For many mature adults, senior living options provide an enjoyable and helpful alternative to the struggle they face living alone in their homes. Sadly, there are situations where negligence at a nursing home leads to death for some residents. Approximately 20-24 percent of all deaths in the United States occur in nursing homes. Because autopsies are rarely done, it is difficult to compile exact data on what causes for death are the most prevalent.
The state of Wisconsin has seen its share of these tragedies. If you lost a loved one because of nursing home negligence, you may have a case for a wrongful death claim. To learn more about your options, speaking with a Wisconsin wrongful death attorney will be a good resource for questions and guidance.
What Are Some Of The Common Causes For Nursing Home Deaths In Wisconsin?
- Seniors often take multiple medications and their vitality depends on getting the right medications at the right times. If the wrong medications are administered, if medications aren’t given at the right times, or there are any missed medications, seniors are susceptible to severe injury or death.
- Seniors have balance issues and some may have Alzheimer’s, which can impede their mobility and require walking assistance devices so they are in need of assistance from nursing home employees to avoid risks for falls. The staff that is monitoring residents from everything from bedsores, bruising, and progressing illness is one of the reasons you’re loved one is at a nursing home. Failure to recognize these dangers pose a fatal risk to residents.
- It is the job of a nursing home to ensure residents eat and drink enough and if they fail to keep residents nourished and hydrated, the results can be fatal.
- Elderly individuals who struggle with breathing are at risk for suffocation if oxygen equipment is mishandled.
- A nursing home’s ill-equipped staff that are not trained properly or have little experience pose a serious risk to the elderly.
What You Should Do If Your Loved One Dies In A Nursed Home From Negligence
You should speak with a Beloit wrongful death attorney to discuss the details which lead to your loved one’s death when they were staying in a nursing home. Depending on who your loved one is survived by, compensation from a wrongful death claim can go to children of the deceased or their spouse. Learning how the process works and what damages can be recovered is something that one of the experienced Janesville personal injury lawyers at Alexander J. Smith Law Offices will help you with. Call us today to set up a free consultation at (608) 237-7035 for residents of Wisconsin or (815) 243-9686 for residents of Illinois.