ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER
Signs of Nursing Home Abuse
Nearly 1.4 million Americans reside in skilled nursing facilities and as our nation’s population ages, the number of persons residing in those facilities increases every day. Sadly, incidents of abuse in nursing homes are also rising at a dramatic and alarming rate. While California mandates reporting of abuse by facilities and staff, if you have a loved one in a nursing home you too should be on the lookout for signs of abuse. Some signs to look for include:
- Bed sores.
- Bruises, scars, and scratch marks.
- Unusual behavior, nervousness, withdrawal, or prolonged silence.
- Failure to take medications properly or refusing medication.
- Any signs of physical restraint.
- Refusal of a caregiver to let you be alone with the patient.
Report suspicions of abuse immediately and consult counsel. The Alameda County and California nursing home abuse attorneys at Evans Law Firm, Inc. represent abuse victims and their families and know the dangers residents face. Those dangers include bed sores (from not turning a patient regularly), dehydration, infection, organ failure, malnutrition, overmedication in order to keep patients too out of it to ask for help, physical restraints and manhandling, and even sexual assault. If you or someone you know is suffering from nursing home abuse here in Alameda County or elsewhere in California, call the nursing home abuse attorneys at Evans Law Firm today at 415-441-8669, and we can help.
Incidents of neglect and abuse often arise because nursing homes are inadequately staffed to provide the attention and monitoring their dependent patients require. State laws here in California especially are designed to protect residents from abuse and neglect. For example, California has strict staff to patient ratios and specific provisions regarding patient rights. Our attorneys know those State obligations, patients’ rights and other nursing home responsibilities, and the standard of care required of nursing homes and personnel. Our lawyers investigate claims of neglect or abuse and analyze a home’s policies and procedures and State and federal obligations to determine what went wrong when a patient is abused or neglected and who at the nursing home is responsible. Our litigators pursue all remedies available to victims. Those remedies include economic damages and damages for pain and suffering, extra damages in certain circumstances, and awards of attorneys’ fees and costs to the victim. California leads the nation in remedies for elder abuse and our attorneys know how best to pursue those remedies through litigation. If you or a loved one is a victim of nursing home abuse, call us today.
Contact Us
If you or a loved one is or has been the victim of nursing home abuse in Alameda County or elsewhere in California, contact Ingrid Evans and the other nursing home abuse attorneys at the Evans Law Firm at (415) 441-8669, or by email at <a href=”mailto:info@evanslaw.com”>info@evanslaw.com</a>. We can help guide your case through a jury trial or toward an equitable settlement. We handle cases involving physical and financial elder abuse, qui tam and whistleblower law, whole life insurance and universal life insurance, and indexed, variable, and fixed annuities.
