Many of us have older relatives living in nursing homes. While nursing homes are often the safest place for elderly and vulnerable people to live, unfortunately sometimes the conditions within a nursing home can foster an environment of abuse and neglect. Tragically countless nursing home residents die as a result of poor care.
If you believe that your loved one’s death was a result of abuse or neglect, or you believe that their death could have been prevented with better care, you may want to consider taking legal action. By doing so, you will be able to honor your loved one by preventing the same thing from happening to other residents. You may also be able to gain damages for medical and funeral costs. The following is an overview of how you may be able to gain back damages.
You will need to show that negligence took place
In order to prove wrongful death, you will need to provide evidence of an action that the nursing home did or did not take which led to the death of your loved one. In most cases, this will be an act of negligence. Negligence is when a person or an entity breaches its duty of care to a person. For example, the nursing home staff has the responsibility to attend to the basic hygiene needs of their residents to prevent infection. If a nursing home resident gets an infection because their hygiene needs were not met, this would be an example of negligence.
You will need to show proximate cause
You need to show that negligence was the cause of death. To continue the hygiene care example, you need to show that the infection caused by poor hygiene led to the death of your loved one, and if they had been kept clean, they would not have died prematurely.
If you believe that your loved one passed away due to nursing home negligence, it is important that you take action to get justice in their honor.
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