Making the decision to put a loved one in a nursing home can be heart-wrenching. But many families reach a point where they can no longer give their loved ones the attention and care that they need on a daily basis. That’s when some families choose to entrust a mother and/or father with a care facility with the hopes that the home will treat them with the same dignity and care that they would. Sadly, nursing home neglect and abuse are all-too-common occurrences in this country, and these care facilities end up becoming a place of horror for our family members.
In fact, just recently, a daughter came to visit her mother in a nursing home and was greeted by the sounds of her mother screaming in pain. She had taken a fall a couple of days before, breaking her hip. The nursing home did nothing to evaluate or help the woman, letting her suffer for two days. This wasn’t the first time either. The last year, the facility had let her develop a pressure sore after being left stationary for so long after a different fall. Again, the staff did nothing.
Some who worked there said that the nursing home was using hand sanitizer instead of alcohol pads to clean skin for injections and were not keeping written records of the care the patients received.
Unfortunately, cases like these aren’t as rare as they should be. Thanks to the civil courts, though, victims of nursing home abuse have recourse. By contacting an attorney, they may be able to seek compensation from negligent companies in the form of medical expenses, funeral costs and pain and suffering.
Source: bostonglobe.com, “Nursing home firm hit with new complaints,” Kay Lazar, July 4, 2015
