Some residents in nursing care facilities are there due to immobility brought about by an accident or illness. However, based on the care they receive, patients can suffer bedsores, which can cause pain, severe health complications, and even death if left untreated. Bedsores are easily preventable, and if your loved one has them, the nursing home your loved one is at may not be taking adequate care of them.
If your loved one has developed bedsores, consider taking legal action by partnering with an Oyster Bay bedsore lawyer at Dalli & Marino, LLP to seek justice for your loved one and to prevent such a situation from recurring.
What Are Bedsores?
Bedsores, also known as pressure ulcers, are wounds that occur due to the body’s pressure on a particular part of the skin, cutting off blood supply to the area. They arise when a patient fails to move for a specific period to relieve pressure on certain areas of the skin. It is a common occurrence for wheelchair users or people who are bedridden for extended periods.
Residents with mobility issues have to lie in bed for the duration of their stay at the nursing facility. This puts them at risk of developing bedsores. Therefore, it is the nursing home’s responsibility to ensure its residents do not develop bedsores. It’s simple; the caregivers need to turn the resident periodically, say every two hours, to relieve the pressure. Failure to do so results in bedsores.
What Are the Stages of Bedsores?
Bedsores have four stages of severity, which define the injury’s progression level and inform how they should be treated. These are:
- Stage One: The skin is red and always feels warm to the touch. In some cases, there can be swelling and faint tingling.
- Stage Two: The skin acquires blisters with trickles of clear discharge that may be visible. The developing wound is only on the upper layer of the skin.
- Stage Three: The pressure ulcer progresses into the underlying layers and opens up.
- Stage Four: At this point, the wound involves not only the skin but also the surrounding tissue, such as muscles and ligaments, and can even go down to the bone. This progression results in excruciating pain and is typically infected.
Should the pressure sores progress to stage four, then your loved one may need to undergo extensive treatment to obtain relief from the injury. The treatment includes the use of special dressing, antibiotics in case of infection, and pressure relief devices.
Facts About Bedsores Acquired in Nursing Facilities
Authorities require nursing homes to keep track of skin degradation issues, such as bedsores, in their facilities. If your beloved has bedsores and the facility has not documented them, then that may also point towards a record of elder abuse. Because bedsores are avoidable, insurers will rarely reimburse nursing home facilities for the treatment costs tied to treating them.
These facilities refuse to provide the needed care because it will be at their expense. If not treated immediately, patients who develop bedsores are likely to pass away within a year. This is especially true when the injury has progressed to a sepsis infection and osteomyelitis.
Can You File a Lawsuit for Bedsores?
The presence of bedsores indicates that your loved one is being neglected by the people who are supposed to look out for them in the nursing care facility. This is one ground for which you can institute a suit with your bedsore lawyer against the facility immediately.
In addition, the psychological anguish a patient has to endure with bedsores is another ground for which you can file a suit. Add to this the medical and psychological treatment for this, and the costs begin to add up. You and your loved one deserve compensation for all the trouble of getting treatment for your loved one.
As things stand, nursing homes continue pushing the limits on how much profit they can squeeze out of their facilities. They achieve this by reducing their staff numbers to save money. The result is a drop in the residents’ standard of care. As a result of such profit-maximizing decisions, residents and their loved ones end up suffering.
Get In Touch With The Experienced Oyster Bay Bedsore Attorney at Dalli & Marino, LLP
At Dalli and Marino, LLP, our bedsore lawyers pride ourselves on the decades of service we have been offering to the people of Oyster Bay who come to us seeking respite for ills committed in nursing homes. If your loved one has developed bedsores, it’s time to seek justice for yourselves. Our bedsore attorneys are here to help fight for your and your loved one’s rights every step of the way.
Whether it’s some form of medical malpractice or nursing home abuse, we’re here for you. If you’d like to know more about how our bedsore lawyers can serve you, reach us at (888) 465-8790 or use the online contact form on our website.
