Montgomery Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer

Tragically, the assisted-living homes and nursing facilities entrusted to provide quality care for loved ones often fail to properly treat and assist their residents at their weakest and most vulnerable moments, resulting in abuse and neglect.

Do you have an elderly loved one in a nursing home or long-term care facility? Recognizing the warning signs of abuse and how to fight back by contacting a nursing home abuse lawyer is essential.

The affiliate Alabama personal injury attorneys provide legal help to many victims of gross negligence injured by those in charge of providing care.

Call our Montgomery nursing home abuse lawyers at (800) 926-7565 (toll-free phone number) today for immediate legal advice and schedule a free case consultation. All confidential or sensitive information you share with our legal team remains private through an attorney-client relationship.

The disabled and elderly loved ones residing in an assisted living facility are usually at a heightened risk of suffering from nursing home neglect, elder abuse, personal injury, lack of reasonable care, and mistreatment.

They are often less able to safeguard themselves from environmental harm or remove themselves from danger.

Identifying nursing home abuse as a concerned family member is essential when protecting your loved one. Abuse within nursing institutions may be observed in the forms outlined below but may also be discerned in other ways.

Physical abuse usually consists of intentional acts of harm caused to the elderly person by staff members, families, or even other elderly nursing home residents. It could involve:

• Bruises, abrasions, welts, lacerations, or rope marks
• Head trauma or broken bones
• Untreated injuries in various stages of healing
• Bite, strangulation, burn marks, or patterns of injury
• Repeated falls, including broken eyeglasses or frames
• Evidence of physical restraints
• Medication overdose or chemical restraints
• Bed sores

Neglect

Elder neglect involves failing to perform required acts of care while residing in an assisted living facility, which could result in:

• Dehydration or malnutrition could be the cause of diabetes-related issues and bed sores
• Failure to mentally stimulate or communicate with patients
• Poor personal hygiene and unsanitary living conditions
• Failure to provide adequate medical care
• Slow response times from nursing assistants and staff members
• Unattended or untreated health problems
• Unsafe living conditions

Sexual abuse is, unfortunately, a prevailing situation that affects your loved one’s health in many ways. Sexual elder abuse can have happened when the nursing home resident presents:

• Bruises, abrasions, or lacerations around the breasts or genital area
• Unexplained genital infection or an STD
• Incontinence
• Increased anxiety or depressive symptoms of mental abuse

Emotional abuse, or mental abuse, causes or worsens mental health issues. It is not as easy to identify this hidden abuse form in older adults. However, symptoms are similar in many nursing home abuse cases, including:

• Emotional distress or agitation
• Withdrawal from other activities in the nursing home facility
• Nursing home patients become uncommunicative or non-responsive
• When abusers attack the patient’s physical or mental abilities
• Feeding false ideas to a nursing home resident
• Unusual behaviors commonly attributed to dementia
• When patients stop making personal decisions and keep quiet

Financial exploitation happens in a myriad of ways in nursing homes, which is why it is vital to know some of the signs:

• Sudden changes in a bank account or banking practices
• Unexplained withdrawal of large sums of money
• The addition of signatories to an older person’s bank signature card
• Abrupt changes to a will or other financial documents
• The unexplained disappearance of funds or valuable possessions
• The sudden transfer of assets
• Substandard care provision, unpaid bills
• The provision of unnecessary services

All these mentioned forms of nursing home neglect and elder abuse can result in personality changes and mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

Do you suspect nursing home abuse? You should get your loved one to a safe space and contact an attorney specializing in personal injury law and neglect claims at our law offices to understand your legal options.

Knowing that there is a difference between adverse outcomes and nursing home negligence is essential. Not every poor outcome is equal to a healthcare provider’s negligence. Additionally, the repeated absence of favorable outcomes in your loved one’s health could be due to other factors, not the medical staff’s negligence.

Medical malpractice is another form of elder abuse and usually refers to situations in which a health care provider's professional negligence harms a patient, which is never acceptable. It happens when the care deviates from the accepted standards of practice or any care or treatment in a nursing home that breaches good medical standards and causes injuries or death.

