South Philadelphia Nursing Home Abuse Attorney
Senior citizens placed into nursing homes deserve access to quality medical care, and to be treated with dignity and respect by the staff members. Sadly, nursing home abuse and neglect is a serious problem in the greater Philadelphia area, and your elderly loved one may be a victim. If you are concerned that your spouse, parent, or relative is being mistreated or is receiving poor, substandard care, you deserve to exercise your legal rights and protect your loved ones from harm.
If abuse or neglect hurt your loved one, your family may be eligible to receive financial compensation. The legal process of filing a claim against a care facility can be complex, but you don’t have to navigate the system on your own. South Philadelphia nursing home abuse lawyer Brent Wieand is committed to aggressive representation, and provides free initial consultations and claim evaluations for new clients. He serves all of South Philadelphia, including but not limited to the neighborhoods of Bella Vista, Moyamensing, Pennsport, Point Breeze, Queen Village, and West Passyunk.
To schedule your free case evaluation, call The Nursing Home Injury Help Center right away at (215) 666-7777.
Types of Nursing Home Injury Claims We Handle
We represent nursing home residents who have suffered a serious injury or wrongful death due to their facility’s failure to provide adequate care. Some of the most common types of elder abuse claims include:
- Falls — Falls are the number one cause of both injury and death among persons aged 65 or older, and also account for a staggering 95% of all hip fractures.
- Bed Sores — Also called pressure ulcers, bed sores are often the result of negligence. They can usually be avoided by simple care measures such as regular changing of bed sheets and repositioning of the bed-bound resident.
- Malnutrition or Dehydration — Both of these issues can weaken the immune system. This is a serious health concern among the elderly, whose immune systems are already compromised by advanced age.
- Medication and Dosage Errors — These errors might include giving a resident too much or too little of a medication, giving medication at an inappropriate time, mixing up two patients’ prescriptions, or withholding medication.
- Wandering and Elopement — Wandering, or elopement, occurs when nursing home staff are either inattentive or too few in number, resulting in poor supervision that allows a resident to wander off the premises where they can become injured.
- Sexual Abuse — Warning signs may be physical or behavioral, including limping gait, soiled or tattered undergarments, social withdrawal, depression, irritability, and anxiety.
- Physical Abuse — Warning signs can vary widely, but typically include burns, bruises, black eyes, broken bones, or signs of illness.
- Mental Abuse — Mental abuse may involve making threats, insulting the victim, or instilling fear and anxiety. Warning signs of mental abuse may include the victim being withdrawn, moody, or fearful.
- Poor Hygiene — Nursing home staff are responsible for helping residents maintain basic hygiene, which is critical to good overall health. Issues such as rotting teeth or dirty skin may indicate that neglect is taking place.
- Gangrene — Gangrene sets in when body tissue dies, typically due to either extremely poor circulation or severe infection. The affected area may turn black and green, and may need to be amputated. Gangrene can occur if diabetes is improperly treated.
- Sepsis — Sepsis is an extremely serious and potentially fatal condition where the entire body becomes inflamed due to a severe infection. Sepsis is often triggered by bacteria or a virus, with common symptoms including high fever, low blood pressure, confusion, and hyperventilation.
- Wrongful Death — In legal terms, a wrongful death is a death caused by another person or company’s wrongful conduct, such as being careless, reckless, or negligent. Under Pennsylvania law, wrongful death lawsuits are meant to provide compensation for the decedent’s survivors. Therefore, you may also wish to bring a survival action, which is meant to provide compensation for the pain and suffering the decedent experienced before passing away.
When to Seek Legal Help for Nursing Home Abuse
Your first step should be to ask questions of the resident’s caregivers, administrators and social workers. If they cannot answer your questions satisfactorily or fix the problem, you should file a complaint. Pennsylvania nursing homes are required to post the procedures for filing grievances at the facility.
It is also important that you do not wait to seek legal representation, because every claim for nursing home negligence has a firm deadline known as the statute of limitations. The statute of limitations for negligence and wrongful death claims in Pennsylvania is two years from the incident causing harm (with few exceptions). Therefore, you should consult with an attorney as soon as you possibly can.
To set up a free and confidential legal consultation, call nursing home abuse attorney Brent Wieand right away at (215) 666-7777. Your love one’s safety may be at risk, so call as soon as you can to start discussing your options.
Disclosure: Attorney Brent Wieand’s office is located in Philadelphia, PA. We happily serve clients throughout all of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
