A nursing home negligence lawsuit has been filed against Highland Health Care Center and its parent company Covenant Care Midwest for their negligent care of a patient. The lawsuit alleges that the patient was admitted to Highland Health Care Center on November 5, 2008 for physical therapy, following a total knee replacement surgery.

During the course of the prescribed physical therapy, the patient developed decubitus ulcers on his back and heel. The decubitus ulcers became so severe that surgery was required to help heal the wounds.

The nursing home negligence lawsuit claims Highland Health Care Center made numerous mistakes related to the patient’s care and subsequent decubitus uclers, including:

Failing to notify physicians of the patient’s change in medical condition
Failing to administer treatments prescribed by the physician
Failing to make observations related to the patient’s change in medical condition
Failing to implement a pressure sore prevention program

The lawsuit is pending in Madison County Circuit Court. Read more about this nursing home lawsuit here.

In with one problem, out with another…

While I certainly have no way of verifying the facts surrounding this nursing home lawsuit, the facts sound all too familiar. In cases were nursing homes, hospitals rehabilitation facilities are hyper focused on a specific task, such as physical therapy, other patient needs can often fall to the wayside.

Nonetheless, skilled nursing facilities have a non-delegable duty to take all feasible measure to prevent development of decubitus ulcers. In this case, I have a hard time believing that if the facility was indeed performing the specified physical therapy on this patient. If so, how did the decubitus ulcers develop?

Covenant Care

Covenant Care operates 50 facilities (skilled nursing, assisted living and select therapies) in California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Nevada, Nebraska and Ohio.

What steps should I take before meeting with an attorney to discuss a case involving bed sores?

How long does it take for a lawsuit involving development of bed sores at a medical facility to be resolved?

Resource:

Nursing Home Injury Laws

Ron Miller says:

July 27, 2009 at 7:44 am

I just found this post on Twitter. Lot of junk to go through on Twitter but this is a good nursing home blog post.

BrooklynLawyersFirm says:

July 30, 2009 at 5:45 pm

Unfortunately, nursing home abuse can take the form of ignoring a patient’s basic needs so that patients develop bedsores or suffer from falls. Falls can result in fractures that can have a devastating effect on a patient’s well-being.

Helen D. Riley says:

December 26, 2010 at 9:49 pm

My mother is 82 and had a staph infected knee removed and then replaced. She is now in a rehab, Not surprisingly, she has dementia and some confusion, as well as a bed sore. It is unbelieveable to me that a nurse said to me tonight that my mother is resonsible to remenber to elevate her heels so that she doesn’t develop sores. As well, when I asked the nurse where the support stockings were, she said my mother should know enough to put them on herself! Boy, our health care system is really broken!

Jonathan Rosenfeld says:

January 11, 2011 at 2:19 pm

Helen-
Sorry to hear of the treatment your mother is receiving at the rehab facility. Caregivers need to be sensitive to every patients medical needs and their mental abilities. Particularly in rehab situations, when patients have limited mobility, caregivers need to do everything possible to prevent the development of bed sores.
Certainly, given your mother’s propensity to develop wounds, the facility should have been on the lookout and making necessary modifications to prevent the development of this preventable medical condition.

alana says:

January 30, 2011 at 3:47 pm

My mother went to a rehab center that specialized in diabetic care. she developed
cellulitis so severe that most of the skin on her leg came off. Nobody noticed this because she was always wearing long pants. than another center gave her a bedsore so bad it was tunneling and had to be debrided.