It is not uncommon for nursing home residents to be prone to wandering around. While it is common, it is also dangerous and can lead to life-threatening injuries. Inside the nursing home, they risk a dangerous fall, and if they get outside of the facility, countless more deadly accidents could occur.
Finding out your loved one has been injured in their nursing home after wandering around, you will likely be feeling very upset and confused at how this could happen. The nursing home abuse lawyers of Dalli & Marino know that it can be hard to determine whether or not the nursing home was responsible for what happened to your loved one in these delicate situations.
How to Determine Liability After A Nursing Home Resident is Injured
If your loved one has been injured in a nursing home while wandering off, the nursing home staff or facility may be held liable if you and your experienced injury attorney can prove negligence. A nursing home and its staff have a legal duty of care to all residents in their care. If you can prove that their duty of care was breached, leading to your loved one wandering off and getting injured, it will help build your claim.
Failure to Uphold a Duty of Care
To help establish whether the nursing home failed to uphold its duty of care, your injury attorney may gather the following information:
- If the nursing home was informed of the resident’s history of wandering
- If competent staff was hired and trained properly
- Did staff complete a full assessment of resident’s medical history to see if they could be prone to wandering
- Did staff regularly re-evaluate the resident’s health and check for changes in behavior or well-being
- Did staff regularly monitor residents at high risk of wandering off
- If staff left high-risk residents alone for an extended period of time
- Did staff take any precautions to prevent residents from wandering off
If it is found that the nursing home failed to prevent or detect your loved one from wandering off due to negligence, then they may be held liable for their inability to uphold their duty of care.
Why Might Residents Wander Off At a Nursing Home?
When understanding why an injury has occurred to your loved one, it may be helpful to understand why they wandered off in the first place. Aside from several pre-existing medical conditions, there are some other reasons why a resident may wander away:
- Being confused or homesick
- Having a recent switch in medications
- Being in a new and unfamiliar environment
- Being given a new routine
- Getting lost while trying to go to the restroom or cafeteria on their own
- Looking to interact with others
- Wanting to go home
When moving a loved one to a nursing home, to prevent incidents like wandering from happening, keep in mind what a big transition this is for an individual and try to visit as much as you can. This will help acclimate them to their new surroundings and make them more comfortable.
Contact New York Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers For Help
Nothing is worse than getting the news that a loved one has been injured while in the care of the nursing home you trusted to keep them safe. Negligence is described as the failure to exercise care, and if you suspect negligence could be the cause of why your loved one has suffered injuries, you will need a team of talented nursing home abuse lawyers on your side.
Dalli & Marino is a team of award-winning nursing home abuse lawyers that work to provide top-of-the-line service in such delicate cases as an injury of an elderly loved one. Helping serve the communities of New York since 1996, our goal is to help you and your family build your claim as you seek to be compensated for any damages your loved one may have suffered. For a free case evaluation, contact us here or call (888) 465-8790.
