Many Alexandria families rely on nursing homes to care for their elderly loved ones. However, when nursing homes fail to meet their responsibilities, elderly residents with mental or physical disabilities may be vulnerable to abuse by nurses, nursing home staff, and management teams.
If you experience or suspect abuse in a nursing home or assisted care facility, an Alexandria nursing home abuse lawyer from Laborde Earles Injury Lawyers could help you protect yourself or your elderly family member. To quickly address neglect or abuse in a nursing home, it may be beneficial to hire a personal injury attorney from our team as soon as possible.
Damages You May Collect in a Nursing Home Neglect Case
Nursing home residents have a right to freedom from neglect and abuse. If you—or your Alexandria nursing home abuse attorney from our team—can demonstrate that a nursing home deviated from the acceptable standard of care, you may be able to recover damages.
Damage awards for nursing home abuse cases in Alexandria may include compensation for both economic and non-economic damages.
Economic Damages
Economic damages may include:
- The cost of medical care needed to treat injuries
- The cost of relocating your loved one to a new facility
- Reimbursement for the time they spent at the nursing home while being abused
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages cover the effects on your loved one’s life resulting from the abuse, including:
- Pain and suffering
- Mental anguish
- Emotional distress
- Loss of enjoyment in life
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Our Law Firm Can Help You Get Justice for Your Loved One
If you or your elderly or disabled loved one suffered abuse at the hands of a nursing home or adult care provider, you may feel helpless and angry. On top of that, you may not know what to do about it. The nursing home abuse lawyers at our firm are your advocates for justice. We are well-versed in residents’ rights and the laws governing long-term care facilities at the state and federal levels.
Let us handle your nursing home abuse case and fight to hold the negligent party responsible. When we take on your case, we will:
- File a complaint with the proper authority or regulating agency, if necessary and desired
- Inform the liable party’s insurance of your personal injury claim
- Investigate the circumstances of the abuse
- Collect evidence of the abuse, including medical records, photos, videos, witness testimonies, and other documents
- Communicate with all parties on your behalf
- Negotiate a fair settlement for injuries suffered
- File a lawsuit against the liable party before the statute of limitations expires and represent you or your loved one in court, if needed
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Who Is Liable for Nursing Home Abuse?
Healthcare providers are expected—and required by law—to provide a reasonable standard of care to patients. Legally, this means they must treat each patient as another reasonable healthcare provider would. You can read about the rights and level of care residents can expect in Louisiana nursing homes from the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH).
Neglecting or mistreating a nursing home resident violates the standard laid out in the Nursing Home Reform Act. This act entitles nursing home residents to reasonable privacy, a safe environment, and freedom from abuse and neglect.
The Facility Could Be Liable for Your Losses
Any nursing home employee may directly abuse a patient or engage in negligent behavior that amounts to abuse, including:
- Physicians
- Nurses
- Nursing assistants
- Employees
- Administrators
You can take legal action against the negligent healthcare provider and the nursing home that employed them, as both parties could be potentially liable under Louisiana’s vicarious liability statute, CC §2320.
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The Statutes of Limitations in Nursing Home Abuse Cases in Louisiana
You must act quickly once you realize someone in a nursing home is abusing your loved one because you typically only have one year following the abuse to file a lawsuit, according to CC §3492. If your loved one passed away due to abuse in their nursing home, you generally have one year from their death to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the facility under CC §2315.2.
If you do not start your case within this timeframe, a judge could bar you from seeking the compensation your loved one is entitled to.
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Types of Abuse in Alexandria You Can Sue For
Nursing home abuse and neglect can occur in many ways. Some of the most common forms of abuse in a nursing home setting include:
Physical Abuse
Intentional physical harm done to a nursing home resident is physical abuse. This can include hitting, punching, kicking, pushing, suffocating, forcing them to do unwanted or harmful things, or other physically violent acts.
Verbal Abuse
Saying harmful things is a form of abuse common amongst the elderly. A verbal mistreatment study published in the Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect in 2014 found that 38% of elderly people experienced verbal abuse. Verbal abuse is a form of emotional and psychological abuse. Some examples of verbal abuse are:
- Name-calling
- Insulting
- Swearing
- Yelling
- Threatening
- Belittling
- Criticizing
- Blaming
- Scolding
- Talking down to elderly or disabled residents
Emotional and Psychological Abuse
Emotional and psychological abuse refers to verbal, non-verbal, and physical acts that inflict distress, anguish, mental or emotional pain, or fear upon someone else. In addition to the verbal abuse listed above, emotional or psychological abuse examples include isolating, humiliating, harassing, disrespecting, undermining, or gaslighting another person.
Sexual Abuse
Unwanted sexual interaction with an elder or disabled person is abuse. It includes sexual penetration, unwanted touching, sexual harassment, and forced viewing of sexual conduct or images.
Financial Abuse
Many elderly people are taken advantage of financially due to their reliance on others for assistance. Caregivers may take their possessions, cash, credit cards, or debit cards and use them without authorization. They may also alter financial documents and accounts.
Neglect
Failing to provide the proper and necessary standard of care to nursing home residents is considered negligence. This may include unintentional acts such as forgetting a patient’s medication or willful acts such as withholding a patient’s meals.
There Are Numerous Examples of Nursing Home Abuse
Abuse in a nursing home or other caregiving facility can take many forms, such as:
- Failing to supervise a patient
- Failing to handle a patient properly
- Physically or sexually assaulting a patient
- Forcing a patient to do something they cannot or do not want to do
- Proving incorrect medication
- Stealing from a patient
- Neglecting to report a patient’s complaint
- Neglecting to feed, provide medication, or meet the needs of a patient
- Failing to clean a patient, their room, or common areas of the nursing home
Look for These Signs of Nursing Home Abuse
Nursing home residents suffering from abuse may exhibit bedsores, bruises, scratches, cuts, abrasions, and smells that suggest a lack of changing or bathing. Patients may also express fear or discomfort around certain staff members or other residents.
A nursing home abuse lawyer from our team can investigate the cause of concern and work to protect your loved one from their situation, even if it requires removing the resident from the nursing home and filing an action against the facility.
Get Help from an Alexandria Nursing Home Abuse Attorney Today
If you suspect nursing home abuse, it may be time to contact the office of an Alexandria nursing home abuse lawyer. Reach out to Laborde Earles Injury Lawyers today to discuss your situation during your free, no-obligation consultation and begin pursuing your case.
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