Nursing home negligence

[jilly_b]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

jilly_b, please provide us with the name of your state and a description of what you believe is nursing home negligence.

You can add these details by using the "edit post" feature found in your original post or you can add these details by using the "reply to thread."

Thanks.

 

[jilly_b]

Washington State

What I believe to be negligent is my father suffering from a bad fall out of bed at the nursing home the first week there and having to go to the hospital due to his head bleeding so bad from the fall.

I believe my dad dropping nearly 100lbs and having to grab the arm chair arm next to his bed in attempts to move himself due to the pain from stage 4 sacral wounds he incurred while in this facility and the countless so called caregivers who knew how severe his wounds were and allowing him to continue to lay in this bed daily... trying to move himself and watching these sores turn into deep wounds where you could see his bones and allowing him to lay their suffering due to their negligence.

His wife was in full control of all medical decisions and refused to take him out of this place when we all asked her to get him proper medical care due his rapid weight loss. She refused to get him proper medical attention and kept him in there due to it was convenient and close to her home. Telling everyone how wonderful the place was and knowing he had developed these bed sores that became literally holes in his body where you could see his bones.

Both the nursing home and my step mom are responsible for the death of my father. The nursing home caused the stage 4 wounds and severe malnutrition, But his wife knew about them and left him in there to rot away knowing full well he was dying, in agony, and great pain.

 

[quincy]

First I want to say how sorry I am to hear about your father's death.

What I believe to be negligent is my father suffering from a bad fall out of bed at the nursing home the first week there and having to go to the hospital due to his head bleeding so bad from the fall.

Falls from hospital beds are not necessarily the sign of negligence on the part of the caretakers. However, if precautions were not taken after the first fall to prevent a second fall (e.g., bars on the side of the bed, an alarm to signal the patient is getting up), then that could be a sign of negligence.

I believe my dad dropping nearly 100lbs and having to grab the arm chair arm next to his bed in attempts to move himself due to the pain from stage 4 sacral wounds he incurred while in this facility and the countless so called caregivers who knew how severe his wounds were and allowing him to continue to lay in this bed daily... trying to move himself and watching these sores turn into deep wounds where you could see his bones and allowing him to lay their suffering due to their negligence.

Although bed sores are often an inescapable result of being confined to a bed for long periods of time, proper treatment of these sores should prevent them from becoming deep wounds of the sort you describe. This could be a sign of negligence on the part of the caretakers. But the facts of your father's medical condition that confined him to bed in the first place would need to be known, both to better understand the bed sores and to better understand the dramatic drop in your father's weight.

His wife was in full control of all medical decisions and refused to take him out of this place when we all asked her to get him proper medical care due his rapid weight loss. She refused to get him proper medical attention and kept him in there due to it was convenient and close to her home. Telling everyone how wonderful the place was and knowing he had developed these bed sores that became literally holes in his body where you could see his bones.

If your father's wife supervised the caregivers and found nothing wrong with your father's treatment, there was little you could do other than report the suspected abuse and neglect to the Washington Department of Social and Health Services. Did you make a report, citing your concerns over your father's treatment at the facility? There would have been an investigation into the suspected abuse or neglect of your father while he was at the facility and perhaps action would have been taken. Another option could have been to seek a power of attorney for health care, which is harder to do when there is a living spouse.

Both the nursing home and my step mom are responsible for the death of my father. The nursing home caused the stage 4 wounds and severe malnutrition, But his wife knew about them and left him in there to rot away knowing full well he was dying, in agony, and great pain.

Whether there is any legal action to pursue now (wrongful death?) depends on several factors best reviewed personally by an attorney in your area. Factors will include your father's health/medical concerns prior to being in the nursing facility (i.e., what caused him to be in the nursing facility) and how mentally competent your father was deemed to be while at the care facility, and whether or not your father requested that no extreme measures be taken to prolong his life.

Again, I am sorry about your loss.