Sunrise Senior Living offers health services in fourteen communities throughout the Chicagoland area from the Wisconsin border down to Flossmoor. In addition to the Brighton Gardens of Wheaton, Sunrise has facilities in Buffalo Grove, Highland Park, Wilmette, Park Ridge, Schaumburg, Bloomingdale, Lincoln Park, Fountain Square, Flossmoor, Palos Park, Willowbrook, Naperville, and Naperville North.
Sunrise Senior Living at a Glance
| Website | SunriseSeniorLiving.com |
| Number of Facilities |
more than 325 |
| Illinois Facilities |
19 |
| Headquarters | 7902 Westpark Drive McLean, Virginia 22102 |
| Year founded | 1981 |
| Type of Care Provided |
Assisted Living Independent Living Memory Care Respite Care Personal Care Services Skilled Nursing |
The facilities offer various senior care solutions for numerous medical conditions and requirements that include:
- Memory care for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease involving patients with limited personal capacity
- Independent living solutions
- Skilled nursing
- Assisted living
- Respite care solutions for adult children
- Hospice services
Mistreatment, Abuse, and Neglect Alleged to Take Place at Sunrise
A lawsuit was filed in early 2014 against Sunrise Assisted Living in Willowbrook. The suit alleges inadequate care that violated Illinois regulations requiring sufficient staff members to be on hand to provide acceptable standards of care.
The lawsuit also alleges that the patient who had been a resident at the facility since 2010 had fallen approximately fourteen times during her stay (additional cause of action). Most of the following episodes occurred after the patient pushed the call button requesting assistance to use the bathroom.
The survivor claims documents suggest that the staff was negligent in responding to the needs of the resident who could no longer wait to use the toilet, taking matters into her own hands. The patient would then attempt to position herself in a wheelchair so she could transport herself to the bathroom. Often, she landed on the bathroom floor.
Also, the suit alleges negligence of the staff at Sunrise Assisted Living in Willowbrook after the resident developed bedsores caused by her mobility challenges and a lack of repositioning. Bedsores can develop in less than two hours when body pressure on bony areas restricts blood flow to the skin and underlying tissue.
Due to neglect, the lawsuit alleged, the resident’s facility-acquired bedsore progressed to Stage IV, a life-threatening condition. The suit charges that the advanced stage pressure sores contributed to the patient’s demise or directly caused her death.
This case is not the only lawsuit that Sunrise Senior Living has faced. One charge indicates that a Flossmoor Sunrise patient with an untreated fractured shinbone suffered acute “unnecessary pain and suffering” for two days (medical malpractice/elder abuse).
Another allegation involves the death of a Gurnee Sunrise facility patient who succumbed to respiratory failure. The oxygen tank she required either was turned off or empty on multiple occasions. This problem lasted more than six weeks (health care provider negligence, medical malpractice).
Like other nursing facilities in Illinois, unlicensed, unskilled, untrained, or hired third party staff caused many of the complications at Sunrise Senior Living centers. Many of the regulations reportedly violated by Sunrise Senior Living were never reported to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
More Injury Claims and Awards Involving Sunrise Centers
Nursing Home Case Filed in Lake County, Illinois
The events of this recently filed lawsuit occurred at a Sunrise Senior Living facility in Highland Park, Illinois, in December 2016. An elderly female resident needed to go to the washroom and attempted to call the staff to assist her.
However, the call button that the nursing facility staff gave her to use was not working. When no one answered the malfunctioning call button, she attempted to go to the washroom alone. On her way to the bathroom, she fell and injured herself.
She sustained various personal injuries a filed a civil lawsuit against the rehabilitation center. She claimed that the facility negligently supervised her, negligently cared for her, and negligently helped her. Additionally, she added that the defendant’s Senior care home should not have allowed the call system to malfunction. Due to these errors, she contended that she suffered injuries and damages as a result.
Her claim could seek compensation for all the economic (i.e., bills) and non-economic (i.e., pain, suffering, disability) losses that resulted directly from the defendant’s negligence.
Lawsuit Brought After Woman Falls in Illinois Senior Living Home
The ninety-eight-year-old Illinois senior home resident suffered from several severe medical conditions. She was blind, had dementia, and was still suffering from the aftermath effects of a recent stroke.
Her doctors identify that she was at risk for falls while staying at Sunrise Senior Living Center in Willowbrook. The nursing staff failed to follow the doctor’s orders and the facility’s practices, placing her at risk of falling.
Staff members left her alone one early April day when she fell and broke her hip. The subsequent lawsuit criticized the home’s policies and procedures that allowed the accident to happen. The civil lawsuit was filed in Du Page County, Illinois, seeking damages related to inadequate care, pain, costs, and other losses that came about as a result.
