No recovery no fee
Nursing home administrators, staff, and caregivers have a legal obligation to provide skilled care and the best possible quality of life with respect for each resident’s human dignity. Part of this responsibility is to prevent painful bedsores and to promptly recognize bedsores in the earliest possible stages to minimize the pain and prevent infections and life-threatening sepsis. Unfortunately, many factors make seniors in nursing homes more likely to develop bedsores, particularly when caregivers do not live up to their duty of reasonable care. If a loved one has suffered due to neglected care, a Phoenix bed sores lawyer can help you hold the nursing home accountable and seek justice for the harm caused.
Bedsores occur in immobile or bedridden individuals whose physical limitations leave them unable to change their positions without assistance. Unrelieved pressure compressing the flesh against the bone reduces blood circulation, causing cell death and tissue damage. Stage one bedsores typically present as a reddened or darkened area of skin, usually at the pressure point. It may feel raised, depressed, or roughened and feel warmer or colder than the surrounding skin.
Elderly nursing home residents face an increased risk of bedsores for the following reasons:
When not prevented completely, bedsores should be recognized in stage 1 and not allowed to progress to stage 2. Sadly, bedsores sometimes progress to more serious stages in nursing home residents.
If caregivers fail to recognize and effectively treat stage 1 bedsores, the reddened, darkened, or roughened area progresses to the next stage. The tissue death caused by oxygen deprivation due to unrelieved pressure causes the dead cells to slough away, resulting in a blister or open sore. The area becomes further reddened, inflamed, and painful. The center of the sore may be pink and moist, surrounded by red, swollen skin. If the blister opens, it may seep or ooze pus. Also in stage two, the tissue death continues to progress below the surface of the sore, advancing through the skin layers toward the underlying fat, muscle, and bone.
It’s imperative to treat stage 2 bedsores promptly and aggressively to prevent advancement to stage three and four which is an open wound exposing first muscle and then bone and requiring painful medical treatment like the debriding of dead skin and surgery. Treating stage two bedsores requires the following:
Stage 2 bedsores should only be treated with topical antibiotics if they do not improve within 14 days.
When left unidentified, untreated, and allowed to progress, stage 2 bedsores progress to more serious stages with painful open wounds that may expose the underlying tissue and bone, become infected, and lead to deadly sepsis. If you or a loved one in a nursing home suffered the advanced stages of bedsores with infection or sepsis, call the Phoenix nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at Knapp & Roberts. We help injury victims or a deceased loved one’s family members obtain compensation for damages, including medical expenses, compensation for pain and suffering, diminished quality of life, or wrongful death.
The personal injury attorneys in Phoenix, Arizona, at Knapp & Roberts have the compassion and trial lawyer skills to tell your story to a jury. We will get to know you and your family so that we can help the jury understand what has happened to you and your family and how it has changed your lives. Obtain the compensation necessary for the injuries and losses you have suffered.