The Alabama Code describes the standards of care that healthcare providers must follow, stating that they should “exercise such reasonable care, skills, and diligence as other similarly situated health care providers in the same general line of practice” when facing the same circumstances.

Examples of negligence from lack of medical care we’ve seen in nursing homes include:

• Prescription drug errors, including failure to check for deadly drug interactions and inability to provide needed medication at the appropriate times
• Use overmedication and restraints
• Failure to make arrangements for doctors or registered nurses to attend to patients
• Ignoring residents’ stated medical concerns, such as broken bones from falls or pressure sores
• Medication errors
• Physician or staff errors
• Resident malnourishment or dehydration
• Allowing or ignoring unsanitary conditions or supplies
• Failing to address a resident’s medical needs or problems

Medication errors are a form of elder abuse. When it happens, they can cause harm in the following ways:

• Misinterpreting medication orders in the resident’s chart can result in giving the resident the wrong kind of medication or the wrong dosage or giving the medicine at the wrong time intervals.
• Not following medication preparation instructions can make the medication ineffective, could leave unknown side effects, can interfere with other medicines, or could damage organs.
• Switching medications can lead to patients taking the wrong medication and not receiving the necessary one, worsening their medical condition.
• Air bubbles injected into a resident’s vein, artery, or IV bag can cause an air embolism. Air embolisms can cause heart attack, stroke, or respiratory failure. These mistakes can happen because of overworked, unstrained, or inadequate staff.

You and your loved one have legal rights when you report abuse to the nursing home and the authorities.

When you contact specialized nursing home abuse lawyers, they will ensure that your civil claim meets the requirements for negligence and abuse while all the information you share is protected.

Securing the proper evidence is paramount when proving your nursing home abuse or neglect claim.

Our Montgomery nursing home lawyers will work tirelessly to gather the medical records, bills, expert testimony, and eyewitness accounts that establish that the nursing home or its staff did not meet the general or medical duty of care.

Anyone who participates in the abuse or is aware of it but fails to act may be legally liable for injuries.

Those who may be listed as defendants include:

• Owners and operators of nursing homes
• Supervisors aware of the abuse or those involved in managing and hiring employees who participate in the abuse
• If the nursing home does not perform background checks and in the future results in abuse by that employee, they can be held liable.
• Employees or staff members who perpetrate abuse or neglect
• Outsourced caregivers who come into the facility to provide care

Unfortunately, there are many different perpetrators of abuse and neglect. While we want to consider that a caregiver, staff member, or especially a family member is there to make your loved one safe, anyone could be responsible.

After reviewing your case, our personal injury lawyers will likely initiate pre-trial litigation actions, such as filing a petition, compiling evidence, and conducting depositions, or entering mediation.

Litigation is expensive. Under a contingency fee arrangement, the attorneys will provide the litigation funding required to resolve the case, paying upfront, paying for expert witnesses, depositions, mediation, and other civil court fees.

They will not ask for an upfront retainer under this agreement and only recover their costs and other lawyers' fees if you win your case.

Nursing home abuse or neglect generally causes physical and financial losses to its victim. You can pursue compensation for:

• Medical expenses
• Mental anguish
• Wrongful death
• Physical pain and suffering
• Legal services and fees

Hiring a nursing home abuse lawyer assures you that you have a legal professional dutifully by your side throughout the process.

Is your family member experiencing injury or pain caused by abuse and neglect at a Montgomery nursing home? Take immediate legal action for your loved one, and call our Montgomery nursing home abuse lawyers to schedule a free case evaluation.

Seeking professional legal counsel is the best decision you have to help your family navigate a Montgomery nursing home abuse situation.

After a free consultation, an affiliate Montgomery nursing home abuse lawyer can assist you in understanding your rights and seeking compensation for your damages against Montgomery nursing homes.

Call our personal injury attorneys at (800) 926-7565 to arrange a free consultation with a Montgomery nursing home abuse lawyer at the Nursing Home Law Center, LLC. We will review your case and discuss what we can do for you to ensure maximum compensation.

Our affiliate Montgomery nursing home lawyers work on a contingency fee basis. We provide immediate legal representation, advice, and counsel without upfront fees. Our legal services are paid after negotiating an acceptable out-of-court settlement or winning your case at trial.

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