Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse Can Lead to Dangerous Dehydration

Nursing home residents need specialized care to ensure that they can have the best life possible while their medical needs and psychological needs are taken care of.  Nursing home employees are trusted with the care of these residents, so you would think that they would make sure each resident always had whatever they needed to stay as healthy and comfortable as possible.  Unfortunately, this is not always the case, especially in facilities that are inadequately staffed and are giving employees a double workload.  Nursing home neglect and abuse can lead to one condition that can be very dangerous for elderly nursing home residents.  That condition is dehydration, and it happens more than anyone would like to think.  Dehydration occurs when residents are not given adequate amounts of liquids.  This causes an imbalance in the electrolytes in the body, which can lead to nausea, heart palpitations, and other symptoms.  Dehydration needs to be treated as soon as possible with intravenous fluids and other treatment methods as indicated.  If it’s not treated, the minerals in the body will become dangerously out of whack and the person will die.  So how is dehydration a sign of abuse and neglect?  If a resident becomes dehydrated, it’s a sign that their fluid intake is not at adequate levels.  This means that either employees are neglecting to give residents the proper amounts of fluid or that the resident has not been able to tolerate the fluid intake and other measures have not been used to combat the condition.  In more sinister cases of dehydration, an employee has been purposely withholding fluids from nursing home residents.  If you notice that a loved one has been treated for dehydration or is experiencing symptoms of dehydration, talk with his or her physician to find out the cause of the dehydration.  If you can’t get an acceptable answer, contact a California nursing home abuse attorney to ensure that you can get to the bottom of the situation.