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Abuse runs rampant in nursing homes, Florida and elsewhere. It is so heartbreaking in the context of long-term care facilities though because residents seek out these institutions for protection.
Often, they are ill, old, or disabled. Therefore, they specifically chose these homes for their supervisory and restorative capabilities. Unfortunately, too often they are dealt a bad hand.
The attorneys at Nursing Home Law News represents nursing home victims of abuse throughout Florida. We see all different forms of it: physical, mental, emotional, and others.
Here are some summaries of Florida nursing home lawsuits that specifically highlight abuse. They should help you understand this topic in greater detail.
Florida nursing home abuse case.
The plaintiff in this Florida suit sought relief in court after he had experienced a string of abuse at a care facility. However, instead of intentional misconduct, his injuries arose more from mismanagement.
Generally, he complained of nursing home malpractice rather than assault, battery, or some other related harm. Going into the care facility, he had sizeable problems with his health. He was an elderly man with heart trouble and mental disabilities among other issues. He and his family made sure to put these front and center when they inquired about the possibility of living at this home and again upon admission.
However, despite their best efforts to warn the nursing home staff, their cautions were not taken under advisement at least to the degree that would have prevented injuries. After nearly six months of living in this institution, his condition had seriously escalated to a critical status.
He was experiencing malnutrition, mental episodes, and pain from a fall. The effect of all of this was substantial. He needed the attention of physicians and specialists in order to take care of these problems.
Then, after he was out of their attention, he chose to transfer to a different nursing home. Then, he sued the original care facility for negligence.
His complaint listed all of the errors mentioned above and then asked for damages because in his opinion they were caused by the defendant home’s misconduct. The defendant said they were all pre-existing or at least beyond its control.
They asked for definitive proof of negligence in terms of staff or management faults but the plaintiff was slow in providing them. When everything was said and done, the man received just north of twice his direct, economic losses.
This reflects the fact that he was very old and sick prior to these issues emerging and would have likely experienced them in the absence of any nursing home negligence.
Florida nursing home abuse case.
This Florida matter looked a lot like a medical malpractice case from afar because many of the contentions made in the lawsuit related to health mismanagement. The woman who brought it was seventy-nine. She was aided by the advice and counsel of her lawyers as well as by the zealous advocacy of her family members.
This is incredibly important when you remember that nursing homes are big corporations with significant resources and capital to use towards their defense. Plus, many nursing home residents are not in the best capacity anyways so excellent representation matters. I
n this case, they argued that the nursing home did not take into account her particular medical condition. Specifically, it missed medications, kept her doctors out of the loop, and did not provide her with sufficient nutrition or hydration.
They attributed each of these failures to her overall decline in health and thought these warranted damages as allowed under Florida law.
The defendant nursing home objected to this reasoning and instead offered that it was her medical providers sole responsibility to account for these issues. However, once faced with the promises it made in its care contract, it could no longer maintain this position and had to settle.
The woman received two hundred thousand dollars in this Florida nursing home settlement.
Florida Nursing Home Abuse Case.
This controversy involved a resident and a third-party guest of the premises. The resident was in his early seventies and experienced symptoms of dementia. He also had difficulty walking around by himself so he needed the assistance of a walker or cane to get around the facility.
This point is important because it gets to his physical abilities with respect to others. At some point while the guest was visiting his family members, he got into an argument with the resident. The latter claimed that in the middle of this altercation the guest reached over and pushed his arm which caused him to fall to the ground. The guest claims that the opposite happened.
However, the guest did not explain how this could have occurred with the resident’s limitations. Seizing upon this contradiction, the Florida nursing home resident sued the guest for battery and sued the nursing home for negligence. The case against the latter defendant was more interesting because it derived from the claims against the former defendant.
He argued that it was the responsibility of the home to protect residents from guests. When it failed this duty, he alleged that it should be responsible for the damages that its negligence produced. In this case, he suffered extensive personal injuries that required surgery and rehabilitation. The costs for all of this was substantial and the pain that came with it all was massive.
