A New Low In Nursing Home Care: A Bedsore On The Head

A Bedsore On The HeadThis week my office was contacted by the family of a man who had a stage IV bedsore on his head.  The man was a resident at a well-known Chicago nursing home for several years.  Bedsores are caused by unrelieved pressure or friction on a patients body.  If left untreated, the bedsores can develop from a minor skin irritation to a major would quickly.  Due to their ‘open’ nature, bedsores can easily become infected.  Bedsores are graded according to their severity, I, II, III and IV, with a stage IV being the most severe.

What makes this situation uniquely horrific is that bedsores generally develop in areas of the body where pressure relief is not always possible– the buttocks, back or heels.  Because most nursing home residents lay in bed with pillows and and propped up for meals and washings, development of a bedsore on the head is a particularly frightening finding.

The development of a bedsore on the head essentially screams out the fact that this nursing home could care less about this person.  Even though this resident was bed-bound and fed through a feeding tube, the development of a pressure sore on his head should have been noticed if at no other time than when the staff changed the sheets?  This facility should be ashamed of itself and every person who works there.  I will keep you posted as to developments in this incident involving a new low in nursing home care.

For more information on nursing homes in Chicago look here. For laws related to Illinois nursing homes, look here.

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0 responses to “A New Low In Nursing Home Care: A Bedsore On The Head”

  1. Larraine says:

    Though I do believe most nursing homes should be avoided at all cost, I have to say that because the patient developed a bed sore in the head does not mean the caregivers do not care.
    I came by this blog because I just found a bed sore on my mothers head. I love her dearly and many nurses and doctors hate to see me coming because they know when my mother is hospitalized I have check her from head to toe daily. Her last hospital stay started with her being in ICU for about 3 days, then in her room for another 3. I was on an emotional roller coaster as they told me to call all her loved ones because she had at most 2 days to live. Well my brothers and I asked them to treat her as aggressively as possible. We told them that we knew that God expected us to do the possible and he would do the impossible. Next day the doctor came in…. Its amazing she has completely turned around. Back to the bed sore before her admission to the hospital I noticed the dark spots as I washed her hair, but thought it could have been from a recent test. Today as she has been home for 4 days, I washed her hair (she is african american so we don’t wash the hair daily) and there was this spot the size of a dime. Thankfully her mobile doctor was due for a visit. When he arrived he shared that it was a pressure wound. There is really no one to blame, my mothers hair is long and think. The drainage and the

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