Lake Charles Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers

Choosing to move an elderly family member into a nursing home or assisted living facility is a decision laden with emotion and concern. Annually, numerous families make this choice, aiming to provide their elderly loved ones with the necessary and comprehensive care they deserve. However, the harsh reality is that neglect and abuse in nursing homes are growing concerns in the United States. If you suspect that a loved one is facing mistreatment in such an environment, the Lake Charles Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers at Daly & Black, P.C. stand ready to provide you with support and expert legal guidance.

Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect

Aging should be a dignified journey, but sadly, many seniors face their twilight years in conditions of neglect, danger, or humiliation. In the United States, approximately 40 percent of those over 65 years old reside in nursing homes or long-term care facilities, where abuse is an alarming reality.

According to the National Center for Adult Abuse, an estimated two million elderly Americans suffer from abuse in these settings annually. What’s more concerning is that for every reported case of nursing home abuse, up to five may remain unreported. Research indicates that seniors who experience abuse have a shorter lifespan than those receiving adequate care, regardless of their health conditions. As Lake Charles Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers, we at Daly & Black, P.C. are committed to confronting this serious issue and providing legal assistance to the victims and their families.

If your elderly loved one has been abused or neglected, you may notice symptoms, such as:

Malnourishment or dehydration
Unsanitary living conditions
Soiled bed sheets or clothing
Medications not being administered or administered improperly

Some of the most common forms of nursing home abuse and neglect are listed below.

Slip and Fall Accidents

Slip and fall incidents are hazardous for people of all ages, but they are particularly perilous for the elderly, often resulting in severe and life-altering consequences. If you suspect that a loved one has experienced such an accident due to the negligence of nursing home staff, our Lake Charles Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers are here to manage the legal intricacies for you. This enables you to focus on securing the urgent and proper medical attention your elderly family member requires. You can rely on our team to meticulously handle your legal matters, offering the necessary support and guidance during this difficult period.

When analyzing a nursing home slip and fall case, our lawyers will investigate every circumstance surrounding the incident, including:

Staff response to the accident and injury
Environmental factors, such as adequate lighting, railing and floor safety
Lack of supervision
Your loved one’s specific needs

Broken and Fractured Bones

Choosing a nursing home or assisted living facility for your loved one is a decision often made when their health is fragile. Residents in these facilities face a heightened risk of sustaining serious injuries like broken and fractured bones. The Lake Charles Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers understand these risks for suffering from broken and fractured bones, particularly to the:

Skull
Elbows
Arms
Legs
Hips

While many injuries in nursing homes, such as slips and falls, are often due to inadequate supervision, it’s distressing that some result from physical abuse by indifferent or aggressive staff. The Lake Charles Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers team, skilled in both personal injury and nursing home abuse law, is thoroughly prepared to investigate and determine if your loved ones have suffered mistreatment.

Bedsores and Pressure Sores

Bedsores are a prevalent and serious issue in nursing homes, often resulting from continuous pressure due to remaining in one position for too long. This prolonged pressure impedes blood flow, harming the skin and underlying tissues. Elderly individuals, especially those with limited mobility, are at a heightened risk. Without proper treatment, bedsores can escalate to critical, even life-threatening, infections.

The key to bedsore prevention and management lies in adequate staff training. However, challenges like understaffing or excessive caregiver workload can lead to substandard care. If your loved one is experiencing such neglect, the Lake Charles nursing home abuse lawyers at Daly & Black, P.C. are prepared to assist.

Alarmingly, the National Center for Adult Abuse reports that each year, around two million seniors in the United States suffer from abuse in their care settings. It’s even more distressing that for every reported instance of nursing home abuse, up to five cases may remain hidden. Research shows that abused seniors often have shorter lifespans than those who receive proper care, irrespective of pre-existing health issues. If you suspect your loved one is facing such abuse, our dedicated team is committed to uncovering the truth, ensuring their safety and respect.

Bedrail Entrapment

Bedrail entrapment is a significant safety issue for elderly patients. Intended as a safeguard to prevent falls or rolling out of bed, bedrails can sometimes transform a bed, meant to be a place of rest, into a hazardous trap. Elderly individuals, in particular, can become entrapped:

Between the end of the rail and the headboard
Between the end of the mattress and the headboard
Between split bedrails
With the limbs or head in or under the rail
Between the rail and the mattress

Malnutrition

Ensuring proper nutrition is crucial for maintaining health, and this is particularly true for elderly residents in nursing homes. In such facilities, staff are responsible for the dietary needs of patients, and inadequate attention to nutrition can put your loved one’s health at risk. The threat of malnutrition for your elderly family member could arise from:

Dietary restrictions because of allergies or religion
Inability to feed themselves because of depression, confusion or dementia
Difficult chewing because of missing teeth or ill-fitting dentures

