Caring for an elderly parent is an incredibly difficult task. As elder abuse lawyers, we see far too many cases of abuse and neglect that involve an adult child disregarding the needs of their vulnerable parent. If your mother or father is being cared for by another sibling, it is very important to check up on them just as you would if the parent was in a nursing home or under the care of another aide.
Son Neglects Mother While Telling His Sister She is Fine
At the end of October the police went to the son of 74-year-old Carol Brown’s home to find her unresponsive and living in deplorable conditions. The paramedics rushed Brown to the hospital but she died several days later. According to the officers who entered the home, they described Brown as “a rotting corpse that was still breathing.” The rescue crews had to pry her from the leather recliner because her legs had become fused to the chair. Court documents also revealed that she was sitting in her own bodily fluids and waste with a swollen ankle wound with maggots inside. According to Brown’s daughter Laura Sanders, the doctors told her “There were sores on her back the size of a man’s fist.”
Sanders told officials that her brother, James Owens, had been caring for their mother for the past two years. “I know he neglected her,” Sanders said. “He had not fed her in a week. He left her in her own waste. How can you do that to your mother?” She said that she did not check on her mother because her brother always insisted that she was fine. She continued by saying “Knowing that she died and it may have been prevented? … I’m so far passed crying. I am just real mad! I’m beyond mad!” Owens has not yet been charged. The police are waiting for the autopsy results before getting prosecutors involved.
Elder Abuse Lawyers in New Jersey and Philadelphia
If your loved one is currently under the care of an individual or care facility and you have witnessed them being abused, you have noticed strange bruises, scratches or sores, or you fear that the care they are receiving may be considered negligent or abusive, our professional elder abuse lawyers can address your questions and concerns. Contact the Mininno Law Office for a free case evaluation. You may also call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.
Medical malpractice attorneys have traditionally believed that the use of electronic medical records would actually decrease the number of medical mistakes and other prescription errors. With the increase in technology, medical malpractice attorneys thought that doctors and nurses would be better equipped to avoid preventable mistakes and injuries and reduce the potential for civil lawsuits. It is easy to see why people thought that better technology would help healthcare providers avoid unnecessary medical malpractice. Doctors, who are notorious for poor handwriting, would not have the same problems communicating data to others in patient charts, the equipment could monitor drug prescriptions to avoid dangerous mixtures, and hospital workers could be alerted easily of particular patient conditions without the hassle of digging through charts. However, many studies are now showing that the expected benefits of the new healthcare technology are not coming to fruition as fast as expected, if at all. The Institute of Medicine has also highlighted numerous dangers that could lead to malpractice and cause patients severe injuries. The report stated “although the magnitude of the risk associated with health IT is not known, some examples illustrate the concerns. . . Dosing errors, failure to detect life-threatening illnesses, and delaying treatment due to poor human-computer interactions or loss of data have led to serious injury and death.”
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