Louisiana Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect Lawyers

What are the different types of Louisiana nursing home abuse or neglect

Garcia & Artigliere are dedicated elder abuse lawyers. We’ve been fighting for seniors and people who are disabled since 1992. Our lawyers understand what types of abuse occur in nursing homes, who is responsible, and why nursing homes should be held liable.

Nursing home abuse and neglect are categorized in five different ways according to the Cleveland Clinic and The Administration for Community Living (ACL):

• Physical abuse. This type of abuse involves any contact with a senior that causes any type of pain or physical injury. Common examples include pushing, hitting, punching, and slapping. The use of physical or chemical restraints and denying patients their medication are also considered physical abuse.
• Emotional abuse. This type of psychological abuse is usually based on a staff member’s improper need to control a resident’s behavior. Examples include isolating a Louisiana senior from family, friends, and other relatives. Other examples include insults, rough verbal language, and intimidating words. Emotional abuse is designed to make the senior victim fearful, guilty, and anxious.
• Sexual abuse. This type of Louisiana nursing home abuse involves forcing a resident to watch or participate in sexual activities or conduct – without the senior’s consent. The sexual abuser may be a staff member, another resident, or someone who has access to the nursing home such as a visitor or a contractor.
• Financial abuse. This type of abuse involves taking anything of value from a senior nursing home resident. Items of value may include cash, bank accounts, credit cards, and retirement accounts. New powers of attorney and changes to a senior’s will are strong indicators of financial abuse.
• Neglect: Gross neglect is the deliberate failure to provide a resident with his/her essential needs. Our Louisiana nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers represent seniors who are deprived of proper shelter, nutrition, medications, family contact, and the violation of any other fundamental rights each nursing home senior has. Generally, gross neglect is deliberate while other types of nursing home neglect, which are also actionable, are unreasonable. Nursing homes also must prevent self-neglect, which occurs when seniors with cognitive disabilities or physical disabilities can’t take care of their basic needs like bathing, dressing, and eating.

Nursing home abuse and neglect also includes failing to protect seniors who may wander away from the facility or abandoning a resident altogether by making the resident take care of himself/herself.

At Garcia & Artigliere, our Louisiana nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers are respected across Louisiana. We file personal injury claims on behalf of injured seniors and wrongful death claims on behalf of families who died while in a nursing home.

Medication errors in nursing homes

The US National Institute for Health, as of May 2023, states that there are about 6,800 prescription medications available – along with countless over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. Each drug has its own set of dangers that only multiply when combined with more drugs. Most seniors take many medications. On average, about 8,000 people in the US die due to medical errors. Hundreds of thousands of prescription users experience health problems that they don’t report.

The NIH defines a medication error as:

… any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the healthcare professional, patient, or consumer. Such events may be related to professional practice, health care products, procedures, and systems, including prescribing; order communication; product labeling, packaging, and nomenclature; compounding; dispensing; distribution; administration; education; monitoring; and use.

Healthcare providers who provide services for nursing homes may prescribe the wrong medication or make other prescription errors.

At Garcia & Artigliere, our Louisiana nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers have the skill and resources (working relationships with elder care doctors) to show that a nursing home had a duty to provide and administer medications properly and failed to do so.

Medication errors can cause severe injuries and death. Sadly, some medication mistakes at nursing homes are more than just errors. Some nursing homes deliberately withhold medications as a form of control or punishment.

We file personal injury and wrongful death claims against nursing homes for the following types of medical mistakes:

• Not giving a resident the correct medication at the correct time in the correct dosage
• Improperly mixing the drugs the resident takes
• Not reviewing the possible side effects and interactions of the medications
• Not reviewing the resident’s medical chart to see if the resident is allergic to any medications
• Failing to record the medications that each resident takes
• An improper diagnosis or a missed diagnosis
• Not having an individual health care plan for a resident
• Failing to look for or understand the signs that a resident is having a medical problem
• Delaying medical care or providing the wrong type of treatment

Delayed or denied treatment for stroke

Prompt action when a resident is displaying the signs of a stroke can save lives. An ischemic stroke, the most common type of stroke, can usually be treated with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) if the medication is administered within three (3) hours of the stroke. An ischemic stroke prevents the brain from getting the blood it needs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that in 2021, almost 17 percent of heart disease conditions are due to stroke and almost 800,000 people, every year, have a stroke. Nearly one in four stroke victims die.

At Garcia & Artigliere, our Louisiana elder abuse lawyers work with doctors and nursing home professionals who understand what procedures nursing homes should have in place to prevent delays or mistreatment of stroke.