When an elderly family member can no longer live alone safely or their age and chronic health conditions exceed the family’s ability to provide care, the family depends on a nursing home—typically one the elder pre-selected or one a family member selected for them. In a live-in nursing home facility, family members expect that their loved one receives the 24-hour, 7-day per-week care promised by the administrators and required by law. Sadly, an alarming number of nursing homes in Kentucky allow instances of resident abandonment to occur within their facilities.
What Is Abandonment in Nursing Homes?
Abuse is an alarmingly common problem in nursing homes, including in Kentucky. Many forms of nursing home abuse occur, including neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse, financial abuse, and sexual abuse. Abandonment is an egregious form of nursing home neglect in Kentucky and elsewhere that results in devastating consequences for family members including diminished quality of life, cognitive decline, worsened physical condition, and sometimes death. Nursing home abandonment occurs when a resident’s caregiver deserts the resident without providing arrangements for care during their absence. Examples of nursing home abandonment include the following caregiver actions:
- Leaving a care unit without letting anyone know or ensuring that a replacement is caring for the residents
- Taking responsibility for a resident and then leaving without notifying anyone
- Leaving a resident outside or in a public area for an unreasonable period of time without checking on them or returning them to their room
- Ignoring a resident’s calls or requests for help
- Leaving for the day without giving updates on a resident’s care with the incoming shift
- Failing to provide basic care to a resident, such as changing their position to prevent bedsores, ensuring they eat their meals, and helping with toileting
- Failing to administer a patient’s medications
- Not assisting residents with mobility problems to attend activities
- Failing to ensure that a sick or injured resident receives medical care
- Leaving an immobile resident in an uncomfortable position for an extended time or alone in a bathroom, common room, or dining room for an unreasonable period
When a nursing home resident relies on a caregiver for their basic care, the caregiver may not leave them alone and without aid for extended periods. Doing so is abandonment, an actionable type of nursing home abuse.
What Are the Consequences of Nursing Home Abandonment?
A caregiver’s abandonment of a nursing home resident can result in serious injury. For example, an abandoned resident who needs to use the bathroom may try to go by themselves despite mobility problems and experience a fall. Falls are a leading cause of traumatic brain injuries in the elderly as well as broken hips and other fractures. A nursing home resident who experiences frequent abandonment by negligent caregivers may suffer from dehydration and malnutrition which leads to physical and cognitive decline. Unmet hygiene needs may result in frequent bedsores and infections. When an abandoned resident does not receive their medications, the result could be dangerous or even deadly.
What Can a Kentucky Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Do for Me?
Nursing home residents are entitled to competent, compassionate care. If you or an elderly loved one experienced abandonment in a nursing home, a nursing home abuse attorney in Louisville can help hold the nursing home administration and caregivers financially accountable and help you gain a sense of justice. Call Gray & White Law today so we can quickly take action in your case.