Connecticut is a beautiful state in which to spend your final years. It has thousands of acres of lovely woodland, a temperate climate, and exceptional elderly care facilities.
Unfortunately, not all nursing homes provide the level of service they should. When a nursing home fails a loved one, you need a nursing home abuse attorney to help.
Nursing homes have significant control over the residents of their facilities. Good care can extend the lives of residents and make their final years pleasant. Neglectful or negligent care results in suffering and can shorten the lives of residents. At Polito Harrington, we strive to protect our clients and their loved ones.
Rights of Nursing Home Residents
Nursing home residents have extensive guaranteed rights between federal and
Connecticut laws. All elderly care facilities must care for residents in a matter that promotes dignity and high quality of life.
As residents age, their health and well-being will inevitably decline. But if that decline results from how the nursing home cares for the resident, then the nursing home has been negligent or abusive. You need a Connecticut nursing home abuse lawyer to protect your loved ones and get fair compensation for the harm caused to them.
Furthermore, if an elderly care home violates any of the rights guaranteed to residents, you have the right to sue. A nursing home abuse attorney from Polito Harrington will thoroughly explain your rights and options after you become aware of abuse or neglect.
If a nursing home is denying any of the following rights to your loved one, contact our offices immediately:
- The right to be fully informed in a language and manner the resident can understand
- The right to complain about the facility or staff without repercussions or retaliation
- The right to make decisions about treatment
- The right to privacy of records and affairs
- The right not to be transferred or discharged, except for specific reasons
- The right to be safe and informed during such transfers or discharges
- The right to be treated with respect and dignity
- The right to receive or refuse visitors as the resident wishes
- The right to make choices about all personal affairs as much as the resident is able
If a nursing home violates any of these rights, you may file a complaint with the Department of Public Health for yourself or a loved one. The nursing home abuse will go on the public record when you file this complaint.
Besides starting an investigation by the state, this complaint will help your nursing home abuse lawyer from Polito Harrington if we file a lawsuit on your behalf. Each report creates a record of abuse allegations that we can use to show a pattern of abuse and help gain compensation for you and your family.
Additionally, the Connecticut Patients’ Bill of Rights guarantees that patients cannot be discharged or transferred to a new nursing home just because they have become reliant on Medicaid to pay for their residency.
The nursing home can move a resident from a private room to a shared room, but the resident must otherwise receive the same standard of care.
If a nursing home tries to discharge or transfer your loved one because they recently became reliant on Medicaid, contact a Connecticut nursing home abuse attorney immediately. Your Polito Harrington attorney will need to take fast action to prevent this discharge or transfer from happening.
How a Polito Harrington Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Can Help?
Nursing home abuse or negligence is an insidious activity. Not only does it harm some of the most vulnerable members of society, but it also often goes undetected for months or even years. When you finally become aware of abuse, your loved one may have suffered irreparable harm or possibly even passed away.
At Polito Harrington, we care about the health and well-being of our clients and their loved ones. When we learn about nursing home abuse, we take every legal path possible to end the abuse and help the resident recover physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Depending on the circumstances, we might ask for:
- Transfer to a safer facility
- A restraining order against the staff of the current facility
- Nurses or attendants being placed on leave or fired
- Medical treatment for injuries caused by abuse
- Recovery of stolen property or finances
- Restored visiting privileges for friends and family
- Purchase of mobility devices or other devices that support independence
The most important thing is to ensure that the abuse stops immediately. Legal proceedings can take months or years to complete. You or your loved one can’t be allowed to suffer for the duration of those proceedings.
Once the abuse has stopped, we then focus on recovery. Recovery may require medical care, accountants, investigations, or other services. But whatever else recovery requires, it will always require money. Polito Harrington elder care abuse attorneys will fight vigorously to get you the money you need.
From the moment we take your case, we collect all the abuse and neglect evidence we can.
Here are some of the actions our attorneys might take while pursuing your case:
- Compile medical records
- Speak to witnesses
- Obtain the service records of nurses and attendants
- Look through case records for past accusations of abuse against the facility
- Get statements from the victim and family members
- Examine expenditures and bills
Our attorneys use this evidence to negotiate a settlement with the nursing home. Fair compensation will pay for any expenses or losses incurred, future expenses needed for recovery, and other losses the victim endured during the abuse. If the victim died from abuse, we could also recover additional damages for your loss.
When we cannot negotiate a fair settlement with the nursing home, we file a lawsuit against the nursing home. Lawsuits are never the preferred option because they take quite a bit of time and time is not a luxury for the elderly.
However, this doesn’t mean we will back down from filing a lawsuit if it is the only option. It is better to wait for a large award than to settle for a pittance or nothing.
