Nursing home residents, their loved ones and workers often seek help from a nursing home abuse lawyer because of unsafe conditions that have caused them physical, emotional and financial harm. Every day, disabled and elderly residents of nursing homes rely on facility employees and administrators to provide them with short-term or long-term care and recovery services. Although these sites are supposed to maintain strict hygiene standards, far too many infections occur that can result in debilitating injuries or even death.
Common Infections That Persist in Nursing Homes
In nursing homes, patients and employees experience the same infections found in emergency rooms and hospitals that often result in obvious and hidden damage to the human body. Symptoms from one or more infections include inflammation, fever, dehydration, bloating, cramping, nausea, incontinence, diarrhea, fatigue, headache, shortness of breath, cognitive difficulties, tenderness and pain, tissue necrosis, seizures, shock, organ failure, and whole-body shutdown.
The following list outlines the most common infections that occur in nursing home facilities:
– Bloodstream: Bacteria, fungi, parasites or viruses that circulate inside blood vessels
– Gastrointestinal: Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) and Norovirus
– Respiratory: Influenza (Flu), Streptococcus pneumoniae (Pneumococcus), and SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)
– Soft Tissue: Bedsores, boils, cellulitis (Streptococcus and Staphylococcus), ringworm (Tinea), scabies (Sarcoptes scabiei mites), shingles (Herpes Zoster from Varicella-Zoster), and yeast (Candida albicans)
– Urinary Tract: Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Klebsiella oxytoca, and Proteus mirabilis
In many cases, infections spread and cause other types of debilitating or deadly infections and diseases. For example, some bacterial infections that start with the skin, such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), spread into the bloodstream and eventually kill a patient because these bacteria resist popular modern medicines that normally work well. Any bacteria or virus can cause a patient to severely dehydrate. A urinary tract infection can leave a patient unable to urinate without pain. Although COVID-19 starts out as a respiratory infection, it spreads throughout the body and commonly causes brain damage and widespread vascular disease.
The Main Causes of Dangerous Infections
Many people believe that emergency rooms and hospitals have the highest overall infection rates in healthcare systems. Yet, nursing homes pose an even greater risk. Why? Consider the following major causes of infection:
– Age and Frailty: Nursing home residents often have severely compromised or dysfunctional immune systems. They’re elderly or dealing with a serious chronic, rare or terminal health condition. With age- and disease-related skin thinness, patients often bruise easily and experience open wounds. Many elderly and frail patients also need medical equipment devices that breach physical defenses, such as catheters, colostomy bags, and ports.
– Community Spread: Staff members come into contact with a high number of patients and site visitors throughout each day. Patients also often share furniture and objects in community and public spaces. High staff turnover at these sites usually results in insufficient mental health and hygiene checks as well.
– Facility Issues: Nursing home structures are typically outdated designs that feature too few rooms for single-patient occupancy and enclosed, poorly ventilated areas that allow for faster airborne transmission of contagious diseases. These facilities often have poor air-conditioning and heating systems that contain defective or outdated parts or allow patients and employees to easily set the ambient temperature to high or low extremes, creating the perfect breeding ground for bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses.
– Poor Sanitation: Staff at many sites don’t care about their personal hygiene or fail to clean up appropriately after ill patients and themselves. Housekeeping and janitorial staff also often fail to perform the highest levels of cleaning and sterilization necessary in employee and public spaces. Unlike at a hospital, on-site management might not promote infection-control standards. They might not have the knowledge or time to guarantee that workers have done everything possible to reduce risks.
Of course, no discussion about the causes of infection is complete without covering one of the top causes of personal injuries in nursing homes and similar facilities:
Many people with abusive, controlling, and negligent tendencies apply for jobs in healthcare. They gain personal pleasure from preying upon those in society they consider weak and unable to fight back.
In cases of infection caused by abuse, predator workers might purposely injure a patient, resulting in open wounds. An abuser might also fail to help a patient perform necessary health and hygiene tasks. They might commit this action with the intention of harming the patient or because they don’t care about their duties.
Withholding of food and medicine by a nursing home worker is another example of abusive actions that can undermine a patient’s immune system and overall health. Additionally, if a staff member psychologically or verbally abuses a patient or steals property, the subsequent stress from those events can also cause the patient to experience serious health complications.
The Role of a Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer
If a patient, their loved one, an employee or a visitor to a nursing home believes they acquired an infection that resulted in one or more injuries due to the actions of a staff member, site manager or property owner, they have the right to seek legal counsel and compensation. A local lawyer who specializes in nursing home abuse and neglect, which means any form of mistreatment or failure to meet health and safety standards, investigates claims by the victim or their loved ones to narrow down and prove causation.
When a lawyer believes their client has a valid argument, they then handle all required legal procedures related to any insurance or court claim, including gathering evidence, communicating with insurers and opposing counsel, and filing all associated documents. They might even recommend medical experts to the patient for further evaluation and provide advice about both legal and quality-of-life expectations based on their professional history of aiding other victims who experienced similar infections or injuries. They can also help arrange and negotiate a settlement for a client who doesn’t want to move forward with a lengthy court claim process. For more information, this guide to nursing home safety can be an excellent resource.