Nursing home residents in New York are guaranteed specific rights including the right to quality care, a comfortable living environment, and participation in activities of their choosing. The unfortunate truth, however, is that many residents are deprived of these rights, and some are outright abused or financially exploited by their caregivers.
If you suspect that your loved one has been neglected or abused in a nursing home, you should take immediate action. Call 911 if anyone is in imminent danger. You can also report the abuse or neglect by calling the NYS Department of Health's Nursing Home Complaint Hotline at 1-888-201-4563. You should then contact an attorney to discuss how to pursue monetary damages from the facility.
Read on to learn about a few common forms of nursing home abuse and neglect in New York:
1. Physical Abuse: Signs of physical abuse include unexplained bruises, restraint marks, and injuries that are in different stages of healing.
2. Active Neglect: If a caregiver purposefully fails to fulfill their responsibilities toward a nursing home resident, this may constitute active neglect. Examples include abandonment or depriving a resident of food, water, or medical care. Signs of active neglect include dehydration, malnutrition, and changes in mood or behavior.
3. Passive Neglect: Even if the neglect your loved one experienced was unintentional, you may still have grounds for a claim against the facility. Examples of passive neglect include failing to provide medication or reasonable hygienic assistance. Passive neglect can lead to bedsores, preventable falls, and other potentially fatal injuries and illnesses.
4. Financial Exploitation: Unscrupulous caregivers sometimes take advantage of nursing home residents through financial exploitation. Examples include forging signatures, falsifying records, and stealing.
5. Sexual Abuse: Any non-consensual contact in a nursing home may constitute abuse.
6. Emotional Abuse: Emotional and mental abuse might seem difficult to prove, but an experienced nursing home abuse attorney can combine the relevant statutes and case law with the available evidence to demonstrate how a resident has suffered psychologically, often through humiliation, intimidation, or threats.
7. Administrative Negligence: Nursing home administrators must take reasonable steps to ensure their residents are safe and receive the care they need. Administrators are negligent when they fail to perform reasonable background checks before hiring new caregivers, fail to ensure medical equipment is properly maintained, or fail to keep the facility sufficiently staffed with qualified personnel.
Discuss Your Case with a New York Nursing Home Abuse Attorney
The nursing home abuse attorneys at Leitner Varughese are proud to help victims and their families fight for the justice and compensation they deserve. We have won more than $100,000,000 in nursing home negligence and malpractice cases.
We offer free case evaluations and accept nursing home abuse and neglect cases on a contingency fee basis. That means if we don’t resolve the case in your favor, you won’t owe any attorney’s fees. To speak with a member of our team, contact us at 855-585-2969 or send us a message HERE.
