Redlands Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect Lawyers

Redlands is home to 15 different skilled nursing facilities, with four others serving the surrounding area. While many of these facilities offer high quality care, others do not. Even the best facilities make mistakes or go through periods of poor operations. At their worst, patients can suffer serious injury or death because of neglect or abuse. Here at the Southern California Nursing Home Law Group, our Redlands nursing home neglect lawyers help the victims and family members of abuse and neglect by holding nursing homes and assisted living facilities financially accountable for their negligent, reckless, and sometimes intentionally atrocious acts of abuse.

While individual perpetrators of elder abuse can be charged with a criminal violation of abuse under California Penal Code, the victim must file a civil action against a nursing home or residential care facility for the elderly in order to be fairly compensated for damages. Damages resulting from nursing home abuse and neglect may include the following:

• Pain and suffering;
• Loss love, society, companionship, and emotional and financial support;
• Medical expenses;
• Punitive damages; and
• Funeral and burial expenses.

If the abuse or neglect lead to your loved one’s death, a wrongful death lawsuit can be filed against the responsible elder care facility, and appropriate wrongful death damages may be recovered.

Neglect is the failure to protect an elder from health and safety hazards causing nursing home residents to suffer physical or emotional harm. Physical harm can include intention abuse, but also the physical manifestations of poor care, such has skin wounds, malnutrition, infection, and other physical maladies. Neglect does not need to be intentional for it to support a lawsuit. Examples of neglect include:

• Not sending the patient to a hospital in time
• Failing to provide adequate nutrition or hydration
• Unsanitary living conditions
• Unsanitary personal hygiene such as not providing regular bathing or cleaning, not brushing the patient’s teeth, or failing to wash their hair
• Causing the development of bed sores and skin wounds
• Not moving the patient regularly, which can result in bedsores
• Medication errors
• Misdiagnosing illnesses or injuries, or failing to notify doctors of a change in condition

Nursing home residents pay a high monetary price for the services that nursing homes provide, namely through Medicare. When service is neglected, and harm results, the nursing home must be held accountable for not holding up their end of the bargain. There is no excuse for lack of care that causes harm to an elderly resident.

Elder abuse is intentional physical or emotional harm caused to a resident of a nursing home, assisted living facility, board and care home, or while under home health care. There are some truly abhorrent individuals working in these facilities who inflict tremendous amounts of pain on those who they have a duty to protect. Sadly, the most vulnerable population is sometimes the most heavily abused. The following are common examples of nursing home abuse require the consultation with an experienced elder neglect attorney in Redlands:

• Hitting, punching, kicking, shoving, or slapping
• Sexual abuse, including touching the genitals, forcing the victim to perform sexual acts, having sexual intercourse, or filming or taking pictures of the victim while naked
• Pinching, or unnecessarily grabbing and holding down a patient
• Unnecessary use of restraints
• Locking a resident in his or her room to deprive them of human contact or to “teach them a lesson;”
• Withholding food, water, visitors, clothing, blankets, or other necessities
• Using unnecessary force to get the patient out of bed or take medication
• Teasing or mocking a resident
• Treating the patient like a child or belittling the patient
• Yelling at the patient or calling them names, and
• Playing cruel tricks on the patient for one’s amusement.

• Bruising, broken bones, lacerations, or other injuries your loved one cannot explain, is unwilling to explain, or has a changing story about how the injuries occurred
• Bruising or injuries to both sides of the body
• Bruising that looks like a finger or handprint mark
• Unexplained weight loss
• A quickly deteriorating appearance or disheveled look. For example, if your mother has done up her hair every morning for years but suddenly stops for no explainable reason
• Bedsores
• Poor personal hygiene
• Unclean sheets and clothing; and

There should be no tolerance for nursing home abuse and neglect in this world. Unfortunately, it occurs too often. If you suspect that your loved one is a victim, it is up to you to get help. Call (866) 607-1325 today to schedule a free consultation with the Redlands nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at the Southern California Nursing Home Law Group.