Find Justice When Dangerous Nursing Home Conditions Lead To Injuries Atlanta Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers Fighting For Senior Citizen Rights
Slip and fall accidents occur in proportionately greater numbers in nursing homes than among the general elderly adult population, despite the facilities being responsible for the daily care of residents. Understaffed facilities can lead to dangerous conditions causing severe injury in elderly individuals, which greatly reduces their quality of life or can result in wrongful death. Our Atlanta nursing home abuse attorneys represent residents who may have been victims of dangerous conditions resulting from nursing home neglect or elder abuse.
The Facts About Dangerous Conditions in Nursing Homes
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) claims that approximately 1,800 nursing home residents die from slip and fall accidents annually, and those who survive are often left disabled with hip fractures and head injuries. The following are elder abuse statistics from the CDC:
- About five percent of adults 65 or older live in nursing homes, but nursing home residents account for 20 percent of slip and fall deaths for this age group.
- A typical nursing home with 100 beds annually reports about 100 to 200 falls. This is only the number of reported incidents; many more go unreported.
- Between half and three-quarters of nursing home residents fall every year, and the average patient falls 2.6 times per year.
- About 35 percent of falls occur among people who cannot walk.
Nursing Homes Have a Duty to Protect Residents
Nursing homes have a duty to protect residents from elderly abuse and injuries because of dangerous conditions. Environmentally dangerous conditions include:
- Failure to install proper railings
- Lack of staff available to assist residents
- Failure to promptly clean floors or spills
- Poor lighting
- Unsafe or improper beds, walkers, and wheelchairs
In addition to these environmental conditions, inadequate medical treatment, ineffective rehabilitative programs and lack of proper nutrition and hydration can qualify as dangerous conditions that can lead to a slip and fall injury. The facility must assess each patient’s mobility and act according to the specific needs of the individual. This includes providing proper medication and rehabilitative treatment, having quality exercise and nutrition programs in place, being fully staffed and maintaining safe premises to prevent falls and injuries.
Nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuits are not only about receiving compensation under elder abuse law for medical bills, ongoing care and pain and suffering. A lawsuit is a way for residents and their families to hold facilities accountable when their actions or inactions harm the very people they have a duty to protect. Relatives must vigilantly monitor their loved ones and report elderly abuse and dangerous conditions that threaten the lives of all nursing home residents. Contact our Atlanta nursing home abuse lawyers to discuss you or your loved one’s situation and to see what legal options may be available to you.
For more information, contact Stephen D. Apolinsky, founder of Apolinsky & Associates, LLC., at 404-377-9191 or, by email at steve@www.aa-legal.com. We are licensed to practice law in Georgia and Alabama; however, we have a network of lawyers throughout the country.
