A Kentucky nursing home resident died as a result of multiple incidents of negligence at his nursing home. The resident’s wife and our nursing home injury lawyers did not know about the negligence until it was too late to save his life, but we were able to settle this negligence case quickly for the full insurance policy amount.
Negligence at the Nursing Home
The nursing home resident, who was non-verbal because of a stroke, was considered to be a high fall risk. One day, he was left unattended and unsecured at the edge of his wheelchair. Not unexpectedly, he fell out of the chair and was found on the floor by one of the nursing assistants. No one witnessed the fall, and the resident did not have the ability to report what happened. Yet, the nursing home did a very limited examination to see if he was injured. At that time, the nursing home did not identify any injuries and placed the resident back in his room. Neither the resident’s doctor nor the resident’s wife was notified about the fall.
More than five days later, a physical therapist was doing range-of-motion therapy with the resident and observed that he was in pain. The physical therapist notified the doctor who ordered an X-ray of the hip and found an acute hip fracture.
The resident was taken to the hospital, but it was too late to save his life. The injury had been untreated for so long that he hemorrhaged internally and lost a lot of blood. The hospital did everything it could to save him, but he died from his injuries.
The resident’s wife was only informed of his fall and injury once he was transferred to the emergency room from the nursing home, more than five days after the accident occurred.
Gray and White Law Fights for a Fair Recovery
Once the resident’s wife contacted us, our firm sent investigators to talk to former staff members who worked at the nursing home at the time the resident was hurt. Through our investigation, we found that the nursing home failed to:
- Hire qualified staff. The nurse’s aide who failed to notify the doctor and the resident’s wife of the fall had been previously fired from the nursing home for her poor performance and then later rehired despite that poor job performance.
- Create a fall risk plan. Despite the resident’s high fall risk rating, the nursing home did not take any extra precautions to protect him from a fall. The nursing home probably should have assigned extra staff to this resident. Extra staffing can be difficult for nursing homes that operate at bare minimum staff levels. This is a common problem in Kentucky because there are no minimum staff requirements for nursing homes.
- Assess the resident for injuries after his fall. The nursing home failed to provide reasonable care when it did not adequately assess the resident’s injuries after his fall.
- Notify the resident’s wife of his fall injury. The failure to notify a nursing home resident’s family about a medical change could be a form of nursing home negligence.
Our investigation and our medical and nursing experts allowed us to present an extremely strong case against the nursing home. The nursing home settled the case for their full insurance policy limits just a few weeks after we filed a lawsuit. We hope that the settlement amount will benefit the resident’s family and encourage the nursing home to change its policies so that nothing like this ever happens again.
Gray and White Law is committed to helping all victims of nursing home abuse and neglect in Kentucky. If you or your loved one has been hurt, we encourage you to contact us at any time—24/7/365—to schedule a free consultation with our experienced nursing home injury lawyers. Our lawyers, staff nurse, and experienced investigators will find out exactly what happened and our attorneys will advise you of your rights so that you can make an informed choice about whether to pursue a Kentucky nursing home abuse or neglect lawsuit.