You want the best for your elderly loved ones, and you need to ensure they are safe and cared for in a quality nursing home. Delaware nursing homes undergo regular inspections to ensure the premises are clean, residents are well-tended to, and staff provide the utmost care. Although many provide this quality care, sometimes staff are stretched too thin, an administrator cuts costs, or lax rules overshadow some operations to the point of patient neglect and abuse.
If you suspect your loved one is being neglected or harmed in an elder facility, contact a Newark nursing home abuse lawyer immediately to remedy the situation. A skilled personal injury attorney can help you through this confusing and upsetting time to figure out what steps to take to protect your loved one.
What Is Nursing Home Abuse?
Nursing home abuse occurs when nursing home staff or administration fail to provide a safe, nurturing environment for residents. This often occurs intentionally through physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, or from neglect due to understaffing and poorly trained employees. When a patient is harmed, the facility and the caregiver can be held responsible for all injuries. A skilled care facility abuse attorney from Doroshow, Pasquale, Krawitz, & Bhaya in Newark can negotiate with the facility’s insurers for an adequate settlement or litigate to receive compensation for negligent acts.
Pursuing Compensation Through Signs of Abuse
Our lawyers are passionate about winning compensation for our most vulnerable Newark neighbors by building strong cases for nursing home abuse. We fight for compensation to cover medical care related to the abuse and the cost of moving the patient to a new facility, as well as money for the pain and emotional trauma they experienced, any disfigurement from deep bedsores that fail to heal properly, and the loss of enjoyment of life.
Some examples of abuse and neglect we can pursue evidence to prove include:
- Making medication errors
- Sexually exploiting a patient
- Physically slapping, punching, or hitting a patient
- Leaving a patient for hours after they fall on the floor
- Threatening a patient to make them comply with commands
- Stealing jewelry or money, or using a patient’s credit cards or checkbook
- Failing to ensure a patient eats and drinks adequately, resulting in dehydration and malnutrition
- Failing to turn a bedridden patient or change an incontinent patient, who then develops deep bedsores, rashes, or infections
While some nursing home abuse reaches the level of criminal charges, any abuse can lead to civil charges for negligence. Abuse can be proven by showing that the facility and caregivers with a duty to provide reasonable and adequate care breached that duty by providing substandard care, and that their breach was a direct cause of harm to the patient.
Wrongful Death Claims
If a nursing home patient dies from abuse, family members can be compensated for their loss. A personal representative can bring a wrongful death lawsuit against the facility, administrators, supervisors, attending medical professionals, and caregivers. Damages may be awarded for the decedent’s end-of-life expenses alongside any money the decedent would have recovered in a personal injury lawsuit. For advice about your options, contact a Newark attorney with experience in nursing home abuse cases.
Call a Newark Nursing Home Abuse Attorney for Help Today
Although most Delaware nursing homes offer quality care to frail and elderly patients, and government oversight adds a layer of protection, abuse and neglect still happen too often to those in their care. You must be vigilant to ensure your loved one is thriving.
If they complain of poor treatment or exhibit troubling signs such as weight loss, bedsores, lethargy, or withdrawal, call us urgently. The legal team at Doroshow, Pasquale, Krawitz, & Bhaya proudly represents families like yours who have elderly loved ones in need of an advocate. Reach out to a Newark nursing home abuse lawyer today to right a wrong and protect your family.