Omaha Nursing Home Abandonment Attorney

Advocating for Injured Omaha Nursing Home Residents

Elder abuse in nursing homes is becoming an increasingly serious problem. When nursing homes are understaffed, or staff are improperly trained, abandonment of older residents can occur. It is important to seek legal counsel to hold negligent nursing homes accountable for the harm they cause to senior citizens.

What Is Nursing Home Abandonment?

It is considered abandonment when a nursing home facility fails to provide the required care for an elderly or infirm person. Abandonment of a resident may be done as intentional abuse or may be the result of staff and nursing home negligence. Examples of nursing home abandonment include:

• Allowing nursing home residents to become dehydrated
• Failing to ensure residents receive proper nutrition
• Failing to properly administer prescribed medications
• Allowing bedsores to develop through failure to turn bedridden residents
• Forcing residents to sit or lie in wet or soiled clothing or sheets
• Failing to attend to residents’ basic hygiene needs
• Failing to assist residents with daily activities
• Failing to respond to residents’ bell calls
• Failing to check on residents regularly
• Leaving residents who have fallen lying on the floor
• Failing to properly secure residents in beds or chairs
• Leaving residents in public areas for extended periods
• Failing to ensure residents receive proper medical care

What Factors Contribute to Nursing Home Abandonment?

Many nursing homes in the U.S. are inadequately staffed or have untrained or underqualified personnel. Residents often received little to no care from true medical professionals. Factors that contribute to nursing home abandonment include:

• Understaffing
• Failure to adequately screen prospective employees
• Improper training of staff
• Lack of supervision of nursing home personnel
• Vulnerability of elderly nursing home residents due to physical and mental limitations
• Chronic fatigue and stress experienced by staff due to poor training, understaffing, and overwork
• Substance abuse on the job by nursing home staff

These factors can lead to resident neglect, isolation, untreated medical conditions, malnutrition, and accidents.

What Are the Consequences of Nursing Home Abandonment?

Nursing home abandonment can have a significant physical, emotional, and psychological impact on residents. It increases the risk of falls, bedsores, infections, dehydration, malnutrition, anxiety, depression, and wrongful death. In addition to harmful physical effects, being abandoned by a caregiver can be emotionally devastating for senior citizens. It may be difficult for them to overcome the trauma or communicate how much they were affected by the experience.

What Legal Options Are Available to Victims and Their Families?

If you have discovered your loved one has been a victim of nursing home abandonment in Omaha, you have options under the law. You may be entitled to file a personal injury lawsuit against the nursing home to recover compensation for the physical and emotional damages your loved one has suffered. Damages may include medical expenses, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and punitive damages (designed to punish the defendant for wrongdoing).

If abandonment resulted in the death of your loved one, you may be entitled to file a wrongful death claim to hold negligent parties accountable and recover compensation for your family’s future. Our Omaha nursing home abandonment attorney can advise you of your options.

We Believe in Holding Omaha Nursing Homes Accountable

Nursing home facilities are entrusted and paid to care for elderly citizens who can no longer care for themselves. It is important to hold negligent nursing homes accountable for the harm they cause to help prevent other older adults from suffering similar injuries.

If you think negligent nursing home abandonment caused your elderly family member harm, contact a Omaha nursing home abuse attorney Bottlinger Law L.L.C. at (402) 505-8234. We won’t stop fighting until you receive justice for your loved one.