Nursing home neglect and lawsuits often get quite a bit of media attention when the subject matter revolves around violence or death. We derive so much from the media that often we forget to take the facts of nursing home neglect one step further and examine such issues as dehydration. Dehydration can be caused by numerous variant factors, such as diarrhea, illness, vomiting, and of course a lack of fluid intake, especially water. Discovering dehydration may also mean discovering neglect.
It may be difficult to find a nursing home abuse lawyer to take a lawsuit based on dehydration. You will need to find a skilled lawyer in order to find one that is interested in bringing the responsible parties to justice. In the elderly, dehydration can be just as dangerous as malnutrition or over sedation. Neglect cases that are based solely on dehydration certainly don't get the same media attention as other lawsuits, but they are equally as valid.
There are qualified and capable nursing home abuse lawyers out there who are ready and willing to file a lawsuit based on dehydration. Since dehydration can have devastating effects over time, it is one of the responsibilities of the staff to make sure that fluids are being taken and that there is no threat of dehydration due to diarrhea or other causative factors.
Dehydration is typically a signal that there are other forms of abuse or neglect that haven't yet been discovered. In many instances, dehydration is a warning sign. The long term effects of dehydration can include an impact on the clarity of thinking, which can prevent a victim from presenting their complaints to be filed as a lawsuit.
This means another responsible party must be willing to speak to a nursing home abuse lawyer in behalf of the victim. This is true with most lawsuits, as victims are rarely able to reach out for help even if they want to.
There are often financial concerns that prevent people from speaking up on behalf of the victim. Retaining a nursing home abuse lawyer on behalf of someone who may or may not be able to afford an attorney seems like a huge risk. It is easier to believe that the neglect has been corrected, the victim received fluids and will be okay, and there is no harm done.
This is not true. For every case of neglect that ends up being filed as a lawsuit, there are at least five victims who didn't have their day in court. Either there simply wasn't quite enough evidence or they couldn't tell someone before it was too late or the assumption was made that the victim didn't have sound faculties. Nursing home neglect cases are difficult to prove.
Unfortunately, lawsuits are easier to file and prove of the victim perished from neglect rather than those who fought to stay alive and then fought to be heard. Autopsies can determine the length and depth of the dehydration more accurately in many cases than medical tests performed on someone who has recovered from severe dehydration.
The financial concerns that prevent people from retaining a nursing home abuse lawyer are typically able to dealt with in professional and reasonable manners. These concerns should never stop a consultation with a professional and capable lawyer, nor should they ever stop someone from reporting suspected neglect.
These issues are far too important to be left for someone else to deal with. Leaving these issues for someone else to deal with can leave a loved one or family member without a voice, and without help. A consultation with a nursing home abuse lawyer doesn't necessarily mean that a lawsuit has to be filed, but it will help to clarify the options in the wake of neglect.
Nursing home neglect victims are often completely dependant upon someone else to stand up for them, to help them find a reputable lawyer, and to help them use their voice and file a lawsuit to bring the responsible parties to justice. This is a validating and important step in helping the elderly retain their dignity, even if it doesn't seem as though they are aware that they have. No one should ever have to face neglect, and no one should ever have to face the road back to empowerment alone.
Bedsores seem as though they are a natural part of being confined to a bed, especially in the elderly. The truth is that bedsores should not develop if the bedridden individual is rotated often enough. Bedsores can be as small as a red spot on the hip or thigh, or can be as severe as an open wound that goes all the way through to the bone. Bedsores are a sign of nursing home neglect.
Neglect can be difficult to detect, and with a smiling and friendly staff there to answer all of your questions and put on a happy face during your visit, neglect can seem like an impossibility in some situations. However, nursing home neglect is often much more prevalent than most of us are willing to believe.
At the first sign of bedsores, the situation should be handled immediately. The area should be treated and the patient should be elevated to a rotation schedule that is much more frequent, nor more than two hours between rotations. It is possible that bed sores may initially begin to develop if the patient is newly bedridden, has recently lost quite a bit of weight, or has had a recent procedure done such as surgery.
However, if the bedsores are not treated immediately with an aggressive response, then it is time to contact a lawyer. Lawyers are often able to uncover unseen and previously unnoticed neglect. Nursing home abuse lawyers are able to determine abuse and neglect often more quickly and efficiently than an emotionally involved family member.
Lawyers have a greater power of investigative skills, more experience, know the questions to ask and the questions to avoid, and how to involve law enforcement if necessary without blowing an entire case.
Lawsuits are steadily increasing around the country, which is a testimony to the sad state of affairs we as a society tend to leave our elderly in. The filing of a lawsuit does not necessarily mean that the abuse or the neglect will immediately cease.
There are occasions where poor training, a lack of educational requirements and low pay simply attract employees who mean well but do not necessarily even understand that some of their behaviors qualify as nursing home abuse.
Many people believe that bedsores are inevitable. Many professionals and even some hospital staff believe that bedsores are a natural part of adjusting to being suddenly or increasingly bedridden. This is an unfortunate misconception, however over the past ten years, abuse and rights advocates have made great strides in educating nursing home staff about the dangers of bedsores and the basic misconception that they are natural.
A high quality facility will not allow for bedsores. Abuse can happen regardless of the price tag associated with any particular facility. Quality comes in the people who work inside the home, not the amount the administration is paid.
Lawsuits can be difficult to prove, as often the victims are either unable or unwilling to speak up for themselves. It can be difficult to prosecute a nursing home abuse lawsuit when the victim is too afraid to speak up about the abuse.
After all, where else are they going to go, and complying with a lawsuit is only likely to complicate their current living situation. Regardless, a quality lawyer can proceed with a lawsuit provided the evidence is there. A victim is much more likely to be compliant and testify in a nursing home abuse lawsuit if they are made to feel safe, which in many cases means moving them to another facility.
This is not easy, nor is it inexpensive. However, without any guarantee of safety, nursing home abuse victims rarely testify or even file a complaint.
The elderly are not property, a waste of life, or material which requires warehousing. The elderly are the generation which fought to give us freedoms and opportunities we wouldn't have had otherwise. The elderly are in fact, our future. We should be ashamed as country at the high rate of lawsuits that are filed in this country annually.
It's not easy to be brave in the face of a lawsuit, but someone needs to step up and be the voice of the victim.