Nursing Home Abuse in California

 Posted on April 15, 2024 in Personal Injury

Choosing a nursing home for your aging parent can take time. You consider all the options available and try to decide where your parents will be happy, comfortable, and receive the best care. You want them to enjoy their time in this new home, and you hope they will be treated with dignity and warmth. Unfortunately, some nursing home residents experience abuse or neglect, and it can be difficult to discover for reasons that will be explained below. Some physical signs or symptoms, like the development of sepsis, for example, can be an indication that your loved one is not receiving proper care. Checking in with them regularly and asking about how they are treated or observing their behavior and mood if they are nonverbal is also a good idea. If your parent has developed a case of sepsis while living in a nursing home, speak with a compassionate Los Angeles, CA personal injury attorney to find out what options you have.

The Challenge of Proving Nursing Home Abuse

There are several reasons why nursing home abuse often goes unnoticed and therefore unstopped:

• Residents have deteriorating health unrelated to abuse: Elderly residents in nursing homes sometimes have weaker immune systems and frail bodies, to begin with, and falling due to imbalance and unsteadiness is a common cause of fractures among this population. Therefore, it might not raise any red flags if someone starts presenting a lot of bruising or broken bones. Rather than immediately thinking someone else has hurt them, people might assume that these outer signs are only natural at this stage in life.
• Residents do not report it: The most obvious way to know that someone is being mistreated is if they tell you they are. Unfortunately, nursing care residents might be too scared to complain if their abusers threaten them with consequences for coming forward. Another reason they may not report abuse is if they are unable to. Some elderly residents have diminished abilities to express themselves and others might not have anyone who will listen.
• Residents report it but are not believed: There is an unfortunate tendency to brush off complaints by the elderly. Since dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and general memory loss are prevalent among the elderly population, people might assume that they are remembering things incorrectly and that their complaints of abuse need not be taken seriously.

Schedule a Free Consultation with a California Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer

If your loved one is being abused in their nursing home, a skilled Glendale, CA nursing home abuse attorney can help. At Tahmazian Law Firm, P.C., we fight hard for our clients by seeking compensation for the damages suffered and holding the abusers responsible. Call us at 818-242-8201 to schedule a free consultation.