Nursing home abuse and neglect in and around Lawrenceville often come in a variety of forms. Nursing home abuse can involve a staff member physically, sexually, or verbally abusing an innocent patient. Physical abuse of a nursing home patient includes slapping or striking the resident or inappropriately touching the resident.
Sexual abuse of a resident can consist of making unwanted sexual advances on them, as well as penetrating, touching, or fondling the resident. Finally, verbally abusing a nursing home resident can involve threatening a patient with harm or directing demanding or insulting remarks to the resident.
In addition to abusing a nursing home resident, staff members and other nursing home employees can neglect a patient and fail to provide them with the necessary care and attention that is needed. For example, nursing home staff will fail in attending the patient’s medical and physical needs, including meals. Failing to provide the proper care to a patient also includes failing to bathe them regularly, resulting in pressure sores and unpleasant odors surrounding the patient.
Nursing homes also engage in negligence when they fail to maintain cleanliness in their facilities. They can fail to regularly clean patient rooms or adequately maintain patient bathrooms and common areas, including hallways where residents walk. When these nursing home areas are not maintained regularly, it significantly increases the chances of a resident falling.
Nursing homes are also negligent when they do not take the proper measures to monitor patients and respond to their needs promptly. Nursing homes are responsible for treating patients’ symptoms and responding to complaints, including chest pains and other common symptoms of heart attack and stroke. Nursing home staff should also be sure to take patients’ vitals, including their blood pressures, regularly, especially if the individual is a high-risk patient.
In addition to providing patients with around-the-clock care, nursing homes are responsible for ensuring that patients receive the correct medications, in the proper dosages, at the correct times of day. When nursing homes make serious medical errors, and a patient is injured or becomes ill as a result (or suffers some other avoidable medical complication), the nursing home can be liable for negligence.
Finally, nursing homes are responsible for adequately supervising their patients. When nursing homes fail in this regard, residents are more prone to falling injuries that can lead to serious complications, including broken hips, traumatic head and brain injuries, along with injuries to the back and spinal cord.
Nursing homes must take special care to ensure that residents with dementia and others with serious cognitive impairments receive the proper care and assistance that they require while residing in a nursing home.
If you suspect that your loved one is the victim of abuse or neglect while residing in a nursing facility, and your loved one suffered an injury or illness as a result of this negligence, you should speak with the knowledgeable Lawrenceville nursing home negligence attorneys at Brauns Law Accident Injury Lawyers, PC today. Our legal team can help you pursue a legal complaint or file a lawsuit against the offending nursing home for negligence.
