If you or a loved one sustained injuries while living in a nursing home, it is possible that the nursing home could be responsible. Elderly adults sometimes suffer injuries from things that might not have bothered them in their younger days, but many instances of injury are actually tied to deeper issues of abuse and neglect in nursing homes.
Victims of injury and abuse in Texas nursing homes can often sue the nursing home for injuries when the staff either failed to carry out their duties to keep the residents safe or actively engaged in abusive or neglectful behaviors. To confirm whether your case involves abuse or other negligence, talk to an experienced attorney.
The Arlington nursing home abuse lawyers at The Queenan Law Firm can review your case and help you file injury claims against nursing homes in Texas. For a free case review, call us today at (817) 476-1797.
Suing for Injuries to Residents at Nursing Homes in Texas
Nursing homes have various duties they have to follow, both as healthcare professionals and simply as property owners. Mistakes and issues with how the nursing home is run or operated can lead to serious injuries – as can intentional abuse or neglect. Our Texas nursing home injury lawyers can help you sue for injuries to nursing home residents in your family.
Negligence
Nursing homes can often be sued for negligence in any form that results in injuries. This does not have to be something tied to unprofessional healthcare services, but these injuries do often involve those kinds of issues.
Nursing homes are often subject to many legal duties. By being healthcare professionals, the law imparts certain duties of reasonable care that the nursing home and its employees owe their residents. Additionally, as the operator of the property, there are additional security concerns and safety concerns involved, such as a duty to provide reasonable security and to keep the premises clear of dangers.
Any breach of these duties that results in injury to a patient or resident can justify a lawsuit if it resulted in injuries. Most negligence claims for nursing home injuries deal specifically with negligence healthcare. However, slip and falls or trip and falls brought on by insufficient supervision or insufficient handrails and places for older residents to sit down could also be the nursing home’s fault.
Talk to our Dallas personal injury lawyers for help investigating the cause of injury and whether the nursing home and its staff were responsible.
Abuse and Neglect
Abuse and neglect are often worse than simple negligence and are often caused by intentional acts rather than mere mistakes or oversights. Any time that a nursing home worker puts their hands on a patient in a violent way would certainly be considered physical abuse, but abuse can also come in other forms:
- Psychological abuse
- Verbal abuse
- Emotional abuse
- Sexual abuse
Beyond these intentional acts of abuse, nursing home residents and patients could also face neglect. This often comes in the following forms:
- Residents not being fed
- Patients not being cleaned or bathed
- Unanswered calls for help
- Isolation
- Being left in cramped or dark places
- Being left in bed or in a chair
Some of these issues might also qualify as abuse, but the distinction isn’t necessarily important. What is important is that you get your loved one help. Calling a lawyer can help you start the processes to get your loved one out of danger, start legal proceedings against the nursing home, and report the abuse to prevent the nursing home from abusing other patients.
Typically, employers like nursing homes can only be sued for mistakes that are within the workers’ job description, and abusing patients obviously falls outside the scope of what the employee should be doing. Talk to our Fort Worth personal injury lawyers about how to seek compensation for abuse and neglect in a nursing home.
Suing a Nursing Home for Other Injuries on Their Property in Texas
As property owners, nursing homes also owe certain duties to their guests and visitors. While most of the time, nursing home injury cases deal with injuries to residents, visitors and guests might also be able to sue nursing homes in some cases. If you were subjected to dangerous conditions at the nursing home while visiting a loved one, talk to our Texas injury lawyers about potentially filing an injury lawsuit. This can help you recover compensation for things like slip and falls in the nursing home or injuries caused by dangerous staff members.
Challenges When Suing a Nursing Home in Texas
It can often be difficult to sue a nursing home for injuries to a resident because of a few different factors. The first issue is that it is not always obvious that the injury was indeed someone’s fault or that it was serious enough to warrant a lawsuit. Moreover, many nursing home patients have mental or communication challenges that make it difficult to find out about injuries and how they happened.
Our Grapevine personal injury lawyers can help you gather information and records that can help prove your case, but there are steps you can also take yourself. Take photos of any injuries or bruises to a loved one, and make sure to alert nursing home staff. If the staff reacts defensively or tries to make excuses for how the injuries happened, it might be worth contacting a lawyer to investigate the case further.
Additionally, it might be hard to trust what your loved one is saying if you know that they have mental health issues or memory/cognitive issues. Our attorneys can demand call logs, staff reports, and other information that can help confirm or deny troubling reports from nursing home residents who claim they are being abused. These reports can also help uncover the truth if your loved one denies obvious abuse for fear of retaliation.
Call Our Texas Nursing Home Lawyers for Help
If you suspect that your loved one is being abused or you yourself are a nursing home resident facing abuse and neglect, call our Houston personal injury lawyers today for a free case review. Contact The Queenan Law Firm at (817) 476-1797.