Richmond, VA Nursing Home Negligence Attorney
Searching for the Right Richmond Nursing Home Abuse Attorney? This is All We Do.
Senior Justice Law Firm represents families impacted by elder abuse and neglect throughout Richmond Virginia. Bed sores, broken bones, patient falls and wrongful death are inexcusable. Let our Virginia nursing home abuse law firm guide you on your journey to justice.
Call or Live Chat with Senior Justice Law Firm today for a completely free Richmond nursing home abuse attorney case consultation 757-530-4255.
Signs of Abuse or Neglect in Richmond Nursing Homes
- Bed sores or pressure ulcers
- Falls and broken bones
- Significant weight loss greater than 10% of the resident’s total weight
- Untreated infection
- Sexual assault or physical abuse
- Wrongful death
If your parent or loved one suffered any of the above injuries inside a Virginia facility, speak with our Richmond nursing home abuse law firm immediately to learn more about your legal rights.
Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawyers Representing Victims in Richmond Virginia
If you or a loved one are considering retirement options, Virginia is a common place that comes to mind. Preferred for its beautiful beaches and mild weather, Virginia—and the area surrounding Richmond in particular—is a popular location for those getting on in years. This means that nursing homes and long-term care facilities are a common staple in the region.
Unfortunately, just because Richmond is a popular retirement destination full of nursing homes does not mean that your loved one will be cared for appropriately in those facilities. The Richmond area consistently struggles to provide sufficient care to residents in nursing homes, and this leaves people vulnerable to abuse, neglect, and even death at an elder care facility.
If you suspect that you loved one suffered abuse or neglect at a Richmond nursing home, reach out to Senior Justice Law Firm at (757) 530-4255.
We are Richmond nursing home abuse attorneys who work solely on nursing home abuse cases as our primary focus. We want to help families seek justice against Richmond nursing homes that abused or neglected their loved ones.
THE QUALITY OF RICHMOND NURSING HOMES
Richmond Nursing Homes Cited for Neglect
While Virginia as a whole is one of the most popular places to retire, few locations can beat Richmond. From walking slowly through the lush beauty of the Maymont estate or taking a trip to nearby Washington, D.C., the area is bustling with fun and easy activities for the older folks who want to be out and about.
Regardless of whether they choose to stay active outside or just rest indoors, elders in Richmond have their pick of a wide variety of elder car facilities to call home at the end of the day. Unfortunately, the majority of the nursing homes in and around Richmond come in with bare minimum scores in their inspection reviews—and some have even been cited or fined directly for abuse and neglect.
There are 17 nursing homes within the 10 miles surrounding the city center of Richmond, and of these, roughly a quarter have been fined and placed on the state’s list of nursing homes with notoriously poor conditions. Even those that avoided the list still received scores as low as 1 out of 5 in quality of care areas such as malnutrition and staff to patient ratio.
If you suspect that your loved one suffered abuse, neglect, or even death at a nursing home in Richmond as a result of poor care, get in touch with an experienced nursing home abuse lawyer in Richmond. We can help you plan your next steps in filing a lawsuit against the facility—not only for monetary compensation but so that the nursing home must be forced to change its practices going forward.
ELDER ABUSE AND NEGLECT IN RICHMOND, VA
What Abusive Richmond Nursing Homes Look Like
Across the country, the majority of nursing homes are owned by for-profit companies, and Richmond is no exception. Because for-profit companies by nature seek to make money, filling all of the beds in a nursing home (and putting as many beds in nursing homes as possible) is in their best interest. This often leaves staff severely overworked, which leads to their inability to properly attend to individual residents.
When the staff at a nursing home do not provide the care that residents need and this results in injury, suffering, or even death, the facility can be held liable for negligence. Sometimes, staff are also responsible for intentional mistreatment as well. Regardless of whether the abuse your loved one experienced was the result of intentional harm or negligence, you can still file a suit against the nursing home.
While many indicators of nursing home abuse and neglect are vague and can be hard to determine, some signs of mistreatment are easy to see. They include:
- Falls– When it comes to nursing home neglect, falls are one of the most common types of injury. Nursing homes have a responsibility to assess each resident for fall risk and plan accordingly. However, if steps have not been taken to mitigate someone’s risk of falling—such as by providing a bed that is hard to roll out of or removing tripping hazards from the room—a nursing home can be held liable for negligence.
In a vulnerable population such as the older folks who tend to live at a nursing home, a fall can be a serious or even deadly event. It can lead unexplained injuries that you might take notice of when you are visiting your family member, but a fall can also result in broken bones and brain bleeds (also known as subdural hematomas).
