What Compensation Is Available to Nursing Home Abuse Victims and Their Families?

Finding out that your loved one has been abused, neglected, or in any way mistreated in their nursing home is devastating. You trusted the nursing home administrators, staff members, and caretakers to do everything possible to keep your loved one safe, healthy, and happy, but they failed.

All you want is to make sure your loved one is moved out of harm’s way and able to recover from their experience, but it’s important to note that you can also file a compensation claim against the nursing home.

When nursing homes fail to provide residents with the care they’re owed, or they don’t protect and uphold their state-given rights, they can and should be held accountable for any damages. Unfortunately, many nursing home residents are unable to file claims on their own, but their families can do so on their behalf.

Medical Expenses

Nursing home abuse and neglect aren’t just traumatic and painful for residents—they can also harm their health and even put their lives at risk. Abused and neglected residents often require medical care to get back to normal or to mitigate the injuries and illnesses they suffered.

Medical expenses that can be recovered in a nursing home abuse claim include:

• Medication costs
• Doctor visits, including checkups and treatments
• Hospitalization bills, including overnight stays
• Transportation costs, including ambulance rides
• Surgery and special treatment costs
• Physical rehabilitation
• Psychological and emotional support and counseling

Lost Wages

Not all nursing home residents are elderly and retired. In fact, some nursing home residents are still capable of working and only live in care facilities temporarily. Others may even hold jobs while living in nursing homes full-time.

As with any personal injury claim, lost wages can be recovered via a nursing home abuse claim. Simply put, when another party’s negligence causes a person to be unable to do their job due to injury or illness, they should be compensated.

Stolen Property or Assets

An underreported aspect of nursing home abuse is financial abuse. Many nursing home residents suffer from various stages of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and other conditions that affect their memory and cognition. Nursing home staff members may take advantage of this by stealing items from their rooms, making unauthorized charges on their accounts, or even forging wills and estate documents.

Because the losses of financial abuse can be significant and affect families for generations to come, both victims and their loved ones can file compensation claims. In many cases, financial abuse can be considered a criminal act and may be separately tried as a misdemeanor or felony depending on its severity.

Pain and Suffering

Nursing home residents are among the most vulnerable members of society. When residents move into full-care facilities, they often need assistance with daily living tasks, as well as around-the-clock supervision and medical intervention.

Unfortunately, being partially or fully dependent on others means that they are also susceptible to both physical and emotional abuse. And because they are full-time residents, they may not have any recourse or escape from their predicaments, making any physical and emotional pain they incur that much more damaging and long-term.

Our attorneys work hard to make sure negligent parties and their insurers understand exactly how damaging pain and suffering can be for victims. Just as we advocate for auto accident victims whose injuries have deeply affected them and their lives, we do the same for nursing home abuse victims and their families.

Unsure What Your Family Is Owed? We’re Here to Help.

If you suspect that your loved one has been abused or neglected in their nursing home, you need a lawyer on your side right away. At Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy, our Ohio nursing home abuse lawyers know all the costs associated with these egregious examples of negligence and broken trust.

We’ll collect all the evidence necessary to determine exactly how much your family is owed for what you’ve gone through. Then, we’ll build a claim that’s designed to get the results you deserve. Contact us today for a free consultation. You’ve been through enough—now, get a legal team that has your best interests at heart.

Related Posts