Moving a loved one to a nursing home residence is never easy, but knowing that they’ll have medical care, people to help them stay healthy and maintain their nutrition, and social activities they can attend can show the clear benefits of senior living. However, if the nursing home doesn’t have the experienced staff or secure policies to keep residents safe, then your loved one’s wellbeing could be put in danger. If your loved one has been hurt or neglected in their nursing home, you can seek help to fight for them. A Harlingen, TX nursing home abuse lawyer from Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm can help you.
Our lawyers will go through the legal process with you and your loved one. We understand how shocking it can be to learn that your loved one wasn’t getting the care they deserve. We’ll seek full and fair compensation to cover their medical bills, pain and suffering, and other losses. Before learning more about how we can help you, let’s go over how abuse and neglect can happen in a nursing home.
What Are the Different Types of Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect?
Knowing the different ways that your loved one could be abused or neglected in their nursing home can help keep them safe because you’re looking out for them. The different kinds of abuse and neglect include:
- Physical. Using physical force to punish or handle your loved one can cause injuries and put your loved one’s life in danger.
- Emotional. Preventing residents from seeing others, leaving their room, and being disrespectful toward them are forms of emotional abuse.
- Financial. Stealing money and forging checks are possible ways that exploitative staff could harm your loved one. Some may also steal belongings.
- Sexual. Subjecting a resident to anything of a sexual nature is abuse.
- Neglect. If your loved one isn’t being seen regularly and getting the attention they need, they may have a dirty room, miss meals and medications, and their overall health can decline. Lack of awareness of staff can also lead to residents wandering when they’re a fall risk.
While abuse is usually when staff make choices intended to harm your loved one and neglect is from a home not being able to meet your loved one’s needs, both put your loved one’s health in danger. A Harlingen, TX nursing home abuse lawyer will stand up for your loved one. We’ll look into who was responsible for their care and how they caused them harm. You can count on us to do everything possible to hold the negligent nursing home accountable for their actions.
How Can You Detect Signs of Nursing Home Abuse?
When you’re visiting your loved one in their nursing home, you may pick up on signs that indicate your family member isn’t getting the care they deserve. These signs can be with your loved one, their environment, and how staff act when you visit. It’s important to know what to look for as your loved one may not be able to tell you because of health conditions, fear of retaliation, or because they’re embarrassed to tell you.
Your elderly family member may have injuries, continued illnesses, or they may seem to be acting strangely. Injuries can indicate staff is physically harming them, and illness can indicate the home doesn’t regularly sanitize or keep your loved one’s room clean. If your loved one’s demeanor changes and they seem withdrawn or agitated, then they could be experiencing abuse of some sort.
When you’re in their home, look to see if there are spills or messes that haven’t been cleaned up or if surfaces have been dusted. Your loved one’s room should also be clean, as well as their clothes and bedsheets.
Staff may also seem to hover, keep interrupting you and your loved one, or not leave you alone with them at all. This could be an intimidation tactic and to prevent them from telling you anything.
If you notice any issues and bring them up with the nursing home, but nothing changes, then you should get your loved one to safety and reach out to a nursing home abuse lawyer as soon as possible.
Our Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys Protect Residents’ Rights
Texas residents have the rights to dignity, respect, freedom of choice, privacy and confidentiality, and more. A Harlingen, TX nursing home abuse lawyer at Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm knows the various rights that your loved one has and we’ll find the ones that the nursing home violated. Some specific rights include:
- The right to live in safe, decent, and clean conditions.
- Freedom from discrimination based on age, race, religion, sex, nationality, and more.
- Choice in personal affairs, medical care, benefits, and services.
- Access to money and property they’ve put at the facility.
- Participate in facility activities and ones outside of the facility
- Privacy
- Refusal of treatment
- Make a complaint about care and get a response to fix the situation
- Free from retaliation of making a complaint
These are just a few examples of the rights that nursing home residents have. All too often, residents and their families may not know all the rights that residents have or what to do if a nursing home is violating them. Our lawyers can explain your loved one’s rights and use the evidence from records and reports to prove they were abused and suffered injuries because of it. We’ll seek justice for them.
Contact the Attorneys at Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm
If your older family member was injured in their nursing home, they deserve to have representation that will fight for their rights and future. They deserve to live with respect and dignity. We’ll help you and your loved one stand up to the abusive or negligent nursing home that allowed these actions to occur. Our lawyers won’t be intimidated by other representation trying to underplay what your loved one went through. We have years of experience with this area of the law and are ready to fight for your loved one’s best interests.
We can answer your questions and start the legal process together. Reach out to use today for a free case consultation. You can rest assured that experienced nursing home abuse attorneys will be looking out for your loved one and seeking compensation for the injuries they suffered. They’ll be able to get the care they need and will be able to live in a safe environment where their health requirements will be met.
