Many nursing home residents enter the facility with serious heart conditions. Heart failure will be the cause of death for some of these residents, and their deaths will be no fault of the nursing home. However, other residents with heart conditions may be harmed by a nursing home’s negligence.
Nursing Homes Have a Duty of Care to Residents With Heart Conditions
Nursing homes owe a duty of care to all residents. That means that nursing home staff must act with reasonable care to keep each resident safe. For a nursing home resident who has already been diagnosed with a serious heart condition this may mean:
- Making sure the resident takes the right dose of an ACE inhibitor, beta-blocker, or other prescribed medication at the right time
- Documenting the resident’s medication intake in her chart so that medication errors are not made
- Getting the resident medical attention if the condition seems to worsen or there are any signs of an imminent problem.
For other nursing home residents, a reasonable duty of care includes watching for signs of potential heart failure and getting the resident prompt medical attention if heart failure may be occurring.
What to Do If Your Loved One Suffers Heart Failure Because of Nursing Home Negligence
The first step in your action plan must be to determine whether the nursing home’s actions (or inaction) caused your loved to suffer an injury. If your loved one would have suffered the same fate regardless of the nursing home’s action, you may not have a negligence case. However, if the nursing home breached its duty of care by failing to prescribe or administer the right medication or get your loved one the medical attention she needed, the nursing home could be legally responsible for your loved one’s injuries.
Our experienced nursing home injury lawyers, staff nurse, and legal team can investigate what happened to your loved one and help you decide on the best course of action. If a nursing home negligence claim can be made, then we will help you file the right papers and work hard for your loved one’s full and fair recovery.
Nursing home negligence should not be tolerated in Kentucky. Together, we can work to protect nursing home residents by holding nursing homes accountable for their actions. Call our Louisville nursing home abuse attorneys or reach out to us via this website at any time to learn more.