Nursing Home Lawsuits - Nursing Home Abuse Cases - Filing Nursing Home Lawsuits

Nursing Home Lawsuits & The Most Common Forms of Nursing Home Abuse

A growing number of cases of negligence at nursing homes are leading to a rising number for nursing home lawsuits. With an increasing percentage of America’s population aging, nursing home requirements for the elderly are also on the rise. This has increased the demand for trained nursing staff. The imbalance in this demand and supply may be leading to a rising neglect of the aged members!

Most Frequent Categories Of Abuses At Nursing Homes
Below are the categories of abuses for which most of the nursing home lawsuits are filed:

• Neglect – The most common type of nursing home abuse. Research reveals that almost 50% of the un-natural deaths in nursing homes are caused due to negligence, which includes malnutrition and dehydration.

• Physical – While not as common as negligence, physical abuse of nursing home residents has also been in limelight in nursing home abuse cases. Few years ago, there was this story of Helen Love, whose neck and wrist were broken by an irritated staff member, because she had soiled herself, leading to her death.

• Sexual – Cases of sexual abuses, both by staff members as well as other residents, are also very common in nursing homes, including molestations during bathing.

• Financial – Financial abuses are often reported as missing/stolen personal belongings of residents.

• Mental – Mental abuses are very difficult to identify and prove in nursing home lawsuits. They can lead to perpetual fear, depression or even total withdrawal in residents.

State and federal laws require nursing homes to hire adequate staff to meet the daily needs of residents. Any compromise on this provides enough grounds for filing nursing home lawsuits.

Nursing Home Abuse: Lawsuits or Arbitration

Some nursing homes are requiring families of patients to agree to mandatory arbitration instead of lawsuits if the need arises.

A few senators think that it gives nursing homes a free pass without repercussions to provide inadequate care. Nursing homes argue that it saves them from costly lawsuits. Often the arbitration group is chosen by the nursing home further tipping the scales of fairness away from the family.

If two senators have their way, this will be reversed in order to make way for the Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act to make nursing homes more accountable. What about the man whose father died from a blood infection caused by 14 bedsores? Preposterous? Not this for this family.

Will the two senators be able to convince others to get the Act passed? Stay tuned. In the meantime, a web-based rating system for nursing homes is in the works and should be finished by year end.

Source: Greenbay Press Gazette

Trasylol Litigation Growing; Led by Anapol Schwartz Law Firm

Is Trasylol the next Baycol?

James Ronca, shareholder at law firm Anapol, Schwartz, Weiss, Cohan, Feldman and Smalley, P.C., was recently appointed co-lead counsel of the national Trasylol litigation's 12-member plaintiffs' steering committee. Ronca has much experience in complex pharmaceutical and products liability cases including Baycol, LOTRONEX, hormone replacement therapy, and breast implants.

Ronca will be representing more than 30 victims, both in local courts and in the national litigation. About 50 cases have been consolidated for pre-trial proceedings and trials by The Multi-District Litigation Panel in The Southern District of Georgia. The steering committee anticipates the filing of 500 additional cases.

Trasylol, manufactured by Bayer AG is administered by an anesthesiologist during coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Trasylol’s function is to limit bleeding.

Trasylol causes kidney failure within 72 hours of surgery and increases the risk of death. After 14 years on the pharmaceutical market, Bayer suspended marketing of Trasylol in November 2007 and pulled Trasylol off the market in May 2008 based on FDA concerns.

Founded in 1977, Anapol, Schwartz, Weiss, Cohan, Feldman & Smalley is a personal injury firm with 25 attorneys and law offices in Philadelphia, Media, Reading and Harrisburg, Pa., as well as Cherry Hill, N.J.

Has a loved one experienced complications and death following coronary artery bypass graft surgery? Most families of victims are not told that their loved ones were administered Trasylol. Most families don’t know to ask. If your loved one experienced kidney failure within 72 hours of CABG surgery, please contact Anapol Schwartz law firm so we can help you determine the cause.