washington, D.C. Cardaro & Peek, LLC has medical personnel on staff and has access to nationally recognized, board-certified physicians and other experts, to assist in the investigation, analysis, and prosecution of all types of medical malpractice claims. If you or a loved one have experienced malpractice, give us a call at 410-752-6166. Please visit our website www.cardarolaw.com and follow us on Facebook , Twitter , and LinkedIn for more information.

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