Nursing Home Abuse Attorney in New York

Cases of Malpractice in Nursing Homes

Nursing homes have the obligation to provide a safe environment for their residents, arrange for medical care when necessary and to monitor their residents for signs of sickness and deterioration. Unfortunately, all too often we find that nursing homes fail to provide an adequate level of care and worse, allow their patients to be abused and mistreated. With the legal assistance of a New York personal injury lawyer, Jeffrey J. Shapiro & Associates can help you and your loved one obtain justice for any wrongful act committed against them.

Types of Nursing Home Abuse

These cases tend to fall in certain categories. Here are some of the types of cases we have represented and are currently handling:

Bed sore cases - Any person who is immobile is a prime candidate for bedsores if they are not properly moved and examined. A bedsore forms when a portion of the skin breaks down because of repetitive irritation. Bedsores can range in severity from a minor bruise to a skin opening to the bone. If a bedsore is left untreated it may lead to surgery, skin grafts and severe infection. We have handled numerous cases of this type and have access to nursing experts who will review the chart to determine the exact time and cause of the breakdown. These injuries can be serious and from a legal standpoint require careful preparation with appropriate experts. We are fully prepared to aggressively pursue these cases resulting in personal injury.

Falls - Many nursing home residents suffer injuries from falls as the result of a lack of proper supervision and help. Residents who enter nursing homes generally do so because they are unable to live on their own. For this reason they may need help going from one place to another, even for something as simple as a trip to the bathroom. Falls to the elderly can have consequences far more serious than would occur to a younger person. In those cases in which the resident cannot speak or tell us how the accident took place, we look to the record to determine how the accident happened and what should have been done to prevent it.

Malnourishment - A shocking number of nursing home residents suffer from malnourishment. This generally occurs not because the resident is not provided with food, but because the patient is not eating his/her food without the staff taking notice. Like any other condition that upsets the delicate balance of an elderly person, malnourishment can cause serious consequences and must be addressed.

Improper medication - With trays of medicine being dispensed to multiple residents it is no wonder that residents are occasionally given incorrect medications. The evidence of this may not emerge until a sickness emerges either as the result of the wrong medicine or because the resident was not taking the correct medicine. These malpractice cases require analysis by a skilled physician working with us to determine the nature of the mistake and when it took place.

Abuse - Of all of the ways in which a nursing home resident can be injured, it is hard to imagine a more disheartening manner than abuse. Aside from pursuing legal action on behalf of the resident, we strongly urge our clients to file grievances with the appropriate State regulatory and licensing agencies. We will help prepare these papers and fight alongside our client in seeking appropriate redress.

Let our firm fight for your loved one's rights. Our elderly deserve respect and the care they are entitled to; those who take advantage of them should be held responsible.

Contact a New York nursing home abuse lawyer to protect your loved one from nursing home abuse.