Common Nursing Home Injury Lawsuits

Watch as New York Attorney Brett Leitner explains some of the common types of nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuits.

Hi, I’m Brett Leitner, one of the partners at the personal injury firm Leitner Varughese in New York.

Many of you may have family members who were injured in a nursing home, and you may be wondering whether these injuries are acceptable, or whether you should call an attorney to possibly bring legal action.

I wanted to briefly discuss with you two of the common types of Nursing Home Neglect and Injury Lawsuits that we handle on a regular basis.

The first involves BED SORES – also called pressure sores, pressure ulcers, or decubitus ulcers. BED SORES are serious injuries which occur on a daily basis in nursing homes around the country.

So what are bed sores?

They are wounds caused by the breakdown of your skin due to unrelieved pressure on an area of the body.

Bed sores most often affect people who cannot move easily and cannot change their position when lying in bed or sitting in a chair.

These wounds can develop on any part of the body, but most often on bony areas such as your tailbone or coccyx area, the upper back, and the heels and ankles.

These wounds can range from superficial breakdown of the top layer of skin all the way to complete destruction of tissues, ligaments, tendons and bone.

The wounds can vary from the size of a dime to a large cavernous hole in one’s back or buttocks area, in which the bones, ligaments, and other inside parts of the body can actually be seen through the hole.

Advanced bed sores are deadly, and the key to preventing them is to relieve the pressure on these portions of the body on a regular basis, often every two hours, and sometimes more.

Unfortunately, many nursing home residents who cannot move themselves often do not receive the necessary care to prevent bed sores, leading to enormously painful and often deadly consequences.

Another common lawsuit that we handle every day involves FALLS in the Nursing Home.

Many nursing home residents are at risk for falling due to age and various medical conditions.

The nursing home has a duty and a responsibility to properly supervise residents in order to lessen their risk of falling.

However, often due to insufficient nursing home staff, nursing home residents fall ever single day, often leading to catastrophic injuries.

The most common types of injuries for which successful lawsuits are brought include fractures – such as hip fractures, fractures of the leg – including femur or thigh bone fractures, and tibia and fibula or shinbone fractures.

We also see many head and brain injuries which result from falls at the nursing home, including various types of brain bleeding.

These injuries often result in devastating impacts on nursing home residents.

If you or your loved one has been seriously injured in a nursing home, we invite you to call us at (212) 671-1110, or visit us online at www.lvlawny.com, to discuss your legal options.