He also claimed that the suffering would endure well into the future. Rather than contest the matter in court, the defendant nursing home tried to whittle the plaintiff’s demand down further and further. When it finally liked the number he suggested, it took him up on settlement leaving the man to collect additional sums from the guest.
Florida nursing home abuse case.
An employee of a nursing home got his employer into a lot of water in this legal matter. He struck and assaulted a female resident when she was in her bed and inflicted a lot of injuries upon her. Normally, in this type of event, the employer is not always responsible for what its employees do.
However, in this incident, the plaintiff’s lawyers were able to demonstrate that the man had a prior record of doing this. Plus, the nursing home did not conduct a substantial investigation into his past before hiring him. Then, quite obviously, it did not do a very good job of supervising him once he began working there.
In the plaintiff’s complaint, she concluded that the sum of these faults should equal negligence requisite to it paying her for the damages that he caused in the assault. After she was able to make this case so convincingly in pre-trial documents, the defendant nursing home had no choice but to settle in order to avoid the possibility of an even costlier jury award.
The woman received $420,000 in this Florida nursing home settlement.
Florida nursing home abuse case.
One resident brought suit against another resident after the latter ripped a scar open and caused a pretty sizeable injury to the former. However, things became more complicated when the plaintiff added the nursing home as a defendant in the Florida cause of action.
The complainant thought that this was proper because the home had the duty of overall care and supervision of its residents. Following that line of thinking, he felt that the facility should have better protected him from unruly residents, staff members, and third parties.
The defendant nursing home conceded that it had certain responsibilities with respect to resident supervision and service; however, it stated that those duties could not extend to intentional torts of co-residents as it made clear in its reply. However, to this contention, the plaintiff barraged the defense with a litany of similar cases that had ruled his way.
Frankly, the law was not on its side. Stuck against the wave of this negative momentum, it sought to negotiate its way out. The man received $85,000 which is a little less than twice his expenses but nearly three times less what he originally asked for to settle.
Florida nursing home abuse case.
This Florida lawsuit was so complicated because the nature of employment of the people involved in the incident. The plaintiff was a sixty-two-year-old woman who claimed that workers roughed her up on the facility premises.
She was being transferred to another location temporarily for treatment and workers from both the nursing home and transit company were involved in the transfer. Court documents are unclear as to which employees actually committed the abuse.
Here’s what happened though: the woman got into an argument with someone that was trying to help her onto the bus when she was suddenly shoved to the ground. She broke her hip and two fingers in her hand. Instead of taking her to the treatment facility, she had to be brought to the emergency room for care and monitoring.
The incident also gave her a lot of heart trouble and stress. For all of these harms and the costs that they came with (including long-term pain), she sued both companies for damages in a Florida personal injury lawsuit. The document filed in court said that each was responsible for a portion of the event and that as such they should compensate her for her damages.
Neither defendant wanted to see this matter wind up in court. They each made separate arrangements to exit from the litigation on their own terms.
Here is what each of them contributed to this Florida nursing home settlement:
Whether you or a loved one that you know was injured and abused in a Florida nursing home, remember these takeaways so that you will be in a better position to recover in a nursing home lawsuit:
You and your loved ones should not have to put up with abuse let alone in a Florida nursing home. If you have experienced this injustice, then contact our offices today. One of our experienced professionals can speak with you about the circumstances of your incident and explain how the laws of Florida can help you.
We can also represent you to make sure that you have the best available representation and at no upfront cost. To get the ball rolling today, contact Nursing Home Law News and speak with someone from our team.
If you would like to learn more about nursing home cases in Florida, please read the following pages:
If you are looking for information on the laws and regulations that apply to Florida nursing homes, look here.
For information on nursing homes in specific cities and attorneys who have experience prosecuting cases please refer to the pages below.
Attorney Blair N. Mendes, Esq.
Licensed in Florida
Florida Nursing Home Injury Attorney Nursing Home Law Center LLC Home