• 27
  • September
    2011

Growing up, it is hard to imagine that a parent would get older and someday need your consistent help or the help of medical professionals. But every day, adult children place their parents in nursing homes, depending on the idea that the facilities and their professionals are prepared to give their loved one the care he or she needs and deserves.

Unfortunately, sometimes families discover that their loved ones in need of the daily medical care aren't or didn't get the care they needed. Two daughters in Alabama, for example, blame a nursing home and its staff for their mother's untimely death. They filed a wrongful death lawsuit last week against various entities connected to the running of the facility, including some of the employees who work at the specific nursing home.

According to reports, the supposed wrongful death victim was 78 years old when she died due to complications that the plaintiffs believe the medical staff could have prevented. The victim had been a patient at the nursing home for five years when she died in 2009. She suffered from diabetes, memory loss and more, including pain from a hernia surgery.

The patient's death is related to the hernia surgery. A piece of mesh used caused an internal infection that allegedly went untreated for too long and, therefore, resulted in fatal septic shock. The plaintiffs allege that the hospital staff neglected to comprehend the severity of their mother's medical condition and didn't provide her the crucial care that she needed to survive.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs suggest that money was a factor in the supposedly negligent treatment of their mother. The nursing home was reportedly losing money in recent years. The victim's daughters and their lawyers contend that the nursing home took in patients with conditions its staff wasn't qualified to handle in order to boost profits.

Nursing home neglect is very serious, and if there is ever any doubt regarding the care that a loved one is provided, no one should hesitate to take action, get an investigation started and possibly seek legal remedy to the situation. The daughters in the Alabama wrongful death case will never get their mother back, but they can at least say that they tried to hold accountable those whom they believe harmed her.

Source

Al.com: "Wrongful death lawsuit filed against Jefferson County nursing home," Eric Velasco, Sep. 26, 2011