Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawyer in Greenville SC
Placing the care of a loved one in the hands of a nursing facility is an emotional experience. You give your trust to the caregivers, nurses and doctors to provide the necessary care. However, too many times, nursing homes are negligent, which can result in hospital bills, broken bones, illness and even death.
As a lawyer and advocate for my clients, I have seen neglect and abuse too many times. I developed this website to provide information about nursing home abuse and elder neglect to help families protect their loved ones. Holding nursing homes responsible for abuse and neglect is important, but prevention should be our primary mission. It has become mine.
I represented my first nursing home negligence case in 1999, and it was gut-wrenching. My firm took on a billion-dollar nursing home corporation and won the largest verdict in Union County’s history at the time. Since then, I have represented individuals and families in South Carolina who have been harmed by nursing home negligence. For families of people injured from nursing home neglect and abuse, I waive my initial consultation fee.
I’ve helped others, and I will fight for you.
Each year, nearly 1 in 10 people are abused or neglected in a nursing home or assisted-living facility.
PROTECT YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS. DEFEND THEIR RIGHT TO QUALITY CARE.
Types of Nursing Home Neglect
With our aging population, there has been a boom in building nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. In South Carolina, there are 195 nursing homes with more than 20,000 licensed beds. Unfortunately, profit sometimes gives way to quality of care, and residents suffer instead of receiving care they need. On behalf of your loved ones, nursing home abuse attorney Andy Arnold advises you to watch carefully for the following signs of nursing home neglect and abuse:
Repeated Falls and Fractures
Accidents happen, but multiple falls in a short time period are a sign of negligence. Nursing homes have required care plans, and these care plans spell out whether one or two people are required to assist with care. All too often, the care plan requires two CNAs to assist with transferring, changing, or repositioning, but the reality is there is only enough staff available for one person to do that job. When a resident slips or falls due to insufficient staffing, it is not an accident, but rather neglect in following the medical plan.
Malnutrition and Dehydration
Nutrition and hydration are critical for people of all ages, but proper feeding is especially important for the elderly. Failure to adequately feed and hydrate residents is a sign of neglect that can have devastating consequences for elderly residents.
Staffing Concerns
Most injuries and abuse sustained by nursing home residents, including dehydration, bedsores, fractures, and weight loss, can be linked to understaffing. In many cases, nursing homes choose not to pay for the amount of staff needed to adequately care for elderly patients, so the few staff members there have to regularly cut corners or not follow proper guidelines. Federal and South Carolina laws dictate required staffing and hours, but not all assisted living facilities follow them. Is your loved one getting the care she needs and deserves?
Bedsores
Bedsores indicate failure to properly reposition or hydrate a resident, or failure to get the resident out of bed and moving about. Leaving a resident in one position day in and day out has a very predictable outcome: pressure ulcers, also known as bed sores. The ulcers deepen, skin and tissue die, infection sets in, and then your family is facing a medical emergency. Bedsores are preventable—and care should be taken to prevent them.
When You Need a Greenville Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer
The law firms representing nursing homes have attorneys who are paid well to protect their clients from responsibility. To be successful in a lawsuit against a nursing home, you need an aggressive litigator with experience arguing high-stakes cases — including million-dollar nursing home cases. It can be a long road, but if there is a case, Andy Arnold and his litigation staff will fight for you as long as it takes.
If Andy can assist or offer advice regarding nursing home abuse, nursing home neglect, assisted-living negligence, or related issues, please contact us. We will waive our standard consultation fee, and meet with you free of charge. Contact our Greenville, SC law firm for a free consultation at (864) 233-4351.
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