Today in the United States, there are more than one million elderly individuals living in nursing home establishments. Most families resort to nursing homes because their loved ones require moderate to extensive assistance with basic needs and medical care; care that they can no longer provide. The biggest problem in nursing homes, however, is neglect. These basic needs and medical care that should be provided consistently and in conjunction with a doctor’s orders are neglected, or not carried out correctly. Annually, there are over 20,000 complaints of nursing home neglect, which represents only a fraction of the total instances, as recent data shows that only 1 of 14 nursing home incidents is reported.
Be on the Look Out for Falls, Poor Nutrition, and Bed Sores
Falls: Residents of nursing homes, depending on their conditions, are usually very susceptible to falls. Falls can be very dangerous to an ailing elderly person. Broken hips and ribs and/or head injuries often result from nursing home falls. Residents who are more likely to fall are usually marked with bracelets, citing them as fall risks to the entire nursing home staff. If one of these patients is to fall, it is a clear sign of inadequate supervision or, even worse, no supervision at all. Severe injuries suffered from only a single fall could lead to paralysis or even death.
Poor Nutrition: Nursing homes are required to provide proper fluids and food to residents. When a patient becomes sick from malnutrition, it is most certainly because A.) the nursing home is not providing proper nutrition to the resident, or B.) the nursing home is not providing supplemental nourishment in the case of a resident refusing to eat. Nutrition is first and foremost in a list of needs for a patient, and malnourishment is an unacceptable form of nursing home neglect.
Bed Sores: Bedridden or wheelchair ridden patients are to be rotated every 2 hours to prevent the development of bedsores. Although bed sores are certainly treatable when caught early, neglect of a patient can lead to stage III and stage IV bedsores, which can be extremely painful and quickly fatal. When bed sores progress to levels three and four without proper treatment, it is evident that adequate medical attention is not being provided.
Nursing Home Neglect in New Jersey and Philadelphia
If you believe that a loved one, residing in a nursing home or long term care facility, is receiving negligent, abusive, or inadequate care, it is possible that you have some questions regarding nursing home neglect. Please 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.
Topamax is not like many other migraine medications and this may shed light on its popularity. As opposed to taking the medicine as soon as headache pain begins, Topamax is taken daily which helps avoid migraines all together. Topamax begins limiting the frequency of migraines after only one month. But when women begin to heavily rely on it, a problem may arise. Many studies have shown that Topamax is successful in limiting headaches, but unfortunately, women need to prioritize once they become pregnant. Although headaches can have a devastating effect on daily activities, birth defects attorneys believe that the risk to newborn babies is far worse. Topamax has been widely available in the United States since 1996, but the true dangers of potential birth defects have only recently been realized. Expectant mothers should speak with a medical professional and seek an alternative medication while pregnant to limit the potential of birth defects.
Kelvin Washington, 47, who works as an administrator at a Sugar Land nursing home in Texas, was arrested on August 4, 2011 and is being charged with conspiracy, health care fraud and violations of the anti-kickback statute. He is being accused of creating a plan where he billed federal health care programs for ambulance transport and received payments totaling approximately $20,000 for referring the dialysis patients to a Houston ambulance transport service between 2003 and 2007. He allegedly conspired to have unknowing doctors sign transport prescriptions for patients who were never even admitted to the nursing home. Medicare and Medicaid were billed almost $1 million in false health care claims. The maximum penalties for a violation of the health care fraud statue in Texas is a maximum of 10 years in prison. The maximum sentence for a violation of the conspiracy statue or the anti-kickback statute is five years. Each of the 10 counts charged also carry a maximum $250,000 fine as punishment upon conviction.
Initially, Susan Piro cancelled the trip she planned to take to America. However, the vacation became too hard to resist, and Susan departed, leaving her mother behind. Ironically, the point of the excursion was to visit places in America her mother had once lived. Susan’s selfish and clouded judgement have now prevented her from ever being able to share these memories with her mother. 
On average, research has shown that the process to upgrade to pressure-reduction mattresses would cost about 30 cents per patient. This minimal investment would soon pay major dividends in the healthcare world. Professionals project that the reduction in bed sores could save $32 dollars per patient in treatment and care costs. This equation leads to one conclusion, big money will be saved once healthcare costs decrease. Murray Krahn, a principal investigator with the study stated that “pressure ulcers are a huge but under-appreciated problem across multiple settings in our health-care system.” He continued by stating, “though they are not the full solution, pressure-reduction mattresses are an inexpensive and easy way to address the problem.”
Melodee first began experiencing symptoms, such as pain, blood in her stool, and constipation in 2006. After multiple hospital visits, medical professionals diagnosed her with hemorrhoids. It was recommended that the hospital perform a colonoscopy, but the hospital failed to follow up on that procedure or provide any screenings for rectal cancer. Professionals say that the following year, in 2007, Adam Cloer was transferred to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, where his wife would learn that the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes because it was not treated in a timely manner. Melodee underwent chemotherapy, radiation, and numerous surgeries to remove her organs, all of which proved to be of no avail. The medical malpractice attorneys working the case stated, 
When a child is between the ages of six weeks and nine months, surgery is usually done to close the cleft lip. Additional surgery may also be necessary down the road if the cleft has a major effect on the nose and the surrounding area. If the cleft lip can be successfully closed by this initial surgery, it becomes much more likely that the child will have normal speech developments as the aging process continues. During the early months however, a prosthetic is sometimes inserted temporarily to close a baby’s palate to ensure that a baby can receive the proper food and nutrients. When a baby is able to take in the proper amount of nutrients, even with the cleft lip and cleft palate, lawyers say that growth and weight issues are not nearly as likely.
The doctors have been provided a sixty day window to edit and review their online profiles before they become accessible to the public. If doctors provide false information, and mislead potential healthcare consumers, lawyers believe that they will be subject to different forms of discipline. Other information that will be included in these profiles includes the medical schools they attended, specialty board certification, number of years in practice, location of practice, and whether or not the doctor participates in Medicaid. 
The county insurance fund will cover one million dollars of the total expected settlement amount. The remaining amount will be subject to reimbursement from the California State Association of Counties. The county clearly determined that a drawn out litigation process would be a sub-optimal resolution to this tragic case of medical malpractice. The county’s legal department stated “it had been determined that timely economic resolution together with release of any and all potential claims is in the best interests of the county.” Lawyers say that this means that the boy’s family will collect this sum of money but has also agreed to end the conflict here, without pursuing any other claims of liability against the county in the future. Although this money should be helpful in assuring the healthcare and safety of the boy in the future, it is unclear how much medical attention he will need for the duration of his life. Medical malpractice attorneys believe that determining damage amounts for infants is among the hardest figures to calculate because of the countless variables and the length of the baby’s expected life.