As a New Jersey and Philadelphia nursing home abuse attorney who represents clients with bedsores and pressure ulcers, I always advocate that patients and family members should be their own patient advocate. Certainly, if there is a nurse or another family member with medical training, those persons would be the most qualified to keep tabs on the nursing home, monitor for any nursing home abuse, and, if a pressure ulcer or bedsore develops, bring their medical expertise to insist that the nursing home or assisted living facility takes proper medical steps to treat the bedsore or pressure ulcer.
Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers Say “PUSH”
The National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel has developed what is known as the Pressure Ulcer Scale for Healing (“PUSH”) tool, which they describe as a quick and reliable tool to monitor the change in pressure ulcer status over time. This pressure ulcer or bed sore tool can be found at the NPUAP website. This web site provides user-friendly information and instructions for how to use the PUSH tool to monitor the status of a pressure ulcer or a bedsore over time. Plus, the PUSH tool could be an invaluable resource in helping a New Jersey or Philadelphia nurse home abuse lawyer prove a case of nursing home abuse.
Rarely, if ever, will a nursing home abuse incident be documented in a medical chart. Frequently, by the time a pressure ulcer or a bedsore is documented in the medical chart, it has developed beyond a Stage 1 pressure ulcer or bedsore. Many nursing home patients are not informed of a Stage 2 pressure ulcer or a Stage 3 bedsore or pressure ulcer until it is too late. Why? Because nursing home facilities are typically minimally staffed, with low paid and inexperienced caregivers. That’s why families that have the PUSH tool available to them will be best positioned to help themselves or their loved ones document and recover from a bedsore caused by nursing home abuse.
Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers in New Jersey and Philadelphia
If your loved one is a victim of nursing home abuse and neglect, you need to seek the counsel of a nursing home abuse lawyer as soon as possible. The NJ and PA nursing home abuse lawyers at our firm can offer you advice on what you should do in regards to the injuries your loved one sustained at their nursing home or long term care facility. Contact the Mininno Law Office for a free case evaluation, or call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in NJ, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.
Let the Mininno Law Office team earn you the compensation you deserve!
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Sarah is just one of about 115 patients who have died in the past five years under suspicious circumstances while receiving care at a Georgia state facility. The settlement reached in the Crider’s lawsuit addresses this issue. Aside from compensating the family, the state will also be spending close to $77 million to move hundreds, if not thousands, of patients out of state mental facilities to improve the level care for those who remain. Patients who will no longer reside at these state facilities will be those that could benefit from community settings for treatment.
This post is the third in a series of posts dealing with the most common form of nursing home abuse – the development of pressure ulcers and bedsores. In our previous two posts, we discussed the 
The Ginisi’s (Lauren, 59 and Joseph, 63) filed suit three years ago, after Joseph suffered multiple misdiagnoses at St. Vincent’s. In 2004, Joe Ginisi called his wife Laura complaining of feeling lighted headed and dizzy. At the hospital, doctors diagnosed him with vertigo and sent him home with a prescription and an order to follow-up. By February 5, his condition had worsened. He couldn’t speak on his own, and was going blind. 
The medical research is showing that these hip implants need to be removed much sooner than traditional hip implants. In addition, because these recalled hips are shedding chromium and cobalt metals into the bloodstream, research suggests that these patients will have significant inflammation and injuries to surrounding tissues and structures. Who knows what long-term damage this metal will have on these patients. Finally, these chromium and cobalt metals are circulating with the patient’s bloodstream. Again, who knows what damage these metals will have on a patient’s circulatory system, the heart or the brain.
Haley Cobb was diagnosed with cerebral palsy shortly after her vaginal birth. Upon further investigation, it was determined that the doctor, Dr. Tara Shipman, should have performed a c-section. Failure to do so caused oxygen deprivation to Haley’s brain, and led to cerebral palsy. A 15 day trial in October won Haley’s parents, Okey and Debra Cobb, $13.9 million dollars. Also enforced was a $6.5 million dollar settlement the Cobb’s reached with other parties pre-suit. All in all, the Cobbs will receive $20.4 million for the lifetime of care and special medical necessities for their daughter, Haley.
Many times the characteristics of the condition depend on the severity of the child’s muscle limitations and what parts of the brain’s cognitive functions are affected. For example, spastic cerebral palsy is the most common diagnosis. Athetoid dyskinetic is the second most common form of Cerebral Palsy afflicting children. Many times, these conditions are not immediately noticed at birth, but sometime after the child begins to develop. These are congenital birth injuries because these types of CP typically develop in utero. However, if a child has this type of birth injury, it does not necessarily mean that it was caused by medical error or a negligent doctor. These types of birth injuries can, and many times do, happen in the absences of medical negligence. A New Jersey birth injury lawyer will need to carefully review all of the medical records to help determine if this type of brain injury was or was not caused by medical malpractice.