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Who Is Liable in a Nursing Home Abuse Case?

When a family isn’t able to provide their aging loved one with the kind of care they need any longer, they may place them in a nursing home. This decision requires a great deal of trust and confidence in the nursing and medical staff to provide your loved one with the care, support, and attention that they need.

The last thing these families want to hear, however, is that their aging loved one has suffered abuse, injury, or neglect after being admitted into a nursing home. The nursing home staff has a crucial responsibility to care for their senior residents. If the oversight, indifference, or intentional actions of a staff member harms your loved one in any way, both your loved one and your family may be entitled to compensation. It’s crucial to speak to a New York nursing home abuse lawyer, like those of Dalli & Marino, LLP, if you happen to find yourself in this situation.

When to Place an Aging Loved One in a New York Nursing Home

Making the decision to place an aging loved one in a nursing facility isn’t always easy. However, it’s generally because it’s the last option in order to get them the care they need. This means that you are probably expecting them to receive a higher level of attention and care than they would be able to anywhere else. Residents in a nursing home frequently require help with basic tasks such as:

  • Bathing
  • Eating
  • Moving around
  • Getting dressed

Unfortunately, nursing homes don’t always provide an acceptable or reasonable level of care. Some nursing homes are even negligent in hiring or training staff members. Nursing home abuse or neglect is far too commonplace. When neglect or abuse occurs, it’s important to determine the responsible party as quickly as possible.

Over three million people in the U.S. live in nursing homes. However, nearly one in three nursing home facilities fail to meet federal standards for quality of care and safety in New York and all around the nation, according to the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA). This can lead to nursing home abuse and neglect, which often requires a knowledgeable lawyer to litigate successfully.

Types of Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse Cases

A New York nursing home abuse attorney will represent victims of nursing home abuse or family members who lost their aging loved one due to wrongful death.  Generally, there’s a common thread that connects all types of negligence or abusive behavior by employees, other nursing home residents, or visitors that may include:

Mental Abuse

This is frequently challenging to detect, but it can involve verbal abuse, emotional manipulation, yelling, harassment, insults, humiliation, and threats.

Physical Abuse

This involves a wide variation of injury and harm caused by pinching, punching, force-feeding, tripping, unauthorized restraint, and more.

Malnourishment or Dehydration

You may notice signs of either of these when the nursing staff isn’t providing your loved one with sufficient vitamins and minerals or food that help support their health. Sometimes, residents need help during feeding and the nursing home staff will simply drop the food tray off without providing this assistance.

Sexual Abuse

This may involve any type of sexual activity against the resident’s will or without consent. This is sometimes identified by sexually transmitted diseases, genital bruising or bleeding, or other types of behaviors.

Substandard Care

Negligence due to substandard care can involve the nursing home staff failing their legal duty to medicate, hydrate, feed, treat, or assist the resident with their hygiene tasks or needs.

Medical Malpractice

This may involve facility-acquired bedsores (i.e. pressure ulcers, pressure wounds), a misdiagnosis, or failure to treat the resident’s condition that results in additional harm to the resident or death.

If you feel your aging loved one is being abused, neglected, or victimized by other wrongful behavior, it’s important that you contact a New York nursing home abuse lawyer right away for legal intervention.

Types of Nursing Home Abuse Damages

Nursing home abuse can change your aging loved one’s life forever. They may suffer emotionally, physically, and financially. Since abuse can affect their whole life, they may be entitled to pursue damages for things like:

  • Loss of enjoyment of life
  • Emotional distress
  • Pain and suffering
  • Rehabilitation costs
  • Medical expenses

Your loved one may face extensive medical bills as a result of their abuse. While it will depend on how severe their injuries are, they could potentially face a lengthy hospital stay, multiple doctor’s visits, rehabilitation, or other types of medical treatment.

The medical bills that result from abuse could leave your loved one in financial ruin. This is why it’s essential to ensure the party at fault is held accountable for the medical expenses. Your aging loved one wasn’t at fault for their injuries, meaning they shouldn’t have to be responsible for paying for them. Partnering with an experienced nursing home abuse attorney, particularly if you start receiving communication from the at-fault party’s insurance company, can be greatly beneficial.

Who’s the Liable Party In a Nursing Home Abuse Case?

Proving malpractice in a court of law in New York could be challenging without first building a strong case that provides evidence or proof that:

  • The resident was owed a duty of care by the nursing home in a safe environment
  • The nursing home, doctors, nurses, administrator, or nurse’s aides didn’t provide the proper standard of care because they breached this duty
  • Your loved one suffered an injury, was harmed, or died as a result of the healthcare professional’s breach
  • The victim’s damages were due to the breach of providing a proper standard of care

Consult with a nursing home abuse lawyer to receive legal advice. They’ll work on your family’s behalf and offer insight and counseling into how to effectively handle the legal process to immediately stop the abuse. They can also help figure out how to receive compensation for any injuries, damages, or death due to the abuse.

Contact New York Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers at Dalli & Marino, LLP Today

If you believe your aging loved one is being neglected or abused, call the experienced New York nursing home abuse lawyers at Dalli & Marino, LLP. We have extensive knowledge of government healthcare laws and also speak Spanish. Each case is approached individually by our skilled lawyers to help you recover the compensation you or your loved one may be entitled to for a nursing home injury or damages due to neglect or abuse.

Contact our law firm today at (888) 465-8790 or fill out our contact form to schedule your free consultation and discuss your potential case. Our legal team will answer any questions you have and advise you on what your next steps should be to seek proper compensation.


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