Philadelphia Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer

We call on nursing homes to take care of our loved ones. We choose homes that seem trustworthy. Unfortunately, sometimes we find that trust is betrayed, and our vulnerable family members suffer for it.

If your family member is neglected, abused, or even killed in their care facility, a Philadelphia nursing home abuse lawyer at Lowenthal & Abrams, Injury Attorneys wants to help. Reach out to our compassionate personal injury attorneys today.

What Is Nursing Home Abuse?

The word abuse sometimes confuses people because they believe it means the harm must be intentional, but this isn’t so. Nursing home abuse is intentional or negligent harm to a resident of a home or long-term care facility. The most common form of abuse is pressure sores (bedsores). These sores occur in stages, meaning they begin with a small, reddish mark and can turn into major wounds that literally form holes in the body. The second most common type of nursing home abuse involves falls. Long-term care facilities in Philadelphia are required to assess the risk of falls in their residents and to take steps to protect them. Other types of nursing home abuse in Philadelphia include:

• Failure to provide enough fluids, leading to dehydration
• Failure to provide enough food or make certain the resident is eating properly – resulting in malnutrition
• Physical or sexual abuse by staff members
• Use of restraints to keep the person under control
• Improper use of medication to keep the person under control
• Failing to keep the resident from wandering off (also called elopement)
• Mental or emotional abuse
• Medication errors – providing the wrong kind of medication, the wrong dosage, or failing to notice an incorrect combination of medication

Any of these forms of nursing home abuse can cause psychological trauma, physical harm, or even death. If you believe that your elderly loved one suffered any of these forms of abuse or neglect at their nursing home, speak with one of our Philadelphia attorneys.

Why Does Nursing Home Abuse Occur?

As nursing homes become busier and focus on the bottom line, they might fail to provide training or hire the right number of staff. As Philadelphia attorney Anita Pitock explains, this frequently leads to abuse and neglect in nursing homes. If you suspect that someone you know is suffering from nursing home abuse or neglect ,you should:

1. Make certain the person is safe.
2. Report the abuse to the head of the nursing home.
3. Report the abuse.
4. Contact Lowenthal & Abrams, Injury Attorneys

Holding Every Liable Party Accountable for Abuse

A nursing home resident who has been neglected or abused by someone entrusted with caring for them is never at fault for their own mistreatment; the nursing home employee who allows a resident to get hurt through intentional or negligent misconduct is fully responsible for their own actions. However, in a legal context, it is important to understand that nursing home administrators and owners are often liable for nursing home abuse committed by one of their employees.

Usually, this is simply because employers in the Commonwealth can often be held vicariously liable for misconduct by someone they employ, so long as that misconduct occurred in the course of that worker’s normal employment. Sometimes, though, the people responsible for running nursing homes are directly liable for abuse that occurs within them, either because they had substandard hiring and training practices or because they knowingly allowed residents to be abused for personal and/or financial gain.

A Philadelphia nursing home abuse attorney can help establish exactly who is to blame for your loved one’s injuries and take proactive legal action against them.

Recoverable Damages in Nursing Home Neglect Claims

Legal counsel can also play a key role in ensuring that victims of nursing home neglect receive fair financial compensation for every loss they have suffered as a direct result of their mistreatment. While money alone cannot always erase every negative effect of nursing home abuse, it can still do a lot to preserve the financial security of and improve the long-term quality of life for people impacted by it.

Every case is different—just like every nursing home resident is—but examples of damages which often factor into claims of this nature include:

• Medical bills for abuse-related injuries
• Expenses related to personal property damage
• Physical pain and discomfort
• Emotional anguish and trauma
• Lost enjoyment of life

Courts can also impose additional punitive damages against abusive nursing homes, but only in situations involving extremely egregious neglect or intentionally malicious abuse.

Can Family Members File Suit on Behalf of Nursing Home Residents?

If a nursing home resident is of sound mind and able to represent themselves in civil court, they have every right to file suit on their own behalf over abuse or neglect they experienced inside their nursing home. Unfortunately, many victims of this type of mistreatment struggle with both physical and cognitive limitations, which means they may not be able to take legal action by themselves or even report their own mistreatment in the first place.

In those scenarios, it may fall to a close family member of an abused or neglected resident to enforce their loved one’s rights for them, most notably by acting as their legal representative in court and pursuing a case outcome that serves the victim’s best interests. Guidance from a knowledgeable lawyer can be especially important for anyone assuming this responsibility on behalf of a family member who was mistreated in a Philadelphia nursing home.

Taking Action Within Filing Deadlines

One last thing worth mentioning is the statute of limitations for nursing home abuse lawsuits in Philadelphia. As with all other types of personal injury claims, state law sets a time limit on how long someone harmed by nursing home mistreatment can wait to file suit after initially discovering their injuries, in order to keep the court system running smoothly and to ensure relevant evidence is still available when the case proceeds.

As per 42 Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes § 5524, nursing home abuse victims—or loved ones acting on their behalf—generally have two years at most to formally sue over their abuse-related injuries. Failing to abide by this deadline will almost always lead to the case being dismissed for being time-barred as soon as it reaches a civil court judge.

Contact a Philadelphia Nursing Home Abuse Attorney

The head of our nursing home abuse department, Anita Pitock, is a nurse and an attorney. She is passionate about the safety of residents in long-term care facilities and is focused on helping victims of nursing home abuse in the area.

Abuse of the elderly in nursing homes is unacceptable. If you believe that your family member is suffering neglect or abuse, it is crucial that you get help right away. Contact a Philadelphia nursing home abuse lawyer at Lowenthal & Abrams, Injury Attorneys, P.C., today.