Regardless of how the case resolves, retain a Connecticut nursing home abuse lawyer the moment you even suspect abuse. Connecticut law limits how long you have to take legal action. If you don’t file a lawsuit within at least two years of the abuse, you cannot sue.
Investigations can take time, and nursing homes will drag out any settlement negotiations. The earlier you hire Polito Harrington, the more likely we will get you compensation for the abuse.
Nursing Home Abuse Information
Connecticut is home to 211 certified Medicare and Medicaid nursing homes with 25,322 resident beds. Most of those nursing homes provide safe and respectful care for residents. But the ones that don’t provide safe care can severely harm the residents.
There are numerous ways that nursing homes can abuse residents. Physical abuse is particularly concerning because it can shorten the lives of the residents.
When you visit a loved one in a nursing home, look out for:
- Bedsores
- Injuries from falls
- Malnutrition or starvation
- Infections
- Disease or virus spread (including COVID-19)
- Failure to administer appropriate medications
Whether this physical harm results from negligence or intentional abuse does not matter to you or your loved one. The harm is the same either way.
Physical harm reduces the quality of life and usually decreases the victim’s lifespan. Your nursing home abuse attorney from Polito Harrington is familiar with all types of abuse and can help you get the medical attention you need and the funds to pay for it.
Theft
Another common type of nursing home abuse is fraud or theft. Elderly residents often have limited mobility or limited access to their resources. They may need assistance to maintain those resources.
This dependence could allow a dishonest attendant to steal possessions or finances from a resident. If you think your loved one in a nursing home is being defrauded or robbed, contact a nursing home abuse lawyer at Polito Harrington immediately.
We have attorneys who know how to identity theft from the elderly. Whether an attendant directly stole a valuable heirloom or defrauded the resident’s trust with fake billing, our investigators will find evidence by auditing the accounts and possessions of the resident.
We will then fight to recover that money, holding individuals and the nursing home responsible when appropriate.
Violation of Dignity
There are many ways a nursing home can violate a resident’s dignity. These violations may not directly cause physical harm but decrease the resident’s quality of life and often cause severe mental or emotional distress.
When you visit or speak to your loved one, keep an eye out for:
- Requirements that a resident wears a diaper or use a bedpan rather than helping them get to the bathroom
- Preventing a resident from voting
- Refusing to allow family or friends to visit the resident
- Limiting the diet of a resident for nonmedical reasons
- Preventing a resident from socializing
- Taking away assistance or communication devices from the resident
- Being verbally abusive to the resident
- Forcing the resident to room with a problematic resident
Both state and federal laws require the nursing home to protect and support the dignity of all residents. If the nursing home has a policy that ignores that law or negligently allows a staff member to ignore it, it is liable for the harm caused to the resident.
A nursing home abuse attorney from Polito Harrington can work to recover damages from the nursing home to compensate your loved one for that violation of their dignity.
Is the Nursing Home Liable, or Are Individuals Liable?
Liability in a nursing home abuse case usually belongs to the nursing home and
individuals who took specific actions or failed to act. Nurses and staff members are all individually responsible for protecting residents’ rights.
If, either due to negligence or malice, a nurse harms a resident or violates their rights, you have the right to sue them as an individual. Similarly, staff members are mandatory reporters. If they observe abuse and don’t report it or take action to prevent it, you can hold them liable for the harm they caused to your loved one.
The nursing home, as a business, is also usually liable for senior abuse. It is required to perform background checks on staff to ensure that they don’t have a history of abuse and to continue to monitor the behavior of staff members for any signs of abuse.
If a nursing home’s policies fail to protect residents from abuse, then those policies are substandard, and the nursing home is liable.
When we file a lawsuit for elder abuse, we might file against both individual actors and the nursing home. The goal is to get you and your loved one the compensation you deserve for your suffering. By including every possible liable party, you may get a larger award and prevent future incidents of abuse.
Protect Your Loved Ones with Polito Harrington Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys
Nursing home abuse is an unfortunate fact of life. The people who most deserve respect, dignity, and care are often abused by those tasked to care for them.
At Polito Harrington, we will do everything in our power to stop the abuse and get money for your suffering or the suffering of a loved one. We take these cases very seriously and have a long record of successful injury verdicts and settlements in abuse cases.
If you suspect abuse of a loved one by a nursing home, contact us immediately at (718) 588-2000 to speak to an attorney and receive your free case consultation.
Polito & Harrington LLC – Waterford Office
567 Vauxhall Street Ext.
Suite 230, Waterford, CT 06385
Phone: (860) 447-3300
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