Nursing Home Neglect: What Is It & How To Avoid It

04 Nov Nursing Home Neglect: What Is It & How To Avoid It

One of the scariest things to think about is putting a loved one in someone else care. In most cases, loved ones receive more professional care from a nursing home or assisted living retirement community than they could get from a child or spouse due to limited ability and resources of the family.

Finding out that your loved one has been neglected or given poor care can be extremely frustrating to deal with. Luckily, John Truskett at Truskett Law is here to help you get justice for you and your loved one. He can help you get to the bottom of why and how it happened.

Nursing home neglect is summed up in a few words: failing to care for the needs of someone under nursing home care. There are a few different categories of neglect in a nursing home, including medical neglect, basic needs neglect, and hygiene neglect.

Contact Truskett Law today to learn how we can help you and your loved ones.

Here’s an in-depth look at each type of nursing home neglect outlining the signs of neglect, the ways to prevent it, and what steps to take if you think it is happening to your loved one.

Medical Nursing Home Neglect

This is when the nursing facility fails to attend to or prevent medical issues of your loved one in the nursing home, including care for diabetes, bedsores, infections, cognitive disorders, mobility issues, and surface cuts and contusions.

This is one of the more obvious types of neglect and is easy to spot when you visit your loved one in their nursing home. Here are some things to look for when you think some form of medical neglect is happening.

Signs of Medical Neglect

There are some very obvious and not so obvious signs of medical neglect. The more obvious signs are cuts and sores on skin, bumps, and bruises from falling, and soreness from various injuries that may occur. These signs are more obvious and when you see them, it can be indicative of more serious, less noticeable signs as well.

The less noticeable signs are the failure to administer necessary medications, regularly clean and dress wounds, and provide a safe environment, clear of obstructions and trip hazards.

If your loved one is bedridden, a big sign of medical neglect is bedsores from inadequate turning. If the nurse neglects to turn your loved one in the bed, the blood can pool in the skin that is pressed against the mattress. This blood can fester and split the skin open, causing sores to form.

These open wounds are easily susceptible to infection and can be very detrimental, causing problems that are not easily reversible.

Steps to Take to Stop Medical Neglect

No matter the severity, if you notice any of these signs, it is prudent for you to point out these things to the nursing home facility manager. Just bringing this to the attention of a manager can rectify the situation, but if simply “making some noise” about it does not change the situation, it may be time to contact Truskett Law.

Truskett Law is uniquely equipped to handle Nursing Home Neglect cases and can help you get the reparations your loved one is owed for the neglect and poor care. If you observe your loved one experiencing medical neglect in their nursing home, Truskett Law can help.

Basic Needs Nursing Home Neglect

This type of nursing home neglect pertains to failing to provide your loved one with a reasonable amount of water and food and failing to maintain a clean and safe environment within their room. This type of neglect isn’t easily spotted until it gets very bad, but the signs can be caught if you know what to look for from the beginning.

Signs of Basic Needs Neglect

The signs to look for are lack of food and water present in the kitchen and refrigerator, as well as lack of cleanliness in your loved one’s bathroom and kitchen. Some things to look for about your loved one in the nursing home’s care is sudden weight loss, agitation due to malnutrition and hunger, and unusual tiredness linked to lack of food intake.

These signs are serious if not caught quickly and can lead to terrible things such as sudden onset osteoporosis, cognitive dysfunction, and even death. These basic needs are essential to maintain quality of life. When your loved one is denied these basic needs due to neglect, it is time for you to contact Truskett Law to represent you and your loved one to get them the care they need and are deserved.

Steps to Take to Stop Basic Needs Neglect

If you notice that your loved one is being neglected basic needs, say something to the manager and see if anything changes in the next week or two. Check-in with your loved one more frequently to keep tabs on the cleanliness of their living space and take note of their physical appearance. If nothing changes, contacting a lawyer may be the next step.

Search for an alternative to the nursing home they are in currently and find them other living arrangements. In the meantime, take care of these basic needs for them is your best course of action.

Hygiene Nursing Home Neglect

When your loved one does not have adequate care when it comes to cleaning, brushing teeth, laundry, bathing or other types of hygiene practices, the neglect is easy to spot. If you think they are being neglected, here’s a few easy signs to know for sure.

Signs of Hygiene Neglect

The signs of hygiene neglect are not as serious on their own but can lead to many more serious issues if not fixed quickly. These signs include a musty odor, unclipped nails, dirty teeth, and unkempt hair. There are more things to look for, but these are the most common and easily noticed signs.

These issues seem harmless because by themselves they are. If left unchecked, the severity increases and can cause some major issues. Nails can grow in strange directions and get infected, causing pain in the fingertips. This infection can grow and spread into the hands and cause major issues if not taken care of.

Teeth can rot and fall out if not taken care of, leaving large sores and abscesses in the gums. The abscesses can become infected and lead to that infection spreading to other places in the face and head. This is an extreme case and most of the time you will notice something is up long before any infection starts.

Steps to Take to Stop Hygiene Neglect

If you see any of the signs of hygiene neglect, the first thing to do is to contact the nursing home manager and report the neglect to them. If nothing happens to change the situation for your loved one, find them a new nursing home or other living situation and contact a lawyer to receive the representation you and your loved one need to get reparation from the nursing home.

John Truskett at Truskett Law can help you and your loved one with this neglect situation. He can represent you and your loved one to get reparation for any neglect your loved one experienced in the nursing home.

Nursing Home Neglect is More Common than it Should Be

Here is a short story of a loved one that experienced nursing home neglect. This person was in a nursing home for about a year and everything was fine. After this year, the attendant nurse found a new job and was replaced with a less experienced nurse who neglected his patients. The loved one was bedridden and couldn’t do anything on their own.

The nurse forgot to change her for weeks and never turned them over to keep bedsores from forming. Bedsores formed very quickly and the diaper began to overflow into those bedsores. This caused infection and sepsis to run rampant in their body. They had to be rushed to the hospital and put in ICU on life support.

They died shortly after, as the sepsis had completely shut down most of the internal organs. This happened over the course of three weeks. This was a very extreme case, but any neglect needs to be dealt with quickly to make sure your loved one is taken care of as they should be.

Nursing Home Neglect is a horrible thing and John Truskett is here to help if your loved one is experiencing it. Hopefully, your loved one is in a great nursing home and does not need the services of Truskett Law. If they are experiencing any form of nursing home neglect, contact John Truskett to help you get the justice your loved one deserves.

Truskett Law is a law firm in Tulsa that specializes in personal injury, car accidents, and nursing home neglect cases in Tulsa and the surrounding areas. John Truskett is a highly regarded lawyer who almost always wins cases and settlements for his clients. He puts their needs first as he represents them and always fights for them to get them reparations and justice for their individual situation.

Click Here to learn more about Truskett Law.