When a loved one requires round-the-clock care, families often turn to nursing homes. However, some facilities fail to provide adequate care – leading to neglect, injury, and even death. If this happens to your family member, you may have grounds to sue for nursing home negligence.
What Is Nursing Home Negligence?
Nursing homes have a duty to keep residents safe and attend to their medical and personal needs. When they fail in this duty, it’s called nursing home negligence. This negligence often stems from short staffing, lack of training, or trying to cut costs.
It can take various forms:
- Failure to prevent falls or injuries
- Allowing bedsores to develop
- Not assisting with hygiene or mobility
- Making mistakes with medications
- Failing to treat medical issues
- Physical/emotional/sexual abuse
Proving negligence requires showing the nursing home didn’t meet “standard of care” – meaning what a reasonable facility would do in similar circumstances. Poor care leading to avoidable injury or decline demonstrates negligence.
Warning Signs of Nursing Home Negligence
Look for these red flags that could indicate nursing home negligence:
- Unexplained injuries, bruises, etc.
- Dramatic weight loss or dehydration
- Lack of assistance with eating or bathing
- Worsening medical conditions or bedsores
- Unsanitary living conditions
- Fear/distress around staff
If you notice these issues, document them thoroughly. Photos, medical records, and detailed notes will help support a negligence case later. Report problems to facility management, regulators, or local law enforcement.
How to Prove Nursing Home Negligence
You can file a personal injury lawsuit against a negligent nursing home to recover compensatory and sometimes punitive damages.
Compensation can cover:
- Medical bills
- Additional care costs
- Pain and suffering
- Wrongful death damages
The first step is consulting an attorney experienced in nursing home litigation. They can assess if you have sufficient grounds and evidence for a viable case. If so, your lawyer sends a demand letter detailing allegations of negligence.
The majority of nursing home negligence suits settle out of court to avoid public trials. However, if they refuse reasonable settlement offers, your attorney can file a lawsuit and go to trial.
Proving negligence requires victims or families to establish the key elements:
- Duty of care: The nursing home owed your family member a basic level of care and safety
- Breach of duty: Staff failed to meet standards through acts or omissions
- Harm: Breaches of duty directly caused avoidable injury, decline, or death
- Damages: You suffered clear financial, physical, and emotional harm
The litigation process also involves “discovery” where your lawyer can request internal nursing home documents that may reveal neglectful practices. Depositions may also compel staff to explain failures under oath.
How Much Can You Sue a Nursing Home for Negligence?
There’s no cap on nursing home negligence damages. The ultimate value depends on factors like:
- Severity of injury/death
- Degree of suffering
- Ongoing medical costs
- Lost quality of life
Individual cases have exceeded $10 million. On average, nursing home verdicts range from $400,000 to $1 million.
Holding Culpable Facilities Accountable
Suing for negligence not only pursues justice for your loved one but can ensure systematic failures get corrected – sparing other families. It also makes nursing homes confront the reality their neglectful cost-cutting measures actually cost more in legal damages. The mere threat of lawsuits often motivates facilities to improve staffing and safety protocols.
No amount of money can make up for losing a loved one to nursing home negligence. But taking legal action can gain accountability, bring change, and help prevent others from being placed in harm’s way.
Crossen Law Firm- Indianapolis Personal Injury Attorneys
If your loved one has suffered from nursing home neglect, don’t go after the responsible party alone. Contact the dedicated legal team at Crossen Law Firm for a free, no-obligation review of your case.
Our attorneys have helped victims recover millions of dollars over decades of practice. Let us put our experience to work for you. Contact us today at (317) 401-8626.
When a loved one requires round-the-clock care, families often turn to nursing homes. However, some facilities fail to provide adequate care – leading to neglect, injury, and even death. If this happens to your family member, you may have grounds to sue for nursing home negligence.
.jpg)