Who is Responsible for Injuries in a Nursing Home in AL?
Injuries in nursing homes are unfortunately a common occurrence throughout Alabama. In many situations, the nursing home is responsible for injuries that happen to nursing home residents. Nursing homes and long-term care facilities have a duty to provide an environment that is safe. If disregard for patient safety on the part of the nursing home staff or management causes injuries, the nursing home could be held financially responsible.
Nursing homes have a legal responsibility to deliver dignified and respectful care to the residents placed in the facility’s care and to provide a safe, clean and comfortable setting. Care includes medical care, shelter, food, and hygiene. The nursing home also assists the residents with therapy and activities.
There are a number of ways a nursing home may harm a resident through acts of negligence. They include:
- Lack of proper staff training
- Negligent hiring of staff members
- Failing to provide proper security
- Failing to provide daily necessities to residents
- Failing to properly monitor staff
- Neglecting a resident’s medical needs
- Failing to protect residents from safety hazards
- Using unreasonable restraints
- Staff members abusing residents
If you believe that your loved one has been neglected, abused, or suffered an injury due to a nursing home’s disregard for patient safety in Alabama, contact Gartlan Injury Law. A top rated Alabama nursing home abuse lawyer will help you evaluate the situation and fight to hold the nursing home accountable and protect your loved one. Call now for a free and confidential consultation.
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What Behavior Can Lead to A Civil Lawsuit?
If you or your loved one has suffered due to neglect or negligence in a nursing home, a lawsuit may provide compensation. Types of behavior that can lead to a lawsuit include:
Medical Neglect
Medical neglect is when nursing home staff fail to meet a resident’s health care needs. This may include:
- Failing to administer prescription drugs
- Improper medical care for existing health problems, such as dementia
- Not reporting signs of illness or infection to the medical staff
- Not regularly repositioning residents confined to beds or wheelchairs, putting them at risk of bedsores
- Failing to treat bedsores
Physical Abuse
Physical abuse is the use of violence or force that results in bodily harm or injury to the victim. Physical abuse against nursing home residents may include battery or assault. This is often evident when the nursing home resident has unexplained wounds, cuts, scratches, burn marks, bite marks, sores, or bruises.
If your loved one has untreated wounds that the nursing home director cannot explain, you should seek guidance from an experienced nursing home abuse attorney. Other signs of physical abuse include sudden changes in behavior and sudden weight loss.
Emotional Abuse
Emotional abuse, or mental abuse, can include threats, name-calling, hateful remarks, isolation from friends and family, humiliating, shaming, and ignoring a resident’s concerns. It can also include emotional manipulation. Without the scars and bruising indicative of possible physical abuse, emotional abuse is more difficult to identify. This is especially true when the nursing home resident has dementia which can prevent him or her from reporting the issue.
Negligent Hiring
Nursing homes have a duty to hire people who are qualified for the position and have no record of violence or abuse. If a nursing home hires its staff without conducting background checks, the nursing home residents are put at risk. The nursing home may be held liable in cases of neglect or abuse.
Unsanitary or Hazardous Conditions
Many nursing home residents need help with showering and maintaining their personal hygiene. The resident may need to have soiled bed linens changed or a change of clothing so they don’t remain in wet or soil clothes. This is one of the duties of the nursing home staff. When staffers fail to keep the residents clean, the unsanitary conditions can cause harm to patients.
Lack of Supervision
Lack of supervision creates the possibility for falls, which are among the most common causes of injury in nursing homes.
Can Third Parties Be Responsible?
The nursing home is not always legally responsible if a resident is injured or abused. For instance, if a resident is injured and suffers a broken arm, the assumption may be that a nursing home staff member acted negligently and failed to prevent the injury. In reality, there can be other causes, such as a defective medical device, or negligence on the part of others.
- An outside contractor might have improperly maintained the equipment or failed to warn of wet floors after cleaning a facility
- The pharmacy might have dispensed the wrong medication or the wrong dosage.
- A wheelchair might have a defect or been manufactured improperly
If a nursing home resident suffered food poisoning, the food vendor could be legally liable, or perhaps the contractor responsible for cleaning and sanitizing the kitchen.
Other situations where responsibility falls on third parties may include physical therapy machinery that breaks or malfunctions. If trespassers in a nursing home injure residents, an outside security contractor may be held liable for providing negligent security services.
What Actions Can Be Taken in an Alabama Nursing Home Abuse Case?
Discovering that your loved one has been neglected or abused by the nursing home that you entrusted to provide quality care can be devastating. Fortunately, you may be entitled to seek justice and compensation through legal action. You need an experienced Alabama nursing home abuse attorney to investigate the situation and take appropriate action.
The Alabama nursing home injury lawyer at Gartlan Injury Law will review your case and assess your loved one’s injuries. We will pursue compensation for your loved one that may include compensation for:
- Medical expenses
- Pain and Suffering
- Loss of Enjoyment of Life
- Punitive Damages
Gartlan Injury Law will fight to protect your loved ones and secure their financial future, so they are able to get the care they need.
Contact an Alabama Nursing Home Injury Lawyer
At Gartlan Injury Law, we believe that families in Alabama who have a loved one who has suffered nursing home abuse or neglect need experienced legal representation on their side. If you suspect your loved one has been the victim of nursing home abuse or neglect in Alabama, we’re ready to help.
Our goal is to not only recover full and fair compensation for the victim and their families but also to bring awareness to a nursing home’s wrongdoing. Call now for a free initial consultation.
Visit Our Alabama Nursing Home Abuse Injury Law Offices
Aaron Gartlan is a graduate of Troy University and the Thomas Goode Jones School of Law who focuses his practice exclusively on representing those injured by the wrongdoing of others. He is member of the National Trial Lawyers Association’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers, Million Dollar Advocates Forum and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. In addition to his legal practice, Aaron teaches Business Law as an adjunct instructor at Troy University’s Sorrell College of Business and serves as a field artillery sergeant in the Alabama National Guard.
