Baltimore Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys

A Legal Team’s Perspective on Recognizing Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect in Baltimore

Baltimore nursing home abuse and neglect is the end result of caregivers who fail to care for residents at a long-term care facility. Abuse and neglect can happen for a number of reasons.

The most common factor that influences patient care is the ratio of staff to residents. Most Baltimore nursing homes are severely understaffed, so a single nurse or attendant may have to regularly care for upwards of 20 to 30 patients. Each patient requires varying levels of assistance, from simple meal provision all the way to needing assistance in order to move. In many cases, the neglect comes simply from staff being overwhelmed and unable to provide thorough care to each patient because there is just not enough time in the day. This is called nursing home negligence, and can lead to preventable injuries, like bedsores, falls, broken bones, choking, and weight loss.

Sometimes, abuse is intentional. If a nurse or attendant purposefully does something to hurt a resident—such as hitting them, sexually abusing them, or withholding food or medication—this neglect is considered intentional. Whether the abuse suffered by a vulnerable resident at a long-term care facility is negligent or intended, it is still possible to hold the nursing home accountable in the eyes of Maryland law.

When a nursing home accepts your loved one as a resident, they are making a commitment to care for that person. If they are unable to adequately do so, they must inform you so that the resident can be transferred to a more suitable facility. This is why any nursing home that does not provide for all of your loved one’s needs is responsible for abuse or neglect, and violating the residents’ bill of rights. However, there are a number of especially common types of abuse that nursing homes in Baltimore regularly find themselves in trouble for.

Baltimore Nursing Home Abuse Injuries that Commonly Lead to Successful Nursing Home Negligence Lawsuits

• Falls– falls are by far one of the most common types of injuries at nursing homes and long-term care facilities and can cause a number of injuries, from brain bleeds called subdural hematomas to broken bones and other unexplained injuries. Some falls are not preventable and are just accidents, but many times, a resident falls due to a lack of appropriate care. This can happen if the resident is allowed to wander without supervision, if fall risks like obstructions have not been mitigated, or if the resident is placed in a bed that allows him or her to fall out. Nursing homes should conduct a fall assessment when a resident moves in, and the resident’s activities and environment should then be amended to reduce the risk of falls. Not doing this can leave a nursing home liable.
• Bedsores– bedsores are another extremely common type of abuse that occurs in nursing homes. Bedsores, or ulcer-like lesions on the skin, develop when a particular area of the body is under pressure for long periods of time. In nursing homes, this usually occurs when residents who have mobility difficulties are left to lie in the same position for hours at a time. Areas with thinner skin like the tailbone, feet, shoulders, and elbows are particularly vulnerable, but bedsores can happen anywhere, and they are a classic sign of nursing home abuse and neglect. They indicate that staff is not assisting a resident often enough, as simply moving a patient every two hours is sufficient to prevent bedsores. If bedsores occur, they can continue to deepen until they go all the way to the bone; no one wants their family member to suffer from an ulcer-like injury that is deep enough to encounter the bone! In addition to the pain of bedsores, the resident is also vulnerable to dangerous and even deadly conditions like infection, sepsis, and MRSA because of the open wound.
• Malnutrition/dehydration– sometimes, residents with mental or physical limitations need help to get the food and water they require. If a nursing home is understaffed, caregivers tend to accidentally forget to provide meals or simply hand out the same meal to everyone, regardless of dietary needs. This can lead to malnutrition or dehydration, and the lack of individual attention also exposes patients to risks such as choking or aspiration pneumonia, where someone accidentally inhales food particles into the lungs (when food “goes down the wrong pipe) and then causes infection. It is not hard to see how choking, dehydration, and pneumonia could be extremely dangerous or deadly to vulnerable elderly patients in a nursing home.
• Physical abuse– as hard as it is for many to believe, physical abuse at the hands of nursing home staff and even other residents is much more common than many might think. Staff are often overworked and stressed, and this can lead to frustration and a lack of patience. Unfortunately, most reports of physical abuse are swept aside, as staff cites things like memory issues for not believing a resident who says they were assaulted. In addition to ensuring that the nurses themselves treat patients with kindness and respect, it is also the responsibility of the nursing home to protect residents from each other. Sometimes, certain residents are predisposed to outbursts and aggression and may take it out on other residents. This can cause injury, falls, and even a sense of constant fear and stress. Unfortunately, alongside physical abuse also comes sexual abuse, whether by staff or from other residents. Background checks can only do so much to discourage this behavior.

What Does a Baltimore Nursing Home Abuse Case Look Like?

The most common reason for going after a nursing home for abuse or neglect is not to receive damages for yourself; after all, money cannot undo what your loved one suffered. However, monetary damages are the most effective way to drive change in nursing homes and protect others from experiencing the same suffering that your loved one went through. Nursing home abuse cases can be divided into two categories: compensatory and punitive.

Compensatory damages are intended to “compensate” a family for what happened. This is never enough to fix everything that occurred, since money cannot undo pain and suffering, but compensatory damages are a jury’s or arbitrator’s valuation of how much an injury is worth. If you are going after a nursing home in Baltimore for compensatory damages, you might make a case for:

1. Pain and suffering
2. Loss of consortium (when someone is deprived of the family benefits of having a loved one, such as affection and familial relations)
3. Loss of enjoyment of life
4. Distress, both mental and emotional
5. Medical bills
6. Loss of earnings
7. Funeral costs (if a wrongful death has occurred)

Punitive damages are slightly different. “Punitive” damage, which means “punishing,” is intended to actively reprimand the defendant (that is, the long-term care facility). When a Baltimore nursing home goes above mere negligence to “gross negligence” or severe cases of mistreatment, abuse, and neglect, you can receive punitive damages to punish the facility. It could face high fines and even lose its lice