- Bedsores– If you are keeping an eye out for signs of abuse and neglect in your loved one’s nursing home, bedsores are one of the most clear-cut answers you could receive. Bed sores, which appear as skin lesions that look like ulcers, only happen when someone has been lying in the same position for too long, putting their weight on small or thin-skinned areas of the body (like the tailbone or shoulders). It is the responsibility of nurses and staff to help residents move every few hours, and failure to do so often results in bed sores.
There is no medical condition or situation that causes bedsores besides neglect—which means that if your loved one is experiencing them, you have an obvious case of abuse. Bedsores can grow until the reach all the way to the bone, which is naturally not only extremely painful but also dangerous, as your loved one is exposed to infection, MRSA, and potentially fatal sepsis.
- Malnutrition/dehydration– The understaffing epidemic in nursing homes is felt in all areas of care, but few are as dramatic as in residents’ food and drink patterns. Staff who do not have the time to sit with residents while they eat and drink can leave their patients in risky positions. Those with mobility issues may not be able to eat and drink as much as they need without help, and overworked staff might not provide food with the nutrients and ingredients that specific residents need. All of these factors can cause malnutrition and dehydration that can be fatal if left untreated.
Similarly, when residents are left alone at mealtime, the risk of choking or food or water “going down the wrong pipe” (aspiration pneumonia) is much higher.
- Physical and sexual abuse– Unfortunately, even despite avenues to report abuse and background checks for staff at facilities, physical and sexual abuse is not uncommon in nursing homes. The memory and cognition issues that many residents face in nursing homes make their accounts of such abuse difficult to record and report, and they tend not to be believed when they do report such abuse to staff.
While both physical and sexual abuse can come directly from frustrated staff, it can also happen as a result of other residents who have become aggressive or confused. It is the nursing home’s responsibility to protect your family member from these situations.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS IN FILING A RICHMOND NURSING HOME NEGLIGENCE CLAIM
If you are considering filing a lawsuit for nursing home abuse in Richmond or nearby areas in Virginia, you might be feeling overwhelmed and hopeless. What use is there in receiving monetary damages when you know that no amount of money can fix the suffering and pain that your family member experienced?
It is important to remember, though, that going after a nursing home for its money is one of the single most effective ways to punish the facility and effect lasting change. For-profit organizations live by their pocketbook, and cutting into the profits is a strong incentive for them to change their practices so that they do not have to pay out further damages in the future. This is the best you can do to protect other residents at the home going forward.
Within the scope of a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit are a variety of separate conditions and things to consider, but some of the most common aspects of a suit include:
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of consortium (when someone is deprived of affection, relations, and other family benefits of having a loved one)
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Mental and emotional distress
- Medical bills
- Loss of earnings
- Funeral costs (if a wrongful death has occurred)
When a nursing home has a suit brought against it for abuse, one of the main goals is to show that the facility committed negligence. However, in particularly serious cases where severe negligence occurred, the charge can be increased to “gross negligence,” where more stringent penalties apply. Locations guilty of gross negligence may be fined heavily by the government or even have their licensing revoked, forcing them to shut down.
NURSING HOMES IN RICHMOND
There are almost 20 nursing homes in Richmond, and multiple facilities have been fined by the government after confirmed cases of abuse and neglect. Some of these nursing homes include (but are not limited to):
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Richmond Nursing Home Neglect News
Richmond is one of the most popular retirement locations for older folks, and it is often in the news across Virginia. Unfortunately, when it comes to nursing homes, its presence in the media is rarely a positive thing.
Envoy of Westover Hills, mentioned above, is just one of a number of facilities that local news sources have been reporting on due to their confirmed cases of negligent behavior. Their failure to supply residents with working air conditioners left some rooms as hot as 91 degrees—and some residents were not provided with fans as a backup—and both residents and staff held off on reporting the issue for fear of retaliation. “They’re scared that they’re going to get mistreated because of the way things are happening,” a representative of the local Ombudsman program conveyed from residents and staff. “They figure they’re going to get put out and they don’t have anywhere to go.”
In addition to the air conditioning issue, Richmond nursing homes have been cited for “complaints involving a failure to respond to requests for assistance, medication, and or personal hygiene.” At least ten further claims were under investigation at the time of the report.
NURSING HOME ABUSE LAWSUIT IN RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
Free Consultation for Richmond Nursing Home Neglect Suits
If you need to report the abuse, neglect, or even death of a loved one in a Richmond nursing home, reach out to Senior Justice Law Firm. We focus on nursing home abuse cases, so we have the experience and tools needed to stand with you in your fight against an abusive facility. We believe in the importance of holding nursing homes accountable, and we would be happy to discuss your situation in a free consultation to help you create a plan of action.
Get in touch by using our chat feature or submitting your information below. You can also contact us via phone at (757) 530-4255.
We look forward to hearing from you, and helping you with your current situation.
Offices: Norfolk, VA & Washington DC, accepting elder abuse cases in Richmond, VA
