Cicero Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer

The incidence of neglect and abuse in nursing homes is rising in Cicero and throughout Illinois, mainly due to understaffing and hiring unqualified, poorly trained staff. Despite laws in place to protect elderly patients, nursing home administrators often put profits ahead of their residents' comfort, care, and safety.

The Cicero, Illinois, nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at Nursing Home Law Center, LLC have witnessed an increase in the number of civil cases involving nursing home abuse throughout the Chicago metropolitan area and Illinois.

If your loved one was mistreated, injured, or died unexpectedly while living in a Cicero, IL, nursing home, let our affiliate Illinois personal injury attorneys protect your family's rights.

Contact the Cicero nursing home abuse lawyers at Nursing Home Law Center at (800-926-7565) today to schedule a free case consultation to discuss filing a claim for compensation.

Nursing home abuse refers to any sort of harm or injury caused to anyone over the age of 60 or dependent on extra assistance for daily needs that is living in a care facility. People you thought you could trust with your loved one’s life can be abusive, including the nursing staff members, visitors, family members, friends, or other residents in that facility.

Elderly abuse towards any dependent individual in nursing facilities primarily occurs when caretakers or nurses deprive the residents of care services for a long time and administrators do nothing to stop it.

The mistreatment can be intentional or unintentional, resulting in mental trauma, medical emergencies, or even wrongful death.

Abuse in nursing homes is a national problem. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) survey, 2 in 3 staff members reported that they had abused or caused an injury to someone in their care.

Neglect is also a form of abuse in most cases can be caused due to understaffing, lack of training, or stressed staff. These factors leave nursing home staff members to release their frustration on the elderly and neglect their rights, including access to basic life necessities and healthcare services.

Some common warning signs and symptoms can identify nursing home abuse or neglect. They are divided into three common types:

• Physical Signs: These can vary from bed sores, bruises, broken bones, dehydration, poor hygiene, cuts, continuous pain, and weight loss.
• Behavioral Signs: Frequent displays of aggression, increased agitation, and social withdrawal
• Emotional Signs: Anxiety, depression, and fearfulness of staff

In nursing homes, the elderly people depend on the very people fulfilling their basic needs. In many abuse cases, the staff members are the abuser. However, abusers can live with their victims as residents or frequent visitors.

Have you observed any signs and symptoms that your loved one is being abused or neglected? Take the necessary steps to report the event to the facility administrator, police, and Adult Protective Services.

Get witness names and accounts, and be sure to get a knowledgeable attorney by contacting us now.

Many residents experience mistreatment in Chicago area nursing facilities, including physical, sexual, emotional abuse, negligence, or financial exploitation. Consistent mistreatment could lead to wrongful death, physical disability, economic crisis, emotional suffering, and mental disorders among the disabled and elderly.

Physical Abuse

Physical abuse is when your loved one bears intentional harm or injuries to the body. While nursing home administration and staff members are primary suspects since they have daily contact with their victims. But fist fighting or spitting between residents over disagreements is a common occurrence.

Many forms of physical abuse include:

• Slapping
• Pushing
• Kicking
• Punching
• Hitting, leading to injuries
• Restraining through physical or chemical force
• Administering unwanted or irrelevant drugs

Emotional Abuse

Mental distress or psychological harm to your loved one living in a Cicero nursing home can be confusing, scary, and have long-term effects such as PTSD or developing a phobia. Emotional abuse is difficult to detect since it occurs in the victim's mind, leaving them withdrawn, unsure of reality, and constantly terrified.

It involves:

• Yelling
• Threatening
• Name-calling or teasing
• Ridiculing
• Isolation from family, friends, or residents

Sexual Abuse

Almost anyone on the property can overpower their victim in a sexual abuse case. Residents can be sexually assaulted or raped by a caregiver, another resident, or even a visitor that barely knows their victim.

Sexual abuse includes:

• Non-consensual physical touching
• Fondling
• Talking about inappropriate and unwelcomed sexual acts
• Forced kissing
• Rape through intercourse or oral sex

Sexual abuse of a loved one could result in the transmission of sexual infections, bruising around the genitals, sore abdomen, or genitals, compromising the overall health and mental well-being of your loved one, which is irreversible.

Financial Abuse

Monetary manipulation or financial abuse refers to stealing the elderly’s money and property by building trust with their victims. In nursing homes, when the administration or staff uses any resident’s personal finances without permission on items that are not for the resident, being dishonest about how much will be spent or on what.

Sometimes, the perpetrator manipulates or forces the resident into signing the financial contracts or documents.

Financial abuse includes:

• Nonconsensual bank account withdrawals
• Uninformed changes in the nursing home residents' financial plans
• Stealing an individual resident’s belongings or cherished valuables

For the elderly, avoiding disputes is key to preserving harmony in their lives. Injured victims might fear speaking about what occurred or filing a report with authority figures like police officers or social workers.

Do you believe an acquaintance has verbally abused your loved one? Don't hesitate to file charges immediately because the state statute of limitations might expire on your loved one’s case.

Are you concerned about your elderly loved one's health, well-being, or safety? If so, contact Adult Protection Services immediately. Their experts will go through every detail of their complaint and take necessary action to ensure they get the assistance needed as soon as possible.

You should seek help from a Cicero nursing home abuse lawyer to help you navigate the legal system. Even if you think you have received satisfactory results from reporting to the relevant authorities. A lawyer protects an elderly victim from further pain and suffering in the following ways:

Explain the Legal Complexities

The laws surrounding nursing homes can be complicated and intimidating for laypeople. An expert Cicero attorney from our law offices with a comprehensive understanding of Illinois tort law can help.

Our knowledgeable team of affiliate lawyers will help with any questions you might have about:

• What type of law applies to the wrongdoing
• If there are reports of previous misconduct at the facility, and
• What steps are required to hold those responsible financially accountable

Financial Compensation

A Cicero nursing home abuse lawyer uses the law to deliver victims their total financial compensation for the neglect they faced. This compensation is primarily monetary, covering several economic and non-economic damages.

Economic damages involve things with financial value, like medical costs, while non-economic losses include non-monetary things, such as mental suffering.

By contacting our experienced nursing home attorney, you can pursue financial compensation for the suffering the victim experienced.

File a Civil Lawsuit

After thoroughly studying your case, our Chicago personal injury attorneys will file a lawsuit in federal or state court. Filing a claim will pressure the nursing home to correct its policies to prevent future cases.

Our lawyers know all Cicero, IL, nursing home abuse laws. So, contact us now to get a free consultation from our skilled attorneys and discuss your options.

The Chicago, IL, injury lawyers at Nursing Home Law Center, LLC have been helping elderly victims across the country for years. If you identify any signs of mental, physical, sexual, or financial abuse in your loved ones, gather evidence, report, and then contact our law firm as soon as possible.

With sufficient law knowledge, our Cicero nursing home abuse lawyers will begin working on your case immediately. Then, we will evaluate your legal options according to the current law.

Your consultation time with our legal team will initiate an attorney-client relationship to ensure all information you share remains private and confidential.

Our Chicago, IL attorneys work on a contingency basis. This agreement ensures our attorneys won’t charge you any fees we obtain financial compensation for the mistreatment. Contact us at (800) 926-7565 to get a free case review today to explore your legal options.

Resources:

• NCBI: Older People Abuse in Nursing Homes
• WHO-Information About Elder Abuse