Jackson Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer
From a practical standpoint, there is little difference between nursing home abuse and nursing home neglect. Both abuse and neglect usually cause serious injuries. However, from a legal perspective, there’s a big difference between these two things. Neglect is an unintentional injury, and abuse is an intentional injury. Usually, the nursing home owner is financially responsible for both abuse and neglect injuries.
The compassionate Jackson nursing home abuse lawyer at Keith B. French Law understands the intense pain and suffering these victims must endure. Usually, the responsible party abused a position of trust and caused injury. That’s an extremely bitter pill for anyone to swallow. So, I not only obtain necessary compensation in these matters, I also help these victims obtain justice, so they are better able to trust people again.
Examples of Nursing Home Abuse
Nursing home owners aren’t just ultimately responsible for most abuse injuries, as outlined below. Additionally, these facilities often cause abuse.
Roughly 90 percent of Mississippi nursing homes are dangerously understaffed. These environments are quite stressful. Each remaining employee often must do the jobs of two or three people. Furthermore, turnover is usually high in these situations. Many new employees have little nursing home experience. All of them have no experience with the residents in that facility. Occasional crises, such as the coronavirus pandemic, make these environments even more stressful.
When nursing home employee stress levels get too high, they usually boil over in one of the following ways:
- Emotional Abuse: Words hurt every bit as much as physical blows. In fact, phrases like “your family has forgotten you” or “no one loves you” could hurt even more than physical violence. On a related note, especially in understaffed facilities, employees often isolate residents in their rooms for long periods of time, simply because there is no one to watch them.
- Physical Abuse: All nursing home residents have pre-existing conditions, and many of them are physically frail. As a result, a small amount of force, such as a mild push or shove from a frustrated employee, often causes an extremely serious injury.
- Financial Abuse: This form of abuse could be as simple as stealing money from a resident’s room while s/he is away. Financial abuse could also be an intricate scam, such as a phishing or other scheme. Sometimes, as in the case of unnecessary guardianship proceedings, these scams go all the way to the top.
Our Jackson nursing home abuse lawyers also handle a wide array of nursing home neglect matters, such as falls, malnutrition, and bedsores.
Most nursing home residents sustain at least one serious fall during their stays. Most of these victims cannot ever live independently again. Malnutrition is especially a problem in understaffed facilities. These nursing homes usually don’t employ dieticians or other workers who ensure that residents are eating. As for bedsores, residents usually develop pressure ulcers unless they are turned over in bed at least once every two hours.
Liability Issues
Individuals are morally responsible for nursing home assaults. The facilities which employ them are usually financially responsible for them. Common theories include negligent hiring and negligent supervision.
Basically, negligent hiring is retaining an incompetent employee. That incompetence could be lack of professional certification, certain prior criminal records, or a facility’s failure to check worker references. Negligence supervision is usually a failure to, wait for it, supervise employees, or a failure to take appropriate disciplinary action.
Likewise, long-term care facilities are normally responsible for neglect injuries, because of respondeat superior. This doctrine holds employers responsible when their employees are negligent during the course and scope of their employment.
Connect with a Determined Hinds County Lawyer
Injury victims are usually entitled to substantial compensation. For a free consultation with an experienced nursing home abuse lawyer in Jackson, contact Keith B. French Law, PLLC. Virtual, home, and hospital visits are available.