Dehydration

Hydration is a fundamental human need, and a patient can become dehydrated very quickly without adequate monitoring by nursing home staff. Due to a lack of training or sufficient staffing, dehydration is unfortunately common, and can cause serious health risks to your elderly family member’s already frail condition, such as:

Kidney failure
Bedsores
Migraines
Risk of urinary tract infections
Poor digestion

Wandering and Elopement

Nursing home staff and administrators must keep a watchful eye over those in their care. If your loved one suffers an injury while wandering around the facilities, or is hurt after leaving the facility premises unsupervised (called elopement), the nursing home may be held liable. Our nursing home abuse attorneys will investigate the case to find out if:

Your elderly family member was placed on a special floor that required codes to enter or exit the facility
Receptionists were trained and alert
An operational camera was placed over the exit doors
The staff is properly trained
The facility provided adequate staff for proper supervision

Emotional Abuse in Nursing Homes

Emotional health is linked directly to longevity. When your loved one is faced with emotional abuse, it impacts not only his or her quality of life, but also the duration of life itself. Emotional abuse of the elderly may include:

Mocking the patient
Terrorizing the patient
Ignoring the patient
Isolating the patient from other residents or activities
Humiliation
Intimidation through yelling and threats

Nursing home abuse can take many forms. Unfortunately, unlike physical abuse, nursing home emotional abuse can be extremely difficult to identify. Sudden behavior changes are a leading indicator of nursing home emotional abuse. These behavioral changes include:

Anxiety
Depression
Uncharacteristic aggression or agitation
Withdrawal from the nursing home community
Displaying visible discomfort around the nursing home staff
New habits such as rocking, nail biting and similar nervous reactions

Sexual Abuse in Nursing Homes

The unfortunate reality is that sexual abuse is a common form of mistreatment in nursing homes, a fact that our Lake Charles Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers at Daly & Black, P.C., confront with determination. Elderly residents, often frail and vulnerable, are tragically targeted by sexual predators. Those at heightened risk include seniors who are unable to speak or communicate effectively due to conditions like strokes or physical impairments.

Sexual abuse in nursing homes can include a variety of non-consensual acts, from sexual harassment and creating explicit materials to coercion, inappropriate touching, and rape. Many residents are unable to give consent because of mental incapacitation, adding another layer of complexity to these egregious violations.

At Daly & Black, P.C., our Lake Charles Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers are committed to fighting against such appalling abuses, advocating for the rights and dignity of the elderly.

A nursing home resident can be sexually abused in a variety of situations, including:

Sexual abuse by a nursing home staff member
Sexual abuse by another resident
Sexual abuse by a stranger
Sexual abuse by a family member

The following signs may indicate that your loved one has been te victim of sexual abuse. Our nursing home abuse lawyers can help:

Fear or anxiety when a particular staff member approaches to help the resident bathe, dress or use the toilet
Rope burns on wrists or ankles
Stained or bloody sheets
Torn, stained or bloodied undergarments
Unexplained genital irritation or injury
Unexplained sexually transmitted disease
Bruising on the inner thighs, genital areas or breasts
Unexplained difficulty with walking or sitting

Financial Exploitation

The most common form of non-physical abuse of the elderly is financial exploitation. When faced with a trusting, mentally incapacitated nursing home patient, an unscrupulous caregiver may:

Steal the patient’s identity
Authorize withdrawals or transfers of money
Forge signatures
Steal money, checks or belongings
Misuse the elderly patient’s credit cards, checks or accounts

Beside outright thievery and misuse of funds, some people often try to swindle nursing home residents out of their money with common scams promoting fake charities, shady investment opportunities or phony “prizes”.

Nursing Home Abuse and Wrongful Death

Heartbreakingly, certain cases of nursing home abuse are so extreme and enduring that they result in the premature death of a resident, a devastating reality for any family to endure.

Nursing homes carry the critical responsibility to maintain safe environments, hire reliable staff, and deliver proper care. Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of your loved one is their utmost obligation. As Lake Charles Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers, Daly & Black, P.C. is committed to holding these facilities accountable for any failure in their fundamental duty. We provide empathetic legal assistance to families navigating these profoundly difficult situations.

Common causes of death caused by nursing home abuse include:

Unwillingness to summon outside medical support
Misdiagnosis or poor treatment by on-site medical staff
Medication errors
Neglect leading to malnourishment or untreated diseases
Explicit physical abuse, including beatings

Damages in a Nursing Home Abuse Case

If your elderly loved one has been injured because of nursing home abuse or neglect, our experienced nursing home abuse lawyers will aggressively fight for the justice and compensation you deserve, which may include:

Economic damages, including compensation for past, present and future medical costs and other out-of-pocket expenses
Non-economic damages, including the loss of quality of life, as well as emotional pain and suffering
Physical impairment or disfigurement, including compensation for physical disabilities or scars
End of life expenses, including funeral costs and loss of companionship.
Punitive damages: Issued as punishment for outrageous conduct.