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No one wants to imagine that a nursing home or assisted living facility they entrusted with the care of a beloved family member could possibly mistreat them in any way. Unfortunately, whether in the form of intentional abuse or inadvertent neglect, mistreatment inside these kinds of facilities is much more common than most people want to believe. The abuse can be difficult to detect and you might not be sure what appropriate actions to take.
If you have any suspicions that a loved one is being neglected or abused by their caretakers, you should consider speaking with a Goose Creek nursing home abuse lawyer about your legal options. With help from a seasoned personal injury attorney at Miller | Conway, you can ensure your family member is safe from any further harm and that they are reimbursed for every form of harm this misconduct led to.
Sadly, nursing home abuse can take numerous forms that may produce very different symptoms in affected residents—or sometimes no obvious symptoms at all. As our Goose Creek nursing home abuse attorney will tell you, it is helpful to know in advance what kinds of mistreatment a resident may experience. You need to act quickly to address the abuse if you discover it is affecting someone you love.
In addition to nursing home staff members physically striking or attacking residents, physical abuse in these facilities can also include the unreasonable use of physical restraints, overly rough handling of physically vulnerable residents, or even unwanted sexual contact or assault.
Even if they never cause any physical injuries, nursing home employees can still greatly damage a resident’s mental health and overall quality of life. They might do this by berating or insulting residents, controlling what they are allowed to do, isolating them from friends and family, and threatening him with other forms of harm.
Though it is less common than other forms of mistreatment, it is not unheard of for nursing home staff members to steal cash or valuables from residents, trick or coerce residents into changing their estate plans, or even to participate in facility-wide fraud schemes.
Whether it stems from a single worker’s carelessness or a facility-wide lack of proper staffing and training, failure to provide for a nursing home resident’s basic needs can sometimes be even more harmful than conscious abuse.
Typically, you have three years at most after discovering nursing home abuse to file suit on their behalf and demand money for losses like medical bills, physical pain, and psychological distress. However, there are a few situations where the applicable deadlines may change somewhat. A nursing home abuse lawyer in Goose Creek could further explain these situations.
Most notably, the deadline for filing suit against any nursing home or assisted living facility operated by a state government entity is two years after initial injury, rather than three years. Additionally, the applicable deadline for claims against healthcare providers working in these facilities is three years after discovery of malpractice. However, a claim cannot be filed later than six years after the alleged malpractice actually occurred.
No matter how it happens, no form of neglect or abuse of nursing home residents is acceptable. If you believe a family member of yours has been harmed by this kind of mistreatment, it may fall to you to take legal action on their behalf.
It is essential to call a Goose Creek nursing home abuse lawyer and get help in protecting your family by filing for monetary compensation. Call Miller | Conway today for a consultation.