Neglected Woman Sues Illinois Nursing Home
A female resident at the Sunrise Senior facility in Fountain Square claimed that the home did not adequately treat her, neglected her, and she suffered as a result. The claim identified several consequences of deficient service, including kidney failure, blood clotting, and fluid build-up in her lungs and heart.
The minimum was transferred to the nursing home to receive the best care but instead could show that the facility was negligent. She sought to recover compensation for her injuries, bills, and reduced quality of life. To successfully resolve the case, her attorneys would need to illustrate how the care was unreasonable and far lower than what any ordinary resident would expect for the circumstances.
Nursing Home Accident Injures a Local Female Resident
The resident who sued in this Illinois nursing home case entered the Sunrise Senior location after undergoing bypass surgery. She had gastrointestinal problems that required an operation.
While she was living at the facility, she required assistance getting about during her regular daily routine. One day a nurse waited by an adjacent shower while the woman was in her shower stall alone. Suddenly, the nurse tripped and fell over. The entire shower collapsed, causing the resident to tumble over. The woman injured her head in the crash.
Subsequently, she experienced effects related to vertigo and other pathology issues. She filed a civil lawsuit against the facility for all of the damage that resulted in the accident. She argued that the defendant was negligent, and, therefore, liable to her for all of the harms that the unreasonable conduct caused her.
Protecting a Loved One From Neglect During an Admission to Sunrise Senior Living
In many situations, families have no other option than to place a loved one in an assisted living facility or nursing home. However, this often puts the individual in harm’s way and exposes them to physical, sexual, or emotional elder abuse along with financial exploitation, neglect, self-neglect, or abandonment.
Taking action to protect the patient against neglect, mistreatment, or physical abuse is often necessary. Many problems are avoided when the patient’s family members serve as health advocates. Advocacy of a loved one requires unannounced visits at different times of the day and night to look for any signs of problems.
Common signs of home abuse, neglect, or mistreatment often involve:
- An unexpected change in behavior
- An unexplained injury including pressure marks, bruises, abrasions, broken bones or burns
- Bruising around the genital area or breasts
- Poor hygiene
- The development of bedsores
- Unusual weight loss
- An unexplainable withdrawal from regular activities or an unexpected change in alertness behavior
- Tense or strained relationships including frequent disruptive arguments between the patient and caregivers
In many situations, the loved one being abused, neglected, or mistreated will spend days, weeks, months, or years suffering in silence. These residents often believe that they will face retaliation from the abuser.
As a loved one’s advocate for his or her health care, family members need to take action when noticing any unexpected change in behavior or personality. It is not the role of family members, friends, and visitors to verify that home abuse, neglect, or mistreatment is occurring. An attorney working on behalf of the family can do that. However, it is essential to alert others of any suspicious behavior, condition, or activity.
As a general rule, family members will hire a nursing home abuse lawyer to investigate and prosecute the incident. The attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC can take immediate action to stop the problem and provide various legal options to hold responsible parties accountable for their deplorable actions. If necessary, we can transfer your loved one to a new facility to ensure their health and safety are protected.
What Is the Arbitration Clause?
Many nursing facilities use arbitration agreements to resolve any dispute between the resident/adult children and the facility. Typically, based on the arbitration clause, the complaint must be submitted to arbitration to avoid a trial court. The results decided by the arbiter are often binding and confidential.
For the nursing home, settling disputes in an arbitration setting is significantly less expensive than paying for ongoing litigation. For the resident or his or her adult children, the arbiter’s decision often results in significantly lower awards compared to filing a wrongful death lawsuit or personal injury claim.
Traditionally, the United States Court of Appeal has upheld the enforcement of arbitration clauses. Supporting the enforcement of the clause can diminish the court system’s burden in handling survivor claims, wrongful death claims, punitive damages, medical malpractice lawsuits, and class action suits.
Hiring a Sunrise Senior Living Home Abuse Lawyer
If you are the victim of physical abuse, negligence, or sexual assault, we can help. Let our nursing home abuse lawyers work on your behalf to seek compensatory and punitive damages. We handle wrongful death lawsuits, medical malpractice claims, and elder abuse cases. Spouses and adult children surviving a loved one killed by the reckless actions of the nursing center can file a plaintiff’s wrongful death claim for compensation.
Our team of home abuse attorneys will review your residency agreement and obtain testimony from staff members to build a solid case. Our lawyers working on your behalf will file all the necessary paperwork in the Superior Court before the statute of limitations expires. We can successfully resolve your case at a trial court or through a negotiated agreement with the defendants.
