Articles Tagged with San Diego nursing home neglect attorney

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Nursing home abuse and neglect in Riverside County can take many different forms, and it can be difficult for family members visiting elderly loved ones to recognize signs and symptoms of some types of abuse. In particular, passive neglect injuries—in which the nursing home negligence led to the harm—may be attributed to circumstances that do not immediately stand out as neglect. As such, it is important to know when a facility may be responsible for a senior’s injuries.

For example, if an elderly resident in a nursing home suffers a bone fracture and must receive medical attention at a hospital, the nursing home might inform the family that the elderly resident slipped and fell on her way to the bathroom. Yet the fall may have been prevented if adequate staff were employed by the facility to assist that resident to the bathroom. Or, for example, a family member might learn that bed sores resulted from the resident being temporarily confined to bed because of an unrelated illness. Yet those bed sores may have been prevented if a staff member had been providing regular care to the resident confined to his or her bed. In such circumstances, the nursing home may be liable for negligence. The following are some of the most common injuries that result from passive neglect at nursing homes.

Bed Sores

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Any older adult who resides in a nursing home in Orange County should be able to expect a certain level of care and should never have to worry about suffering serious harm as a result of neglect. Yet, as seniors and their family members learn much too often, as a result of intentional abuse and passive neglect resulting from understaffing at nursing facilities, elderly residents sustain serious and life-threatening injuries much more frequently than they should. One common harm resulting from nursing home neglect is dehydration, which can lead to serious complications. It is important to be able to recognize the signs and symptoms of dehydration in a nursing home and to know what you can do in the event an elderly loved one suffers harm as a result of dehydration. 

What is Dehydration?

While the term dehydration might often be used more colloquially to refer to thirst, it is a condition that can be particularly dangerous for older adults who do not have sufficient fluids. According to the Mayo Clinic, a person can suffer from dehydration “when you use or lose more fluid than you take in, and your body doesn’t have enough water and other fluids to carry out its normal functions.”

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In Riverside County and throughout Southern California, nursing home residents died as a result of COVID-19 infections. For many of these residents and patients, infections and resulting deaths could have been avoided if facilities were properly staffed and if those facilities had engaged in effective and appropriate infection-control measures. However, as a recent Human Rights Watch report emphasizes, the pandemic has exposed not only the serious negligence of facilities related to controlling COVID-19 infections, but underlying problems at facilities that resulted in worse situations during the pandemic. 

Myopic Focus and Lack of Visitors Led to Increased Nursing Home Neglect Injuries

One of the primary points in the report is this: During the pandemic, many nursing homes across the US had a myopic focus on preventing COVID-19 infections and improving infection-control measures, which resulted in a lack of attention elsewhere. That myopic focus, coupled with the ongoing problem of understaffing, meant that many other injuries unrelated to the coronavirus but resulting from nursing home neglect when unnoticed and untreated.

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When the costs of nursing home care are too high to provide families with seemingly decent options, do the risks of nursing home abuse and neglect become more prominent? According to a recent article from The Associated Press, elderly Americans are realizing that, if they require care in a nursing home, they’ll quickly outlive the amount of money they’ve managed to save. Indeed, “for the two-thirds of Americans over 65 who are expected to need some long-term care, the costs are increasingly beyond reach.” But will lower-cost options result in a lower quality of care?5846273434_ffcbff26a6

Unreachable Costs of Care

How much does it cost to receive long-term care? According to the article, “the median bill for a private room in a U.S. nursing home now runs $91,000 a year,” and “one year of visits from home-health aides runs $45,760.” Those numbers are even higher in California.

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When nursing home neglect happens, elderly patients can sustain serious and life-threatening injuries.  But a recent article in the New York Times suggests that care facilities may need to pay particular attention to residents who take high blood pressure medication.  What’s going on with blood pressure medication?  In short, patients who take these drugs might be much more likely to suffer injuries in a dangerous fall.  And, according to the article, “more than 70 percent of those over age 70 contend with high blood pressure.”

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Has your elderly loved one sustained injuries in a fall?  Nursing homes and assisted living facilities have a duty to keep residents safe, and many advocates in California currently are working to make RCFEs safer places for residents.  Don’t hesitate to discuss your case with an experienced San Diego nursing home abuse lawyer.  At the Walton Law Firm, we are dedicated to helping victims of elder abuse, and we can answer your questions today.

New Study: Link Between High Blood Pressure and Serious Fall Injuries

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Senate Bill Could Impose Tougher Penalties

With the serious elder abuse problems in residential care facilities for the elderly (RCFEs) that have been coming to light in recent months, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to California residents that a new senate bill aims to “give California regulators the power to impose tougher penalties,” according to an article in Westport News.

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What is this legislation?  The bill, SB1153, would provide the California Department of Social Services (DSS) greater authority over care facilities that break the law.  According to another article in the San FranciscoChronicle, the bill would allow the California DSS to “ban new admissions to residential care facilities for the elderly that fail to correct serious health and safety violations.”  And when RCFEs fail to pay their fines, the SB1153 would allow regulators with DSS to “block admissions to facilities.”

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