Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

A resident of a Canton, Ill. nursing home was recently found living in a grain storage bin, more than a month after she went missing. The 44-year-old woman, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and cancer, was last seen at her nursing home Sept. 16. She was found in early December after she came to a home near the grain bin, seeking shelter from the cold. Authorities told the Peoria Journal Star that the woman was sleeping on plastic and carpeting and eating crabapples to survive. After she was discovered, she was treated for dehydration.

From the facts presented in the article, it seems to me that this woman and her family may have an Illinois nursing home neglect lawsuit, depending on the extent of her injuries. The article mentions that the woman had run off once before and been found three weeks later, living in the woods, so she has at least some history of escape attempts. As a Chicago nursing home abuse attorney, I know this is not uncommon for patients with a mental illness. We do not know the circumstances, of course, but in general, allowing patients with these tendencies to wander into dangerous situations is a form of nursing home neglect.

Many people put their loved ones in a home in the first place to avoid just this kind of incident. Even the most dedicated relative can’t provide 24-hour supervision for an irrational, unpredictable patient. The additional resources provided by a nursing home or assisted care facility are supposed to reduce these sorts of serious risks. When they fail, patients and their families don’t have to just put up with it. Our Chicago nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers handle cases where a patient is injured due to a nursing home's negligence. To learn more, you can contact us online.

A woman has sued her nursing home in East St. Louis, the Madison County Record reported in December. The lawsuit alleges that the woman, who entered the home in 2000, developed pressure sores on her body because of neglect at the home. She also alleges that staff failed to treat the sores or give her medication. She is suing the parent company for the home for negligence as well as violations of the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act, which gives many legal rights to residents of nursing homes.

Pressure sores (also called bedsores or by their medical name, decubitus ulcers) may not sound too terrible, but they can actually be life-threatening. They often develop in patients who are bed-bound or wheelchair-bound, due to a combination of pressure, friction, humidity and sometimes medication. Malnutrition and underlying conditions like anemia can then make an existing bedsore worse. Pressure sores may look simply like a discoloration of the skin in the early stages (pinkness in light-skinned people; blue or purple patches in dark-skinned people), but as time goes on, they eventually come to resemble cuts or puncture wounds. Eventually, the body tissues under pressure are damaged and die, just like tissues with gangrene, and are likely to become infected.

Healthy people don’t generally develop pressure sores because they have the power to simply change position when they start feeling uncomfortable. That’s not the case for physically or mentally disabled people who need help to move. To prevent the sores, experts recommend that aides turn patients every two hours and help them maintain good hygiene and general health. This is especially important in nursing homes. According to an eMedicine article, 17% to 28% of patients in nursing homes have pressure sores, and two-thirds of the sores occur in patients over 70. Worse, even a patient who has healed from bedsores has a 90% chance of developing more.

Given the severe risk and relatively simple prevention of pressure sores, preventing them should be the top priority of any nursing home. Unfortunately, these basic tasks are often the first to go in cases of nursing home neglect. And many of the other features of nursing home neglect, such as malnutrition and poor hygiene, can make pressure sores even worse and invite infections, sometimes life-threatening infections. In a patient already weakened by illness or age, this can be a health care disaster leading to serious illness, a health decline or even death. If you believe someone you love has developed serious bedsores because of neglect at a nursing home, you can and should hold it legally responsible with an Illinois nursing home neglect lawsuit. To speak with one of our Chicago nursing home lawyers today, please contact us through our Web site or call (312) 399-8988.

