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Author Archives: Adam Peck

 About Adam Peck

Adam J. Peck, ESQ is a principal with Peck Law Group, APC. In 2008, Mr. Adam Peck received his Juris Doctorate from Whittier Law School where he graduated Cum Laude. His practice is primarily dedicated to representing Elders, Dependent Adults, along with their loved ones and family members, who have suffered horrific personal injuries.
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Why Was My Mother Dehydrated?

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Why Was My Mother Dehydrated?

Dehydration is a serious health problem. Defined as an excessive loss of bodily fluid, dehydration can cause serious health complications including seizures, kidney damage or even death. Unfortunately, seniors in nursing homes are often at risk of dehydration if they do not get adequate care from nursing home staff.

If your parent or relative in a nursing home develops dehydration or complications related to dehydration, this is a clear sign that the nursing home staff was not doing its job and providing a reasonable level of adequate care and assistance.  The nursing home can be liable for the neglect of your relative and the injured patient or family members can pursue a claim for nursing home abuse and neglect with the help of an experienced attorney.

Why Do Nursing Home Patients Receive Inadequate Water?

There are a lot of potential reasons why nursing home patients may not be given a sufficient amount of water, leading to dehydration. Some of the factors that can lead to a nursing home patient not receiving water include:

  • Undiagnosed clinical issues such as undiagnosed dysphagia.
  • Cognitive and functional impairments that prevent nursing home patients from providing themselves with sufficient water.
  • Patients having difficulty swallowing and not being provided with the proper support or assistance.
  • Patients inability to communicate thirst.
  • Lack of attention to the patient’s desired beverage preference (some patients may not like to drink water and will need other beverages to provide proper hydration).
  • Overstaffing at the nursing home resulting in inadequate attention to patient needs.
  • Undertrained staff who is unable to recognize dehydration or tend to patients care.
  • Inadequate nursing home policies that fail to ensure patients receive or have access to water in between meals.
  • Lack of supervision of staff.
  • Neglect or intentional wrongdoing by nursing home staff.

When a nursing home does not have reasonable policies in place or does not provide a sufficient amount of staff to care for patients, the nursing home can be considered negligent and can be liable for any injuries that develop from dehydration or other lapses in care.  A nursing home can also be vicariously liable for the negligence of its staff. In other words, if an individual staff member or group of staff members fails to live up to the obligation to provide reasonable quality care for the nursing home residents, then it is as if the nursing home itself was negligent.

Insufficient water and dehydration are clear signs that a nursing home failed in some way to provide appropriate care to a patient. As such, patients or relatives of nursing home patients who received insufficient water should consult with an experienced attorney for help pursuing a damage claim.

– from Steven Peck, Senior Nursing Home Abuse Attorney at Peck Law Group

Infections and Bed Sores

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California needs more regulations for assisted living facilities

Bed sores are wounds that develop in the skin as a result of pressure being placed on the skin. These sores, also called pressure ulcers, develop because a bedridden or wheelchair bound patient remains in one position for too long and this does damage to the skin. Bed sores can progress through different stages, which Stage I usually just mild skin abrasions and Stages III and IV open wounds and serious damage to the tissue, sometimes down to the bone.

Unfortunately, with open wounds in the skin, patients who have bed sores are prone to developing infections. Infected bed sores can be serious or even fatal. Infected bed sores are also a clear sign that something has gone very wrong in the nursing home or care setting where the patient is being cared for. As a result, when a patient develops infected bed sores, the patient or his family members should consult with a nursing home abuse and neglect attorney for information on taking legal action.

Infections and Bed Sores

Whenever you have a cut or an open wound, there is the potential for bacteria to get inside and for an infection to begin. Unfortunately, bed sores are large open wounds so there is great potential for them to become infected. An individual with bed sores is also generally bedridden or seriously ill already and thus his or her immune system may be unable to fight off the infection.

While patients with bed sores can develop many different types of infections, some examples of different types of problems that can develop include:

  • Cellulitis
  • Staph infections in the skin
  • Sepsis, which is a systemic infection that can lead to every system in the body rapidly deteriorating
  • Necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh eating bacteria

These and other infections can easily develop when patients do not get the care that they need. These infections are most likely to develop when:

  • The patient has undiagnosed or untreated bed sores.
  • The bed sores are not properly bandaged.
  • The bandages on the bed sores are not regularly changed.
  • The patient is left in soiled bedclothes or proper hygiene practices are not followed

Often these problems occur as a result of under staffing in nursing home, as a result of uncaring staff, or due to inadequate policies in the nursing home. When a nursing home fails to protect its patients and the staff lets those patients down, this can be an example of nursing home neglect. Nursing home neglect is a breach of the legal duty that care providers owe to patients and those who are injured by it can pursue a nursing home neglect and abuse lawsuit with the help of an experienced nursing home abuse lawyer.

Bad Hygiene and Bed Sores

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Bed sores are skin wounds that are caused by pressure. When nursing home patients remain in the same position for a long time, the pressure from their bones and bodies pushing into the bed or wheelchair can damage the skin.

Bed sores generally begin as mild skin abrasions but, without proper care and treatment, can progress into ulcers or wounds that cause deterioration of the skin, tissues and muscles. If bed sores remain untreated for long enough, the damage can penetrate deep into the tissue, muscle and bone, causing severe pain and infection and potentially resulting in death.

Unfortunately while pressure is the cause of bed sores, there are a lot of contributing factors that can make bed sores more likely to develop, more likely to worsen and more likely to become infected and potentially fatal. One of the major contributing factors that can cause bed sores and make them worse is bad hygiene.

Bad Hygiene is a Danger to Nursing Home Patients

A patient who is not kept clean and whose bed and covers are damp or moist will have a significantly increased chance of developing bed sores and of developing complications associated with bed sores.

Unfortunately, most patients who are bedridden or wheelchair bound and who are prone to bed sores due to being unable to change their position will also be unable to tend to their own hygiene needs. These immobile patients will need to count on nursing home staff to clean them so they do not develop a build-up of sweat and dirt. Patients will also depend upon the nursing home staff to make going to the bathroom possible, and to clean soiled bed covers and clothing.

If nursing home staff falls short in any of the duties that they have to their bedridden and wheelchair bound patients, the staff may be considered negligent in the eyes of the law. As such, poor hygiene that leads to bedsores can be an example of nursing home neglect that leads to a nursing home injury lawsuit.

Poor hygiene is also one of the major factors that visiting friends and family members should look for when visiting a family member in a nursing home. If you see that your relative in a nursing home is not being kept clean, if his or her room is soiled or if the bed clothes look dirty, you should take action to make sure that the proper care is being provided.

Nursing home patients don’t deserve to develop bed sores or complications because a nursing home fails to do its job. Unfortunately, understaffing, inadequate training, poor policies and a host of other problems can all cause a patient to be left without sufficient care. When this happens, the injured victim may have a right to compensation for the harm endured due to the nursing home negligence.

– from Steven Peck, Senior Attorney at Peck Law Group
 

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