Experienced Advocacy For Victims Of Nursing Home Neglect And Abuse
The decision to pace a loved one in a long-term care or assisted living facility is always done with the expectation that the facility will provide a safe, healthy and caring environment. If someone you love has been injured as a result of nursing home abuse or neglect, you need prompt and experienced legal intervention. Your attorney should take steps to immediately build a case and preserve crucial evidence – evidence that might otherwise disappear, inadvertently as day-to-day operations resume or intentionally to hide the blame.
The law firm of Creedon & Gill P.C. understands how to investigate these cases to hold elder care facilities accountable. We have helped clients recover compensation in lawsuits against nursing homes on Long Island and throughout New York. Call us at 631-352-5101 to discuss your suspicions about how your loved one was mistreated.
Nursing Home Negligence And Elder Abuse
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than 500,000 elderly adults are abused or neglected each year, many of them in long-term care facilities. Negligence and abuse take many forms:
- Physical abuse – This includes unexplained bruises, fractures or burns, excessive or punitive use of restraints, and slapping, kicking or pushing.
- Abandonment and neglect – Indications of neglect include bedsores, pressure sores, dehydration, inadequate supervision, improper medication, soiled bedding or clothing, unsanitary conditions, malnourishment, untreated medical conditions and poor hygiene and overall neglect.
- Sexual abuse – This refers to sexual abuse by staff, or by unsupervised visitors or other residents, due to lack of security protocols. Signs of sexual abuse include genital or anal pain, bleeding and sexually transmitted diseases.
- Emotional abuse – Nursing home patients are vulnerable to verbal abuse, punishment, intimidation and psychological torture by staff. Signs of such abuse include fear of certain staff members, anxiety, weeping, withdrawal, loss of appetite, or refusal to see family and friends.
- Negligence – Failure to assist or monitor frail patients leads to falls that cause broken hips, head trauma and other serious injuries. Negligent security or lax supervision allows elderly patients to wander off into harm’s way.
Some nursing home claims will amount to medical malpractice, while others constitute negligence claims. The rules, timelines and strategies of these legal actions are very different and failing to understand the distinction could cause the case to be lost outright.
Experienced Injury Attorneys Working The Case
Our partners have extensive training and experience in personal injury litigation, including a background in insurance defense and prior experience as criminal prosecutors. We know how to properly investigate and build a case to establish nursing home abuse that will withstand legal scrutiny. While we are able to secure a settlement in many cases, our trial lawyers are fully prepared to take on any nursing home or health care corporation (public or private), presenting our case to a jury if necessary to get justice and seek compensation for our client.
We are adept at demonstrating the negligence or abusive treatment and the underlying liability of the facility and its management to a jury or the facility’s insurance carrier. Common contributing factors in nursing cases include understaffing, negligence in hiring and background checks, failure to assess fall risk and other dangers, substandard medical care, inadequate security, and breach of state and federal regulations.
Do You Suspect Elder Abuse?
You do not need proof of abuse to file a report or hire a lawyer. We will conduct a thorough investigation, working with law enforcement or state regulators, and pursue legal action. We won’t charge attorney fees unless we take the case and recover compensation. For a free initial consultation, call our Northport law office at 631-352-5101 or use our online contact form so that we can respond soon.