Florida Nursing Home Lawyer Blog
Most staff at nursing homes in South Florida and across the country are hardworking, well trained and dedicated professionals who do whatever they can to make sure your loved ones get the best possible treatment and care. However, there are some cases where the negligence of the staff results in serious injuries or even death of a resident.
In many of the cases involving nursing home negligence or abuse, we see instances where staff are not properly trained or supervised, or should never have been given the responsibility to watch over patients in the first place.As our Miami Dade nursing home injury lawyers have seen in far too many cases, some residents of nursing homes are not properly cared for, including when moving them and bathing them, so they develop bedsores and skin breakdown. In some cases, we see staff who are intentionally abusing nursing home residents. Still in other cases, nursing home patients are injured by other patients in the facility.
While a nursing home is not liable for every injury caused by one patient to another, the nursing home has a responsibility to act in a reasonable and prudent manner to prevent foreseeable incidents from occurring. This is done by properly classifying the risks of each patient along with their care needs. One thing to keep in mind is that, while we think of nursing home patients as being elderly and confined to a bed, that is not always the case. There are often much younger patients with serious mental health issues as well as some physical impairments.
While we tend to think of mentally impaired individuals going to mental health hospitals like we see in the movies, in reality there are very few of those facilities left in America, and nursing homes will often fill that void whenever possible.
According to a recent news article from APP.com, a man living in a long-term care nursing home facility was just arrested for sexually assaulting another patient. The alleged attacker was 38 when the incident was said to occur (he is now 39) and the victim is 58-years-old.
Prosecutors have charged defendant with one count of second degree sex assault and an additional count of fourth degree sex assault. These are serious charges, and he faces a possibility of over 10 years in state prison if convicted. However, it should be noted that defendant is presumed innocent unless and until he found guilty in a court of law beyond a reasonable doubt by a judge or jury.
As is often the case in a situation like this, the police are conducting a full investigation to see if there are any other alleged victims at the nursing home facility who have been assaulted but have not come forward. One of the reasons nursing home residents are often targeted is because of the fact that they are often unable to speak out due to their physical or mental health conditions, and, even if they did, they might not make the most compelling witnesses.
Call Freeman Injury Law — 1-800-561-7777 for a free appointment to discuss your rights. Now serving Orlando, West Palm Beach, Port St. Lucie and Fort Lauderdale.
Additional Resources:
Man charged with sex assault at Tinton Falls nursing home, June 30, 2017, By Katie Park, APP.com
More Blog Entries:
Lawmakers in Some States Seek Crackdown on Bad Nursing Homes, March 9, 2017, Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog