San Antonio Assisted Living Lawyers

Assisted Living Facility Injury

In our 21st century world, we’re fortunate to have a variety of senior living options for our elderly population.

Some elderly individuals require an at-home nurse who helps with personal, household, and domestic matters inside the individual’s home. Others need more extensive care, 24 hours a day, seven days a week in a nursing home. But some may not necessarily need such a high level of care and may be better suited in an assisted living facility.

Obviously, assisted living facilities and nursing homes are supposed to protect and care for our elderly population. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Assisted living facility and nursing home abuse is a major problem in the U.S., leading to thousands of injuries and health complications among the elderly population. The assisted living lawyers at Janicek Law take this issue very seriously. If you believe your loved one’s health and life are in jeopardy at their assisted living facility, we are ready to begin an attorney-client relationship with you. Call our law firm today at 210-366-4949 for a confidential consultation.

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What’s the Difference Between a Nursing Home and an Assisted Living Facility (ALF)?

Due to physical or mental impairments, residents in nursing homes need 24-hour care. The care of each person will vary, but many often need assistance standing up, walking, bathing, and eating. Many often require medical treatment, therapists, and help with the administration of medication.

Assisted living facilities, alternately, offer a place for residents who can no longer safely live in their homes but do not provide the high level of care as nursing homes. Many facilities – often called communities – provide meals, laundry services, basic medical treatment and health monitoring, socialization, help with household chores, and more. 

What are Common Types of Elder Abuse in Assisted Living Facilities?

According to the American Psychological Association, elderly adults can suffer at least 7 types of assisted living facility and nursing home abuse. 

  • Sexual Abuse occurs when nursing staff or other nursing home residents engage in non-consensual sexual intercourse or other sexual acts with an elderly person.
  • Mental Abuse or Emotional Abuse occurs when skilled nursing facility staff use insults, gaslighting, and manipulation tactics in order to cause severe emotional distress to assisted living residents.
  • Physical Abuse occurs when assisted living facility staff uses physical force in order to cause pain and disability to elderly people. 
  • Financial Abuse occurs when an assisted living facility improperly uses or steals money, property, or assets from elderly people.
  • ALF or Nursing Home Neglect occurs when staff members fail to perform or ignore the basic needs of the elderly person. 
  • Abandonment occurs when ALF staff members purposely leave elderly residents without any promised assistance in daily living activities.
  • Self-Neglect occurs when elderly people purposely deny their own basic needs.

Common Types of Injuries in Assisted Living Facilities

While assisted living facilities generally provide extra safety and care to elderly people, injuries still happen. Some injuries occur through accidents on the elder’s behalf, meanwhile, some injuries are warning signs of abuse and neglect. Common injuries among elders in assisted living facilities and nursing homes include:

Common Negligence-Based Claims Against Assisted Living Facilities

As stated previously, negligence can constitute as intentional abuse or even carelessness. But there are other types of negligent acts that cause harm to residents in assisted living facilities. 

Taking proper care of the elderly is a hard job, there’s no doubt about it. That is one of many reasons why the entire assisted living facility industry is understaffed. As a result, facilities may cut corners in the hiring process for the sake of getting more help. For example, maybe a long-term care facility failed to do a background check before hiring a new staff member. Later the facility discovers that their new staff member has a violent criminal history and has been accused of committing physical or sexual assault on an elderly person. In this case, the ALF or nursing home could face legal consequences for negligent hiring.

Negligent supervision is also a common complaint in assisted living injury cases. Basically, negligent supervision occurs when assisted living facility staff fail to properly monitor their patients.

 

This could happen if staff members get distracted by chatting and fail to see a frail patient trying to walk alone down the hallway. The frail patient then slips, falls, and suffers a head injury. If a staff member had been paying attention, the injury wouldn’t have happened. Skilled nursing facilities can certainly be held liable for situations like this.

Premises liability is basically when an unsafe condition leads to injury or even wrongful death. For example, maybe an elderly resident puts all their weight on a broken handrail in the hallway and they end up falling and breaking a rib. Or maybe an elderly patient slipped on a puddle of water in the hallway and suffered a concussion. Negligent facilities may have to pay thousands of dollars in damages for premises liability issues like this.

Unfortunately, medical malpractice-related injuries are very common in ALFs and nursing homes. Medication errors and diagnostic errors can be incredibly deadly, especially for elderly nursing home residents with failing health and compromised immune systems. The ALF and nursing home abuse attorneys at Janicek Law can pursue legal action for any negligent act.

How to Prove Assisted Living Facility or Nursing Home Abuse

ALF and nursing home abuse generally centers around the legal theory of negligence. Negligence doesn’t always involve intentional acts. In some ALF and nursing home abuse cases, pure carelessness can lead to major injuries and health complications. No matter what the negligent act is, facilities and staff members who cause harm to elders deserve to be held accountable.

If you’re pursuing an ALF or nursing home abuse lawsuit, it’s not enough to say that your elderly family member suffered an injury due to negligence. Instead, you and your team of nursing home abuse lawyers have to prove negligence through the four elements listed below.

  • Duty of Care: The assisted living facility and its staff members owe a duty of care to all their elderly patients.
  • Breached Duty of Care: The staff members or the facility breached that duty of care.
  • Causation: An elderly resident suffered a major injury, health condition, or even wrongful death as a direct result of the breached duty of care.
  • Damages: The elderly person (or their family members) suffered many types of damages due to the breached duty of care which they deserve compensation for.

Maybe you’re a family member of an abused elderly person reading this and proving the four elements of negligence sounds incredibly daunting. Maybe you don’t even know where to begin. That’s where an ALF and nursing home abuse lawyer at Janicek Law comes in. 

Our law firm has successfully litigated dozens of ALF and nursing home injury cases. We know that proving negligence requires substantial evidence such as medical records, witness statements, opinions from medical experts, pictures, etc. When you hire our legal team to represent your elderly loved one in an assisted living facility, you can rest assured that we’ll obtain justice and closure.

Damages for Assisted Living Facility Injuries, Abuse, and Neglect

The goal of an assisted living facility or nursing home abuse lawsuit is to win financial compensation for your elderly loved one’s suffering. Common types of damages that we have won on behalf of our elderly clients include:

  • Past and future medical bills associated with the injury
  • Past and future rehabilitative bills associated with the injury
  • Physical pain and suffering
  • Emotional anguish
  • Funeral and burial expenses if the injury caused a wrongful death

What To Do If You Suspect The Mistreatment Of Your Loved One

If you suspect your elderly loved one is suffering from abuse or neglect, you should explore your legal options with an attorney at Janicek Law before doing anything else.

Our ALF and nursing home lawyers have handled many abuse and neglect cases for families throughout San Antonio and surrounding areas in Texas. We can offer advice on how to proceed and legal recourse options available if necessary. Additionally, we know how expensive it is to pursue legal action. When you hire us to take on your case, there are no upfront fees. We get paid when you get paid for your loved one’s suffering.

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Call Assisted Living Lawyers at Janicek Law Today

If you believe that your elderly loved one is suffering from ALF or nursing home abuse, it’s time to pursue legal help. The personal injury lawyers at Janicek Law are passionate about defending the defenseless. We believe that all negligent assisted living facilities deserve to be held liable for injuring the generations of people who came before us. Hiring an experienced attorney to fight for justice can create safer retirement homes for future generations. Call Janicek Law today at 210-366-4949 for a free consultation.

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