Author Archives: Adam Peck

Bedsores, Pressure Sores aka Decubitus Ulcerfs are a sign of Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect says California Elder Abuse Lawyer Steven Peck,

Due to the much lower staffing in nursing homes, patients are forced to wait longer for care, such as the changing of soiled linens and clothes. If an older person cannot change themselves then they are forced to sit or lay in their own feces until a caregiver arrives. While the elderly wait in their feces their skin is being weakened by the moisture making them more susceptible to bedsores. And sadly, bedsores are the underlying cause of death for several thousand Americans each year indicates Orange County, California Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorney Steven Peck.

WHAT IS A BEDSORE?

Bedsores, also called pressure sores, pressure ulcers, or decubitus ulcers, are areas of damaged skin and tissue that develop when sustained pressure – usually from lying in a bed or sitting in a wheelchair – cuts off circulation to vulnerable parts of your body. Bedsores are preventable. Essentially, when people who are entrusted with the care of those who lack the mobility to move themselves shirk their responsibilities, then the immobile develop bedsores. Without adequate blood flow, which would occur in the turning and moving of a susceptible population, the affected tissue dies.

Bedsores can develop quickly, progress rapidly and are often difficult to heal. Caring for one deep tissue bedsore can cost tens of thousands if not hundereds of thousands of dollars to treat and cure. Unnecessary debridement surgery can also take a major toll of the affected patient. And health experts agree: bedsores do not have to occur. Preventive measures can maintain the skin’s integrity and health through proper blood flow.

Sepsis is a life threatening blood infection that kills millions of people. In the United States, sepsis kills more than 200,000 people every year, taking the lives of more people than from lung and breast cancer combined indicates California Elder Abuse Attorney Steven Peck.

The cause of sepsis is by a bacterial infection that can originate anywhere in the body. Most commonly, the infection that is the cause of sepsis will start from the kidneys, the liver, the gall bladder, the bowel, the skin or the lungs. Bacterial infections that can be the cause of sepsis can also stem from intravenous lines, surgical wounds, surgical drains and sites of skin ulcers or bedsores. The high prevalence of sepsis is attributed to many different factors, one of them being the widespread nation-wide epidemic of nursing home abuse and neglect.

There are nearly 17,000 nursing homes in the United States that care for 1.6 million residents. This figure is expected to quadruple to 6.6 million residents by 2050. Under qualified, under trained, underpaid and understaffed nursing home workers, sometimes with previous records of abuse and/or neglect, caring for the million plus residents in need of specialized care has proved inadequate. Severe bedsores being the cause of sepsis, and sometimes death, continue to be reported among other serious violations.

In trials involving the development of bed sores at a nursing home or hospital,
the frequent defense arguments center around both inevitability of the wounds
and perhaps where the actual wound originated. While these arguments indeed
have their place, my experience is that these arguments are brought into play
for the purpose of bringing an element of confusion into many pressure sore
trials

By the signifcance of a recent verdict in a trial against an assisted living facility
and home health care agency, I’m guessing there wasn’t much second guessing
on the juries end!

After a week long trial, a Georgia jury ordered Country Crossing Assisted Living,
its individual owner and Hutcheson Home Health Care to pay more than $9.5
million to the family of a deceased patient, Charlotte Pauline Dean.
Both Hutcheson Home Health Care and Country Crossing Assisted Living were
responsible for caring for Ms. Dean prior to her death in 2006. According to
evidence presented at trial, Ms. Dean’s death was related to multiple infected
pressure sores while the defendant’s claimed that the she only required
treatment for one.
By the signifcance of this verdict, it it apparent that not only did the jury
believe the case presented by the plaintif’s (the woman’s family), but perhaps
more importantly, that the defendants’ care was inadequate to say the least.