The compassionate and competent team of legal professionals at Sorey & Hoover, LLP has the experience and dedication to help you or a family member recover damages for personal injuries caused by a nursing home accident, abuse, or neglect. Our team includes qualified medical professionals who can help determine the cause of a patient’s injuries, whether the harm could have been prevented, and who may be at fault.
For years, our nursing home abuse lawyers have handled nursing home cases all over the country and have been zealous advocates for quality nursing home care. We understand how devastating it can be to learn that a loved one may have been mistreated in a place that was supposed to protect them. If you or a family member has been a victim of nursing home abuse, contact the firm to get started with a free consultation.
Helping Families Recognize Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect in Texas
Nursing home abuse is not always obvious. Some residents are unable to explain what happened because of dementia, disability, fear, medication, or communication challenges. Others may worry that reporting abuse will make the situation worse. For families, this can make it difficult to know whether a loved one’s injury or sudden decline was caused by unavoidable health issues or by negligent care.
At Sorey & Hoover, LLP, we feel strongly about nursing home abuse, especially since many victims are individuals who cannot fight back, such as the elderly and disabled. In fact, many nursing home abuse cases are not reported immediately because the victims do not have the capacity to report the misconduct to authorities or loved ones. That is why family members should take warning signs seriously and ask questions when something does not seem right.
Choosing an Appropriate Nursing Home
If you have decided to seek care from a nursing home facility for yourself or your loved one, make sure the nursing home you select can provide the quality care that you or your family member deserves. The right facility should be clean, properly staffed, responsive to families, transparent about care plans, and willing to answer questions about resident safety.
Choosing a nursing home can feel overwhelming, especially when a loved one needs care quickly. Taking time to evaluate a facility can help reduce the risk of neglect, isolation, poor supervision, and preventable injuries.
Helpful tips to keep in mind when choosing a nursing home include:
- Get references and recommendations from friends, acquaintances, and professional organizations.
- Prioritize your list and visit several homes.
- Ask the facility for references.
- Ask to speak with current residents.
- Choose a location that is nearby so family and friends can visit.
- Make sure to involve your loved one in making the ultimate decision whenever possible.
During a visit, pay attention to how staff members interact with residents. Are residents clean and appropriately dressed? Are call lights answered? Do staff members seem rushed, dismissive, or overwhelmed? Are there strong odors, dirty rooms, or residents left unattended for long periods? These details can help families identify possible problems before they become serious.
Signs of Nursing Home Neglect or Abuse
Nursing home abuse and neglect can take several forms. Some cases involve intentional harm, while others involve poor staffing, weak supervision, careless hiring, inadequate training, or failure to follow a resident’s care plan. Whether the harm is intentional or caused by neglect, the results can be devastating.
To help determine whether nursing home abuse may be occurring, we recommend that families keep an eye out for the following types of abuse and key traits.
Nursing Home Neglect
Neglect can occur when negligent staff members or administrators fail to provide proper treatment, supervision, nutrition, hygiene, medication, or medical care for an elderly resident. Neglect may happen because a facility is understaffed, poorly managed, or not properly training employees. It may also happen when a nursing home ignores known risks.
Neglect can be identified through warning signs such as:
- A sudden decline in health
- Rapid and unexplained change in weight
- Infections and bed sores
- Dehydration or malnutrition
- Poor hygiene and gangrene
- Medication errors
- Wandering or isolation
Physical Abuse
Poorly trained or abusive staff can mishandle patients when performing daily duties, such as bathing, changing clothes, transferring residents, or helping residents in and out of bed. This can result in physical injuries to your loved one. Whatever the reasoning behind an injury, staff members should always provide the best possible care and be gentle with elderly residents.
You can identify physical abuse by looking out for:
- Unusual bruising, bleeding, cuts, or sores
- Broken bones
- Loose hair or teeth
- Strains and sprains, such as dislocated joints
- Burns
- Emotional withdrawal and anxiety
Emotional Abuse
Abuse does not always have to be physical or neglectful. Abusive staff members and administrators can create a mentally unsafe environment through words, threats, intimidation, ridicule, humiliation, yelling, or isolation. Any action that makes your loved one feel unsafe in a nursing home can have a devastating impact on their mental health, which can also affect their physical health.
