Many nursing home residents have difficulty breathing due to conditions such as emphysema, lung cancer, and other respiratory ailments.  However, proper monitoring can go a long way in limiting the effects of these conditions.  A Los Angeles nursing home abuse lawyer will tell you that nursing homes are responsible for monitoring the vital signs of patients.  If the patients have known respiratory conditions, their breathing should be monitored in addition to temperature, blood pressure, and pulse.  Patients who receive breathing treatments should be monitored even more carefully.  If you feel that your loved one’s respiratory concerns were not monitored properly, you should contact a San Bernardino nursing home abuse lawyer to find out what you can do to prevent it from happening again.  While cardiac arrest cannot be prevented due to many medical conditions, it can be prevented in some nursing home patients.  Those who are on medications should be carefully monitored for allergic reactions.  Patients with known heart conditions should have their vital signs monitored and have any relevant diagnostic testing done at appropriate times.  If an allergy or a health condition is missed or misdiagnosed, the patient’s condition can worsen and progress into cardiac arrest.  If the patient is not being carefully monitored, the cardiac arrest can go undetected and lead to brain death or a fatality.  If you feel your loved one’s cardiac arrest could have been prevented with proper monitoring, contact a San Bernardino nursing home abuse lawyer to find out if you have any recourse.

Posted by Michael Young at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nursing home deaths usually aren’t considered out of the ordinary because many people place their loved ones in nursing homes knowing that the loved ones are drawing near the end of their lives.  Nursing homes are often facilities where the care of elderly residents is continued until they simply pass away from old age or from severe medical conditions.  This is why deaths in nursing homes that actually are suspicious in nature are often not investigated.  When a resident passes away, the only way anyone will look to see if the death is suspicious is if the family members make enough of a fuss to attract the attention of administrators.  Then an autopsy may be done that may uncover bruises, scratches, cuts, and other signs of possible abuse.  An in-depth exam may also reveal dehydration or severe malnutrition as the cause of death for the nursing home resident.  This type of death is suspicious since staff members are supposed to be tracking the intake of every single resident each day.  If malnutrition or dehydration were problems, the staff members should have been providing additional nourishment or additional fluids via an IV line in the resident’s arm.  Unfortunately, suspicious deaths are often not uncovered or are uncovered too late to do anything about them.  Having suspicious nursing home deaths is a violation of the trust that the family members of each resident placed in the administrators and staff members when each resident was admitted to the facility.  If you feel the death of your loved one may have been suspicious, contact a San Diego nursing home abuse attorney to find out what your options are for taking action against the nursing home. 

Posted by Michael Young at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)