Nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other places dedicated to caring for vulnerable elderly people are the last places you should expect rampant neglect and abuse. In reality, the exact opposite is true: facilities like this are all too often a hotbed for careless, uncompassionate, and sometimes even outright malicious mistreatment. There’s not always a lot the residents directly impacted by it can do to protect themselves or enforce their own rights under Pennsylvania law.
Fortunately, you may have the right to take legal action on your loved one’s behalf when you suspect they are being neglected or abused by long-term care providers. Our skilled personal injury attorneys can help you do so effectively and efficiently. In a situation like this, representation from a York nursing home abuse lawyer can be the difference between getting your family the money you deserve and having no choice but to deal with the physical and emotional costs of abuse all by yourselves.
With renowned attorneys like Founding Partner Jon Ostroff, who spent over a decade as a defense attorney handling nursing home abuse and neglect matters, you can rest easy knowing your case is in good hands. We resolved a case for a substantial and confidential amount on behalf of the family of an elderly woman who suffered serious injuries that led to her death after a fall due to deficient lighting in her nursing home room.
What to Do About Suspected Nursing Home Mistreatment
Not every instance of mistreatment inside a nursing home or assisted living facility will necessarily justify a lawsuit in civil court. In many situations, it’s worth bringing up concerns you have about your loved one’s living conditions with facility management, as they may be able to fix minor issues with individual staff members before anyone gets seriously hurt. Additionally, you can file a complaint with the Division of Nursing Care Facilities within the Division of Pennsylvania Department of Health, which may be able to provide you with additional resources and assistance.
Your top priority should always be ensuring the safety of your family, though, so if you have any suspicion that your loved one is in imminent danger of physical injury or psychological harm, you should take immediate steps to remove them from the facility that’s placing them in harm’s way and explore your options for further action. A nursing home abuse attorney in York can offer more specific guidance about the best course of action for your specific situation and assist with contacting law enforcement and government authorities for further help.
Filing a Lawsuit Over Nursing Home Abuse or Neglect
When a nursing home resident suffers physical or psychological harm serious enough to require professional medical care because of neglect or abuse in their nursing home, they—or family members acting on their behalf—may have standing to file an injury lawsuit against the people responsible for their mistreatment. Importantly, liability for this sort of mistreatment may be shared by multiple people, including the person or people who directly engaged in abuse or neglect and their employers and potentially the owners of the property where their mistreatment occurred.
Depending on exactly what injuries a resident sustains through mistreatment in a nursing home, it may be possible to demand compensation for both economic and non-economic losses caused by that mistreatment, including:
- Medical bills, including costs of therapy and pain management medications
- Personal property damage
- Physical pain and suffering
- Loss of life’s pleasures
- Psychological and emotional distress
When a nursing home resident in York passes away because of neglect or abuse, a skilled lawyer can help you and other surviving family members demand compensation for losses they’ll experience due to their loved one’s wrongful death.
A York Nursing Home Abuse Attorney Can Help
Learning that someone you care about has been inadvertently or deliberately mistreated by a person who was supposed to treat them compassionately can be infuriating and upsetting. For the sake of your entire family, though, it may be crucial for you to stay as calm as possible and be proactive about enforcing your loved one’s legal rights since they may not be able to enforce them on their own.
Assistance is available from a seasoned York nursing home abuse lawyer willing to fight tirelessly to get your family paid what you deserve. Call Ostroff Godshall Injury and Accident Lawyers today to discuss your options.