During the new year, many families will be visiting their loved ones in a nursing home or another assisted care facility. That makes it a good time of year to revisit the signs of abuse and neglect that families can watch for during their visits. This can be difficult, especially when the patient has trouble communicating or has a diagnosis of a mental illness. Unfortunately, some of these symptoms are very similar to symptoms of dementia; indeed, signs of abuse may be passed off by staffers as the onset of dementia. You may need to take further steps to know whether your loved one is truly being abused. The following tips are compiled from sources including the Mayo Clinic and the Rotary Club:

Signs from the patient:
• Unexplained weight loss and dehydration
• Unexplained injuries, especially injuries that aren’t related to any existing medical condition
• Bed sores
• Denying obvious injuries or giving unlikely explanations for them
• Dementia-like or childlike behaviors, like rocking back and forth
• Confusion from a mentally competent person
• Torn or bloody clothes
• Dirty clothes and bedding
• An increase in symptoms once controlled by medication
• More medication left in the prescription than there should be, or new medications you don’t remember a doctor ordering
• Seeming fear at the idea of ending the visit
• Depression and withdrawn behavior
• Missing jewelry or other objects of value
• Sudden changes in financial situation

Signs from the nursing home’s staff:
• Reluctance to allow visitors
• Reluctance to leave visitors alone with the patient
• Speaking for a competent patient
• Explanations that don’t fit with what you know about the patient
• Seeming tension between staff and patients
• Overworked or under-trained staff
• Controlling or overly affectionate behavior by the staff
• Unexplained changes in bills
• Duplicate bills
• Too much concern about the patient’s finances
• Displaying more wealth than they seem likely to have

If you suspect abuse, exploitation or neglect at a nursing home, the best thing you can do is report it. The Illinois Department of Public Health is responsible for investigating complaints at nursing homes; it maintains a 24-hour Nursing Home Hotline at 1-800-252-4343. If you’re sure of neglect or abuse, you should also consider pulling your loved one out of the home as soon as you can arrange it. And if your loved one was financially exploited, seriously hurt or killed by abusive behavior, you also have the right to file an Illinois nursing home abuse lawsuit. To learn more about your family’s legal rights, please contact us at (312) 399-8988 or through our Web site.

A camera hidden by a resident’s family realized their fears: neglect and physical and verbal abuse in a Kentucky nursing home. According to the Associated Press and the Lexington Herald-Leader, a family hid a video camera in the victim’s room at Madison Manor in Richmond, KY, after they became suspicious about the woman’s treatment. Unfortunately, the images they captured confirmed their fears: Staff members at the home handled the 84-year-old woman roughly, lifting her from the bed by her wrists and neck; ate her food; left her lying on the floor; and verbally taunted her, once even shaking a fist at her.

The victim was pulled out to live in a relative’s home and eventually died a natural death, but investigations revealed “injuries of unknown origin” to 17 other residents of the home. The home and its parent company are now under investigation by the state Attorney General. It’s worth noting that the adult granddaughter of the victim in this case is a social worker with the state child protective services agency. Thanks to her professional training, this woman knew the signs of abuse and what complaints to report to the state regulatory agency in charge. As the Lexington paper’s editorial said, not every resident of a nursing home is lucky enough to have a relative with those skills -- or even one who visits enough to notice any problems. It’s sobering to think of how many homes may be hiding this type of abuse, without any concerned relatives to find out the truth.

In Illinois nursing home abuse and neglect cases, time truly is of the essence. In my practice as a Chicago nursing home abuse lawyer, I have seen several cases where abuse or neglect was spotted too late, after it had already hurt the health of the victim substantially. In some cases, this can cause a decline in health that leads to death. That’s an unbelievably sad -- and highly avoidable -- end for people whose families were only trying to give them the high-quality care that the family itself couldn’t provide.

In Illinois, the Nursing Home Care Act holds owners and licensees of nursing homes legally liable for abuse and neglect under their watch. Families with a loved one who suffered nursing home neglect or abuse may sue over all of the costs of the abuse, including medical costs, the cost of alternative care (or missed work), compensation for their loved one’s suffering, any wrongful death and even attorneys’ fees. If you’re thinking of pursuing this type of lawsuit, the Chicago nursing home neglect attorneys at Abels & Annes can help. Please contact us for a free consultation.