Seniors and other individuals with preexisting health conditions often need physical assistance to complete daily activities and may require routine medical attention throughout the day. Families are not always able to provide their loved ones with the attention and physical and medical assistance that they require, so many of them rely on nursing homes to care for their elder or disabled family members.
Families trust nursing homes to care for their loved ones with consideration, dignity, and respect. Nursing homes should evaluate the physical and mental abilities of new residents and form care plans based on these evaluations. Facilities should employ trained staff to regularly check on patients and ensure they have everything they need according to their care plan. When necessary, staff are expected to change residents, move them, encourage them to eat or drink (or assist them), responsibly administer their medications, and assist them with other regular daily activities. They should also be attentive to changes in the physical and mental conditions of residents and either provide medical services or seek external medical care, depending on the situation.
The reality is that many nursing homes attempt to maximize profits by keeping staff numbers low and resident numbers high. They also tend to hire significantly fewer qualified nurses. In these nursing homes, it is the residents who suffer. Limited and overworked staff divide their attention among all the nursing home’s residents, sometimes leading to resident neglect and elder abuse. Negligence can lead to injury and, in the very worst cases, wrongful death.
Many large corporations and private investment groups that own nursing homes have effectively pressured federal and local governments to change laws and regulations to be more friendly to nursing homes. This makes it easier for nursing home facilities to get away with neglectful and even abusive practices without fearing legal consequences. Additionally, most states allow nursing homes to ask residents or their legally authorized representatives to sign arbitration agreements that waive the right to pursue damages through a jury trial and verdict.
It can be very difficult to pursue lawsuits against nursing homes, and many lawyers are unwilling to take these cases at all – much less to trial.
This will not be your experience with Pleasant Law, PLLC. Pleasant Law, PLLC takes nursing home lawsuits to jury trial and verdict when necessary to get justice for victims of nursing home abuse. We take on a limited number of cases at a time, so each case gets focused attention and each client gets personalized service. Pleasant Law, PLLC accepts clients from North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Nursing home neglect includes but is not limited to a failure to perform the following actions:
Nursing homes have a legal obligation to provide adequate care and treatment to residents. Residents also have the legal right to be free from physical abuse. Proper and attentive care is what patients, their families, and the nursing home agreed to when the patient entered the nursing home facility.
Severe bedsores generally indicate a failure on the part of the nursing home to fulfill the duties owed to the patient. Typically, the root cause of this negligence is a lack of staffing. However, this is no excuse. No person should be left to live with bedsores. They can be extremely painful and can cause a serious infection, which can lead to death. In severe cases, these ulcers may take many months to heal through a rigorous treatment regimen. Cases involving Stage 3, Stage 4, Unstageable or Deep Tissue Injury pressure injuries are almost always worth a full investigation of the medical records.
Pleasant Law, PLLC has the expertise to evaluate the details of your case and determine whether a lawsuit should be brought.
Call (919) 867-5575 to speak with someone about your situation. A North Carolina nursing home abuse & neglect lawyer will evaluate the details of your case and determine how Pleasant Law, PLLC can help you pursue justice.
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