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Nursing Home Wrongful Death Cases: Recovering Compensation for the Loss of a Loved One
Wrongful death in nursing homes can be an incredibly upsetting and traumatic experience for the deceased's family and other residents at the facility.
In many cases, a nursing home resident's wrongful death may have been preventable if the proper protocol had been followed or if appropriate medical care had been provided promptly.
It is essential that all nursing home staff correctly follow safety protocols and provide excellent quality care to their residents to avoid such tragic events.
However, when a nursing home wrongful death does occur, families may be able to pursue financial compensation against the facility to seek justice on behalf of their loved one.
The personal injury attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC help disabled and elderly residents who have been victims of unintentional and intentional harm or medical malpractice at long-term care facilities.
As with our nursing home negligence and assisted living elder abuse cases, we handle wrongful death lawsuits on a contingency fee basis.
There is only a legal fee when our legal team secures a recovery for your family. Contact our nursing home abuse lawyers at (888) 424-5757 to determine your legal rights.
Common Causes and Statistics of Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse
Some of the most common causes of nursing home wrongful death cases in assisted living facilities include:
- Neglect or abuse by staff
- Poor supervision leads to an elopement
- Unsanitary living conditions
- Lack of proper medical care
- Inadequate nutrition and hydration
- Physical abuse leads to broken bones
- Improperly administered medications
- Falls or other accidents due to environmental hazards
Illinois nursing home facts:
- A resident often dies at a nursing home, and more than half of patients do not survive more than six months at an Illinois nursing home.
- Approximately one in five people die in Illinois nursing homes.
A nursing home abuse lawyer from our law firm can discuss all options for recovery in Illinois with you in a free case evaluation.
Wrongful Death Lawsuits for Nursing Home Abuse
A nursing home wrongful death case generally follows similar patterns in Illinois. At a global level, you must show that death in a nursing home only happened due to nursing home employees or companies.
In a nursing home wrongful death lawsuit process, you have the burden of proof to prove these errors or omissions, including the negligent facility, that caused the wrongful death of your family member.
Our attorneys are skilled in bringing nursing home wrongful death lawsuits against a caregiving facility. Talk to us today about your wrongful death case and how they can help you!
Chicago Nursing Home Wrongful Death Lawyers
The decision to place family members in a nursing home is never lighthearted, and we would never put them under the care of a nursing home unless they needed it.
We expect the nursing facilities with which we trust the care of our life partners and family members to provide respect and service so that our loved ones can live the remainder of their days in dignity.
Our Chicago wrongful death attorneys represent families who have lost a loved one due to poor care in a Chicago nursing home. All too often, we hear stories of caregiving homes that neglect their patients and the horrific manner in which nursing home patients pass away when they have been neglected.
Because it is easy to prevent many wrongful deaths in nursing homes, it is much more important that these facilities are held accountable for their negligent acts in a wrongful death claim.
Harming A Nursing Home Resident: Malnourishment and Dehydration
Improper nutrition and dehydration can worsen existing conditions or bring about new ones that may cause the patient's wrongful death.
When nursing home patients lack essential nutrients and are poorly hydrated, they become frail, have an increased risk of falling, and are susceptible to infections.
If a patient dies from a condition brought about by poor nutrition or lack of hydration, the nursing home is responsible for the wrongful death and should be held accountable.
Long-Term Care Facility Medication Errors at Nursing Homes
Errors in administering medications are widespread in nursing homes, and patients often receive the wrong medication or dosage, which might result in the resident's wrongful death. In other instances, doctors may not check whether a new medication will adversely affect a patient's medicines.
Some of these drug reactions can result in changes in mood and behavior, while other drug reactions may cause heart failure, stroke, or other life-threatening conditions.
When elderly patients die prematurely because of errors by nursing home staff members regarding their medication regimen, the family of the patient may have cause for a wrongful death case against the facility where the mistakes were made.
Common types of medication errors that lead to a wrongful death situation include:
Administering the improper dosage
Failing to provide medication
Providing medications that should not be mixed (negative drug interaction)
Nursing Home Neglect: Facility-Acquired Bed Sores
Bed sores rarely cause death, but they are extremely painful and open the body to infection when they progress past their early stages.
The amount of pain and suffering a patient experiences when they are afflicted with bedsores is concerning. When the sores become infected, there is a dire need for immediate emergency care to prevent worsening of the condition.
Many nursing facilities try to cover up the existence of bedsores rather than address the patient's needs. As a result, emergency care is often only provided when it is too late, and patients die from sepsis or other advanced infections that result from the sores.
If your loved one suffered a wrongful death due to a bed sore acquired at the nursing home, do not hesitate to contact our lawyers. They will help you pursue compensation by filing a nursing home wrongful death lawsuit.
