Placing a loved one in a nursing home is often a heart-wrenching decision. Most Brevard County nursing homes proudly provide compassionate care, but sometimes, the unthinkable happens. Abusive residents, lack of staffing, and unscrupulous employees contribute to problems.
No matter the reason, if your family member is harmed because of substandard care or criminal behavior, you can do something about it. Be vigilant and pay attention to results from government inspections. You may be able to file a personal injury claim if someone was abused or neglected in one of these facilities. We offer guidance from one of our Cocoa Beach nursing home abuse lawyers.
While nursing home abuse is often perpetrated against patients with dementia or who are disabled, it could happen to any resident for a variety of reasons. Intentional abuse is a crime and can include sexual and physical trauma such as rape, assault, and battery. It can also include theft of jewelry, credit cards, and cash or checks. When visiting, you should be concerned and prepare to act when your loved one:
Other intentional abuse, such as intimidating a patient to cover up wrongdoing can relate to stealing valuables. Check your loved one’s accounts and know where their jewelry is kept. Our Cocoa Beach nursing home abuse attorneys can report abuse to the proper authorities, ensure your loved one is removed to a safe location, and seek compensation for the patient and family for the losses they endured.
More often than physical and sexual abuse, nursing homes and staff are guilty of neglect, a form of abuse that involves failing to provide a safe, healthy, positive environment for residents. Our attorneys believe our most vulnerable citizens deserve quality care and to live in dignity.
Unfortunately, more than half of all nursing home patients fall each year (predominantly when they are unattended) and often left on the floor, unable to get up for hours, which adds to their distress. Other neglectful acts, often due to a lack of caregivers or inadequate employee training, include:
Our attorneys have a successful track record of proving negligence in these cases. Negligence occurs when caregivers, including nursing home owners, management, and employees, breach the duty to give quality care that would be expected of a reasonable person in the same situation, and the breach is the direct cause of harm to the patient. When negligence or intentional harm is established, we hold those responsible to compensate the family if the patient dies.
When nursing home patients are injured because of caregivers’ or owners’ negligent acts, they are entitled to be compensated for their losses, which can include economic and non-economic damages and wrongful death injuries for family.
Economic damage includes medical care to treat the wounds from abusive behavior and the cost of moving the patient to a safe haven. Non-economic damages compensate patients for suffering and the emotional trauma from being abused.
If a nursing home resident in Cocoa Beach contributes to their injuries, such as taunting another resident who is known to lash out and does so, the court will consider how to split fault for injuries under Florida’s comparative negligence laws, changed dramatically in March 2023. Before that, a plaintiff responsible for up to 99 percent of an accident that harms them could recover a damages award. Currently, the plaintiff cannot be more than 50 percent liable to invoke this rule. Awards are reduced to the percentage of fault a jury assigns to the defendant.
Most Brevard County nursing home residents receive competent care and are safe and comfortable. But if you suspect your loved one is being abused in a care facility, you must act immediately. Our attorneys know how to report it, and fight for justice for the vulnerable by filing regulatory complaints and lawsuits to compensate the patient.
Florida shortened the time you have to file a lawsuit from four years to two, so contact us right away if you suspect abuse of your loved one. Our legal team champions families, and a Cocoa Beach nursing home abuse lawyer is waiting for your call.
The Umansky Law Firm Criminal Defense & Injury Attorneys
