Unfortunately, many individuals encounter a period in their lives when their aging family members can no longer care for themselves as they once did. As a result, we must make difficult decisions regarding their care.
For numerous families, the worry about a loved one’s health leads to the decision to place them in a nursing home.
While we often trust these facilities to look after our relatives, serious issues can arise in the form of nursing home malpractice. This can manifest in various ways, including but not limited to negligence and abuse. It’s essential to understand your rights if your loved one is experiencing distress in a nursing home.
Being informed on how to collect evidence to back up your claims is crucial. A knowledgeable nursing home attorney in South Carolina recommends documenting incidents and taking photographs of any visible signs of abuse to support your case against the nursing facility. Having tangible evidence equips you for when it’s time to file a malpractice claim.
Understanding Nursing Home Abuse
Nursing home abuse can take many forms, with the most prevalent being physical, emotional, and financial. Here’s a brief overview of each type:
- Physical abuse: This category includes any harm inflicted on your loved one by another resident, a staff member, a family member, or a visiting physician. Physical abuse may involve actions such as hitting, shoving, slapping, scratching, and the like.
- Emotional abuse: This type of abuse emerges from threats or degrading behavior towards the patient. When a staff member or another resident instills fear or discomfort in your loved one, it qualifies as emotional abuse.
- Financial abuse: Financial abuse occurs when someone your loved one trusts with their financial matters breaks that trust. This includes acts such as forging signatures on checks, accessing bank account information without consent, or stealing money.
Defining Nursing Home Neglect
Even if the nursing home does not engage in physical, emotional, or financial abuse, it doesn’t mean your loved one isn’t suffering. Nursing home neglect happens when the facility fails to fulfill its duty to provide reasonable care for your loved one.
Common forms of nursing home neglect include malnutrition, inadequate turning schedules for bedridden residents, and neglecting fall risks.
Malnutrition often indicates that your loved one is not receiving the necessary food, medication, and care to maintain a healthy weight and overall health.
If your loved one is bedridden, they require assistance to turn themselves. The nursing home staff must implement a turning schedule to prevent pressure ulcers from developing. Failure to do so can lead to severe bedsores affecting the skin and underlying tissue.
Additionally, your loved one may need support walking to the restroom or moving about the facility, which could qualify them for a fall risk designation. Residents often wear wristbands to indicate this status, and staff must take precautions to prevent significant falls.
Your foremost desire is for your loved one to avoid any form of suffering. However, should they endure pain due to a nursing home’s negligence, you are entitled to seek legal assistance. You can pursue compensation for both physical injuries and emotional distress, classified as economic and non-economic damages. An attorney can help you build a strong case to achieve justice.
