• Bruises and bleeding. Some bruising can be typical; elderly people tend to bruise easily. However, if the bruising is excessive or consistent, it could be a sign of abuse.
• Sudden change in weight. Particularly weight loss can be a sign of neglect, or a loss of appetite due to distress.
• Soiling, poor hygiene. This is one of the common signs of neglect. Patients and rooms should always be kept in clean and sterile conditions.
• Disappearance of personal items. This is a clear sign that caretakers cannot be trusted.
• Emotional withdraw. This can be harder to pick up on, but if abuse is occurring, you can expect it.

You should immediately ask to speak with facility management if you expect abuse or neglect. If the staff ever refuses or delays your visits, this is also a red flag.

Wooten, Kimbrough & Normand, P.A.—Orlando personal injury attorneys.

Several different factors can contribute to car accidents. What could have been the factors that caused this one? Was the bus going too fast? Was the driver could have been? Did the elderly woman need supervision? Could she have been the victim of nursing home abuse? Did her wheelchair malfunction?

In a situation like this, it could be beneficial to speak with an Orlando accident lawyer. With the woman’s injuries classified as “serious,” she could have a long recovery ahead of her and the mental and financial burden of that would certainly fall to her family.

Wooten, Kimbrough & Normand, P.A. – Orlando Personal Injury Attorneys

According to the complaint, the woman was admitted in the nursing home due to a variety of disabilities and required close care of staff members at the facility with long-term care such as eating, bathing and walking. The woman’s daughter visited the woman at the end of April. Two days later the nursing home took the woman to a nearby hospital for treatment. The hospital notified the family of the woman’s move to the hospital, where the daughter visited her mother. Within 24 hours of that visit, the woman was transferred back to the facility from the St. Francis Hospital in Evanston.

The woman’s family lived out of the area and was unable to frequently visit. According to one of the daughters, the facility was called as the daughter wanted to wish her mother happy birthday. However, a staff member answering the telephone informed her that no one by that name resides in the facility. The family traveled to Chicago and upon their arrival discovered their mother had died four months earlier. Ridgeview Nursing Home failed to notify the family of the patient’s passing and the remains were sitting at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. The family alleges the nursing home went ahead and authorized the removal and burial of the woman’s remains without the family’s consent.

Skilled Healthcare failed to meet the state staffing standard, according to a Humboldt County jury and imposed a fine of $500 per patient for each day that the chain was in violation. The nursing home chain agreed to settle those claims for $50 million and avert bankruptcy.

The class action settlement of $671 million is the largest of jury verdicts in nursing home litigation history. The Times Standard of Eureka covered Skilled Healthcare complaints and interviewed its residents in a series of published articles. The newspaper covered horror stories of residents talking about neglect and poor care due to understaffed nursing homes.

One former Skilled Healthcare resident spoke of how difficult it was for her to count on nurses to assist with her needs. Diana Medal claimed she would wait all night for a bedpan or assistance to the bathroom. Medal claimed the staff cared but they were overworked and understaffed, causing them to be unable to assist residents in a timely manner. Medal was one of 42,000 residents that participated in the lawsuit against the California facilities.

Offutt suffered from dehydration despite having a feeding tube. His dehydration levels were fatal and the family alleges it was because the facility failed to ensure he received enough water to live.

Offut was a resident at the nursing home from March 25 to April 3; he died on April 5 2008. The resident had infections and bedsores at the time of his passing, which is another claim of neglect his family made against the facility.

The jury ultimately agreed with the family and awarded $42.75 million in damages. Offutt’s family described him as an active individual with a farming background. He planted crops on his land until the age of 88. He suffered a stroke and his wife took care of him for 8 months. His family thought he might receive advanced care if he is in a facility. Unfortunately, Offutt lasted only 9 days at Harborside of Madisonville.

The facility’s administrator spoke against the verdict and disagreed with the decision. She believes the facility was not negligent and that he received proper care. The nursing home plans to file an appeal and fight this multi-million decision.

The family filed a lawsuit in 2009 alleging the nursing home staff failed for months to care for the man and neglected to notify his primary doctor of penile cancer. The patient developed penile cancer while in the care at the Everett. The man’s genitals started to disintegrate due to cancer.

A staff member discovered the wound and notified nursing home’s manager. The manager forgot about it and never notified the man’s primary physician of the wound. The patient received emergency room treatment for a different reason where doctors discovered genital disintegration. The patient died of penile cancer. The facility and staff further failed to notify the man’s family of the original wound finding.

The man died two weeks after his emergency room visit. Sunbridge Healthcare Corp., based in New Mexico owns and operates the Everett nursing home.

The nursing home alleges that the law firm and lawyers Dusti Harvey and Feliz Rael did not adequately investigate the claim that they pursued on behalf of James Tracy after his death. The attorneys claimed that negligence on the part of Valle Norte’s staff led to a severe delay in the treatment of Mr. Tracy’s priapism that resulted in the loss of his penis.

Priapism is a persistent and painful erection that is not related to sexual stimulation and lasts for more than four hours. The lawsuit against the firm said that the lawyers pursued litigation on behalf of Mr. Tracy without any evidence showing that Mr. Tracy’s penis had been amputated, or that the staff was in any way linked to any penile injury.

The complaint also states that while the Harvey firm claimed that Mr. Tracy had lost his penis, before and after photographs entered as evidence show that it did not occur. The original lawsuit against Valle Norte was withdrawn and dismissed.

A representative for the firm states that Mr. Tracy’s lawsuit alleged that the staff at the nursing home was negligent in that they treated his condition as a joke and did not provide appropriate medical attention. He also said that Mr. Tracy’s original lawsuit was a viable claim for personal injury.

As a member of the Injury Board plaintiffs’ attorney association, we participated in their national Wii giveaway.  The Wii game was chosen because of its proven benefits in rehabilitation and low impact exercise tool.  The gaming system provides live motion, fun, less painful exercise which is well-suited for seniors.

The recipient of our Wii game was the Share the Care adult day care facility in downtown Orlando.  Share the Care is a local non-profit that provides centers for seniors a place to go during the day if they are unable to stay home and care for themselves.  But it much more than just day care.  With assistance from the staff, they play games that exercise the mind and have fun while doing it.  The Wii game will add moderate exercise to their daily regimen.

Some of our staff had cake and tea with the clients while we waited for the game to be installed.  The first game the seniors tackled was Wii bowling.   Several of them took a turn at knocking down the pins and we all cheered.  There was no question when we left there that we had made the right choice.  We just know they’re going to have great fun with it.