Nursing Home Negligence and Pressure Sores: New York Medical Malpractice Lawyer Explains

Pressure Sores Could be Caused by Nursing Home Negligence: Our New York Medical Malpractice Lawyer Explains What You Need to Know

No one wants to put a loved one into a nursing home.  This signals that the loved one’s cares and needs are more than they can handle alone, and more than you and other loved ones can handle.  It is painful and also indicates a major life event usually meaning one of the last events.  Nursing homes are also very expensive.  When you put a loved one into a nursing home and pay those high prices, you expect that your love one will receive excellent care and treatment.  However, this is not always the case.  Sometimes it leads to horrible New York medical malpractice.  One type is a pressure sore which is fully preventable and likely to cause significant injuries or wrongful death.

What is a Pressure Sore?

Pressure sores are likely New York medical malpractice.  This is because they are commonly called “never events.”  Meaning that these should never happen in the absence of negligence.  They should not occur when a patient is receiving the appropriate amount of care and attention that they deserve.  

Pressure sores are incredible painful.  It is when the top layers of the skin and tissue begin to decompose and wilt due to an infection.  This infection and damage to the skin is caused by the friction of the bed, chair, or even the mattress springs which the patient is laying on top of.  This can be incredibly painful by itself, but when the tissue begins to give way, it is horrific.  Patients who are suffering from a bedsore could sustain permanent damages including wrongful death.

Why Nursing Home Negligence Causes Pressure Sores

The best way to prevent a bedsore is for a nursing home staff member to simply rotate the patient, get the patient to stand up and walk or move, or to re-position the patient on the bed such as moving to a chair.  This relieves pressure on the body and on the certain spots of tissue.  When that pressure is allowed to just stay on there the whole time, it can result in very serious injuries.  Thus all a provider has to do is move the patient!

This is why it is so simply to prevent bedsores.

When a patient is starting to have a bedsore develop, the nursing home and healthcare providers could investigate and observe the beginning of the injury.  Then they can begin to treat the pressure sore before it gets infected and causes passive damage.  This could help prevent permanent damage and can even prevent a wrongful death.

If nursing home negligence causes a pressure sore, shouldn’t the nursing home and staff be liable?  Absolutely!  But what do you think?  I would love to hear from you!  Leave a comment or I also welcome your phone call on my toll-free cell at 1-866-889-6882 or you can drop me an e-mail at jfisher@fishermalpracticelaw.com.  You are always welcome to request my FREE book, The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Malpractice Victims, at the home page of my website at www.protectingpatientrights.com.