Florida Senior Pressure Ulcer Attorneys
A pressure ulcer, also called a bedsore or decubitus ulcer, is a type of sore the skin can suffer when it loses blood supply. If there is too much pressure on areas of the body over time, such as the tailbone or shoulder blades during bedrest, pressure ulcers can form. Pressure ulcers can be painful and result in many different health complications, from serious infections to muscle damage.
Pressure ulcers do not happen in dutiful and clean nursing home environments. It is only when a facility is negligent in its patient care and hygiene do residents suffer injuries such as pressure ulcers. Therefore, it’s important to speak to an attorney about your case. Contact the Florida attorneys at Freedland Harwin Valori, PL, if you discover your elderly loved one has pressure ulcers, as he or she could be eligible for compensation.
About Pressure Ulcers
A pressure ulcer starts out as a small red dot on the skin, but it can worsen into an open sore that damages and destroys the skin’s tissues – ultimately causing a crater in the skin that can reach deep into the underlying layers and muscle tissues. Open pressure ulcers can expose the resident to serious risks of infection, especially if the nursing home is negligent in its cleanliness and sanitation practices. Pressure ulcers can result in the following damages to the average nursing home resident:
- Medical costs. A pressure ulcer can put an otherwise healthy nursing home resident in the hospital. It can cause expensive medical bills during treatment and recovery, from surgeries to debride dead tissues and graft skin to lengthy hospital stays to prevent infection.
- Pain and suffering. Pressure ulcers can be very painful for victims, afflicting bony areas of the body such as the sacrum, hips, ankles, heels, and the back of the head. Physical pain and emotional suffering can result from open sores and the required treatments and/or surgeries.
- Lost quality of life. The most serious ulcers can result in temporary or permanent damage to mobility and muscle function. This can be very debilitating for nursing home residents, impacting the quality of life as well as the enjoyment of life. Lower quality of life can exacerbate other health problems as well.
In Florida, these are all compensable damages in the eyes of the law. This means victims have the right to seek financial recovery for these damages through the civil justice system. They can do so by bringing a civil personal injury lawsuit with the correct county courts within Florida’s four-year limitations period for injuries and 2 year period for wrongful death . If your loved one died from complications of a pressure ulcer, you also have the right to pursue damages of your own through a wrongful death lawsuit.
What to Do About Nursing Home Pressure Ulcers
Pressure ulcers are direct results of negligence. If there is someone you love in a Florida nursing home with a pressure ulcer diagnosis, you should contact us as soon as possible. We’ll visit your loved one at home or in the hospital if you can’t come to our Fort Lauderdale offices. Odds are that the nursing home, one of its staff members, or another party are legally responsible for your loved one’s ulcer-related damages. We can discover the cause of the incident and help you explore your legal rights.
Our team of experienced attorneys knows how to help injured nursing home residents. We can stand up for your rights in the face of facility and/or staff member negligence. We can investigate the circumstances of the pressure ulcer and related treatment, assessing what the facility should have done to prevent the injury. We can even hire medical expert witnesses to testify to the defendant’s negligence. It starts with a free, no-obligation case evaluation with one of our attorneys. Call (954) 467-6400 to schedule yours.