Emotional abuse signs to look out for include:
- Anxiety and sudden shyness
- Low self-esteem and lack of eye contact
- Self-harm
- Mood swings
- Isolation from other residents
- Difficulty eating or sleeping
- Refusal of nursing home staff to leave the room during visits
- Denial of access to the patient during visitation hours
Families should pay close attention to sudden personality changes. A resident who becomes fearful around certain staff members, stops participating in activities, or seems afraid to speak privately may be experiencing emotional abuse. Emotional harm can be difficult to prove, but it should never be ignored.
Financial Abuse
The elderly are often targets of financial scams or theft, especially when someone believes they can gain the trust of a vulnerable resident. Financial abuse can be committed by staff members, administrators, caregivers, visitors, family members, or other people with access to the resident’s property or accounts.
When visiting a loved one or reviewing their payment plan, pay attention to:
- Sudden and unusual financial transactions, such as ATM withdrawals
- Lapses in payments or canceled checks
- Disappearance of personal items
- Substandard care in comparison to the cost
- Changes in legal or financial documents, such as wills or powers of attorney
- A lack of understanding about financial changes
- Missing documentation, such as invoices or receipts
- Sudden closeness to the elderly resident on the part of the perpetrator
Sexual Abuse
Sexual abuse can be one of the most difficult types of abuse to approach when it comes to our loved ones, but it can have a devastating impact on their lives. Elderly residents are often unable to properly describe sexual abuse, either because of trauma, fear, dementia, disability, medication, or a lack of understanding about what occurred.
There are ways to identify possible sexual abuse, including:
- Torn, stained, or bloody clothing or bedding
- Unexplained bleeding or bruising, specifically around the genitals
- Contracting an STD or STI
- Physical or emotional withdrawal
- Panic attacks and PTSD
- Self-harm or suicide attempts
- Inappropriate behavior or actions by the victim or abuser
Sexual abuse may involve staff members, visitors, contractors, or other residents. Nursing homes are responsible for taking reasonable steps to protect residents from sexual assault, including proper hiring, supervision, reporting, investigation, and safety measures.
What to Do If You Suspect Nursing Home Abuse
If your loved one is in immediate danger, call emergency services right away. Their safety should always come first. You may also need to report concerns to facility administrators or the appropriate state agency.
After addressing immediate safety concerns, document what you see. Take photographs of injuries, write down dates and names, save messages, keep medical paperwork, and make notes about changes in your loved one’s condition or behavior. Ask the facility for incident reports, care plans, medication records, and explanations for any injuries or sudden decline.
Do not assume that the nursing home’s explanation is complete. Facilities and insurance companies may try to minimize the situation or blame the resident’s age, medical condition, or confusion. Speaking with a Texas nursing home abuse attorney can help your family understand whether neglect or abuse may have occurred.
How Sorey & Hoover, LLP Can Help
Nursing home abuse cases often require detailed investigation. Our legal team can review medical records, facility records, photographs, witness statements, staffing information, inspection histories, care plans, and expert opinions. Because our team includes qualified medical professionals, we can better evaluate whether an injury was consistent with proper care or whether it may have resulted from abuse or neglect.
We can help determine who may be responsible, including staff members, administrators, facility owners, corporate operators, contractors, medical providers, or other residents when the facility failed to protect your loved one. Our goal is to help families pursue accountability, compensation, and safer conditions for vulnerable residents.
Contact Our Texas Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers
If you or a family member has been harmed by nursing home abuse, neglect, or a nursing home accident, Sorey & Hoover, LLP is ready to help. You do not need to know exactly what happened before reaching out. If something feels wrong, your concerns deserve to be taken seriously.
Contact the firm today to get started with a free consultation. Call (903) 230-5600 to speak with our Texas nursing home abuse attorneys about your loved one’s case.