Factors That Influence the Value of a Wrongful Death Case
After the death of a loved one in a nursing home or assisted living facility, many families are left with a dilemma, wondering if it makes sense to file a wrongful death case against the facility.
Illinois law recognizes economic and non-economic damages in wrongful death cases.
In these wrongful death cases, you might receive financial compensation for the following:
- Medical bills
- Funeral/burial expenses
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of companionship
- Mental anguish
- Punitive damages
Factors that may influence the value of a nursing home lawsuit include:
- The age of the nursing home resident
- Conduct of the defendant facility and staff
- The decedent's physical condition before their death
- Insurance coverage available
Our specialized lawyers have medical experts to review your loved one's medical records to adequately assess the nursing home wrongful death case.
If you are considering taking legal action after the wrongful death of a loved one in a skilled nursing facility or other types of senior living arrangements, speak to us to schedule a free consultation.
Liable Parties for A Wrongful Death In A Nursing Home
Several parties can be held liable in a wrongful death situation. These are some of the possibilities:
- The nursing home
- Nursing facility staff
- Third parties (maintenance crew)
- Other residents
Your wrongful death lawyer will be able to determine the liable parties once they conduct their investigations of your wrongful death scenario.
After, they will pursue compensation to cover your loved one's funeral expenses, medical bills, and pain and suffering from the responsible parties.
Nursing Home Negligence and Abuse Cases in Illinois
Below are some samples of settlement amounts in nursing home wrongful death cases filed in various Illinois jurisdictions to give you an idea of how wrongful death cases are evaluated in Illinois. However, keep in mind there may be circumstances behind these nursing home cases that may not be apparent.
To better understand the value of your wrongful death claim, we invite you to contact a skilled nursing home abuse lawyer in our personal injury law office for a free case evaluation.
$650,000 Nursing Home Wrongful Death Settlement; Cook County, Illinois; 2020:
An elderly man in his late eighties was admitted to a facility in early June. The nursing home abuse case caused the man's health to spiral out of control within weeks.
He needed the staff to oversee and care for him around the clock because he could not do it himself. Also, his doctors instructed them that he was a high risk for dehydration and malnutrition problems.
Nevertheless, a few weeks later, he displayed symptoms consistent with dehydration, including sepsis and kidney problems. The staff moved him to a hospital so emergency medical personnel could give him advanced care.
Despite these actions, he died just three weeks after entering the home. His children and wife survived him. They brought a nursing home wrongful death lawsuit with abuse allegations. They cited the narrative just described as proof that the nursing home was at fault for his death.
The nursing home paid the family $650,000 to settle.
$1,400,000 Nursing Home Wrongful Death Settlement; Chicago, Illinois; 2020:
A woman in her mid-seventies was admitted to a nursing home in the Chicagoland area after undergoing surgery on the gastrointestinal region of her body. Nurses at the facility were supposed to give her a regimen of anticoagulation therapies and medication.
Allegedly, they did not do this correctly. That led to the following complications: lack of mobility, rise in pain in her abdomen and lowered hemoglobin levels. A stat INR showed 11.6, but no other action was taken. Later that same day, she died.
The exact cause of her death was acute coagulopathy and pelvic hemorrhaging. She had two adult children that survived her. They brought this case as a nursing home lawsuit for wrongful death for medication negligence and abuse.
The wrongful death claim specifically cited these developments step by step to show that the defendant's facility, medical group, doctors, and nurses were directly responsible for her wrongful death.
The medical records and witnessed abusive treatment served as evidence to resolve the nursing home lawsuit against staff members and the facility.
Ultimately, the defendants could not wholly refute these allegations and collectively settled the wrongful death lawsuit with the family for $1.4 million, covering her medical bills and funeral expenses, amongst other damages.
Hire Our Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers to Help With Your Wrongful Death Lawsuit
Whenever a person's death results from a willful or negligent act, their family has the right to pursue a nursing home lawsuit against the responsible party.
Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC has defended the rights of many clients in the past who suffered abuse from staff and others and continues to represent the elderly and their families in Illinois nursing home abuse cases.
If your loved one's death resulted from a nursing home's lack of proper care, our Chicago nursing home attorneys could help hold the responsible party accountable for their poor treatment of your loved one in a nursing home lawsuit. Our professionals will include funeral costs and medical bills in the wrongful death claim.
Call our elder abuse attorneys at (888) 424-5757 or use the contact form to set up your free case review to discuss the legal process when filing a claim or civil lawsuit after your loved one's death.
Our lawyers work on nursing home wrongful death cases on a contingency fee basis, which means you only have to pay for our services if we successfully obtain financial compensation on your behalf.