Germantown Nursing Home Bedsore Injury Attorney

Bedsores typically affect bedridden or otherwise immobile people. If someone doesn’t receive proper treatment and is immobile for too long, they can develop bedsores.

Bedsores often start as small rashes, comparable to eczema. When they go untreated, though, they can develop into severe lesions. In severe cases, a victim’s bones, tendons, and muscles may be exposed. They usually appear on these parts of the body:

• Feet
• Back 
• Buttocks area
• Back of the head

Bedsore Complications

Bedsores on their own are problematic. However, they can also expose the elderly to a range of more serious conditions, like:

• Bone infections: Osteomyelitis, the medical term for bone infections, can cause pain, swelling, or gangrene. This condition often necessitates surgery and IV antibiotic treatment. 
• Gangrene: Gangrene occurs when oxygen and blood flow are cut off to part of the body. This condition can result in the loss of limbs and death.
• Sepsis: Sepsis is a condition triggered by the body’s reaction to an infection. It’s considered a medical emergency. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in 3 patients who dies in a hospital has sepsis.
• Cellulitis: Cellulitis is an infection of the skin. It can lead to bone and blood infections, and sepsis in more severe cases.

Bedsore Risk Factors

Age can increase the risk of someone suffering from bedsore complications, as can:

• Smoking
• Improper care at a nursing home
• Bad diet
• Previous bedsore complications
• A poor or weakened immune system

What Is the Value of a Nursing Home Bedsore Injury Case?

As previously noted, bedsore injuries can have a range of outcomes. Minor cases can be treated quickly. More serious cases may result in a life-threatening condition like sepsis or gangrene.

Without legal analysis, it can be almost impossible to estimate the fair value of a case. However, common damages involved in bedsore injury cases include:

• Wrongful death: If the complications of your loved one’s bedsore injuries led to their passing, you may qualify for funeral expenses and other compensation.
• Medical expenses: The complications of a bedsore injury can incur considerable medical expenses. These damages can address those costs.
• Pain and suffering: Bedsores and their complications can be incredibly painful. You can receive compensation that accounts for the pain and suffering associated with your injury case. If you are filing on behalf of a loved one, their emotional trauma will be considered.

How Could a Nursing Home Bedsore Injury Attorney Help Me?

Bedsores can have fatal complications. You may need to spend a considerable amount of money to help protect your elderly loved one. A Germantown nursing home bedsore injury attorney can provide three crucial forms of assistance:

• Give you peace of mind: With a lawyer on your side, you won’t need to worry about the specifics of your nursing home bedsore injury case. They’ll focus on legal matters so you can focus on your family.
• Help you offset medical expenses: As noted previously, bedsore injuries can have expensive complications. A legal settlement can offset these costs.
• Ensure that justice is served: If a nursing home isn’t providing adequate care to its patients, the public should know. A lawsuit or insurance claim could protect future patients from being exposed to negligent care.

To provide this assistance, a lawyer can:

• Examine a nursing home’s history to see if there is a pattern of negligence
• Identify the liable party in a nursing home bedsore injury case
• Communicate with insurers and the liable party
• Submit requests for information
• Use available evidence to build your case
• File a lawsuit if needed

Assigning Liability

Liability is an important part of any legal case. To win your case, you need to figure out who’s responsible. Your lawyer can manage this aspect of a bedsore injury case. They’ll need to prove these four qualifiers to assign liability: 

• That the liable party was responsible for providing your loved one an adequate standard of care
• That the liable party failed to provide this standard of care, either through negligence or lack of training
• That this failure led to your loved one developing bedsores and bedsore complications
• That your loved one has verifiable injuries that stem from the liable party’s negligence

Contact Brown & Barron online today to schedule a free case review with a with a bedsore injury lawyer serving Germantown.