Subpar living conditions in long-term care facilities are more common than you might think, sometimes due to inadvertent neglect and sometimes due to intentional abuse undertaken by facility staff members, administrators, and owners.
If you believe a family member of yours has been mistreated in any way by the people entrusted with their care, you may have options for legal action, which a Tampa nursing home abuse lawyer at Perenich Law Injury Attorneys could help you pursue. From start to finish of your legal proceedings, our team of dedicated personal injury attorneys could help you build a strong claim against anyone who played a role in neglecting or abusing your loved one and ensure they are held financially accountable for their actions.
Identifying the Mistreatment of a Nursing Home Resident
Even for attentive family members who consistently check in on loved ones living in assisted living facilities, it can be difficult to notice even severe neglect or abuse. Not all forms of mistreatment inside long-term care centers produce immediately obvious symptoms. Not to mention, the uniquely vulnerable elderly adults impacted by that mistreatment may be unwilling to talk about what is happening to them for fear of retaliation from the people mistreating them. In other cases, the resident may be cognitively unable to communicate the mistreatment they are suffering.
With this in mind, it is important to know about some of the more common signs and symptoms of potential abuse or neglect inside nursing homes and assisted living facilities, including:
- Any stage of bedsore or sepsis development
- Medications not being taken or refilled on schedule
- Regression to childlike behaviors such as thumb-sucking
- Unsanitary living conditions, especially including soiled clothes and bed linens
- Unexpected changes to a resident’s personal assets or estate planning documents
- Consistent and unexplained small injuries, especially bruises or welts around the wrists or ankles
- Dry skin, yellowed eyes or fingernails, severe weight loss, and any other signs of dehydration or malnutrition
- Marked changes in mood or personality, particularly if they happen noticeably around a specific staff member
Our compassionate Tampa nursing home abuse attorneys could help examine your family member’s circumstances and offer guidance about what action may be appropriate to take.
Who Do You Report Nursing Home Abuse to in Florida?
When your loved one’s quality of life is deteriorating because of abuse or neglect at an assisted living facility, notifying the right person or agency and stopping the harmful conduct is your top priority. Contacting local law enforcement may be necessary to address immediate safety concerns or hazards, such as if the perpetrator warned your loved one that they would continue to abuse them. In those situations, law enforcement can provide immediate intervention to help protect your family member from imminent harm.
If you feel comfortable doing so, you may also contact an administrator at the memory care center and inform them of your concerns. Before choosing this option, consider the potential consequences to your loved one; in other words, this may not be the safest avenue to choose if you have concerns about repercussions or retaliation.
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration is the state agency responsible for handling complaints against licensed and unlicensed healthcare organizations. Bringing your concerns to this department may allow you to confidentially report wrongdoing and protect your loved one from further harm. A seasoned long-term care neglect lawyer on our Tampa team could help gather information about filing a complaint and speak to third parties on your behalf.
How Long Do You Have To Sue a Nursing Home in Florida?
As explained in the Patient Bill of Rights—found in Florida Statutes § 381.026—nursing home residents have a right to live free from abuse, neglect, and financial or sexual exploitation. Tragically, not all assisted living center staff, administration, or providers respect the dignity, autonomy, or vulnerability of their patients. Instead, they allow residents to languish or die in poor, abusive, and deadly conditions.
Your loved one may qualify to file a lawsuit against the institution or individuals responsible for their injuries; however, under Fla. Stat. § 95.11, they only have a certain amount of time to do so. Typically, the filing deadline is within two years after the injury-causing event or two years after your loved one discovered or should have discovered their losses. However, there are important exceptions that extend the window to bring a claim by several years.
For example, you might have extra time if you can show that the facility’s untruthfulness about what occurred prevented you from discovering the source of the harm. Likewise, Fla. Stat. § 95.051 provides additional exceptions to the ordinary filing rules, such as by giving your loved one more time to file suit if they are incapacitated. A Tampa nursing home abuse attorney could help you identify the deadline in your situation and assist your loved one in exercising their legal right to hold the wrongdoers accountable.
Recovering Fairly for All Compensable Losses
Even if it is identified and addressed quickly, abuse and neglect of nursing home residents can still result in long-lasting and potentially life-threatening injuries. Positively identifying—let alone assigning a fair financial value to—all the physical, economic, and personal losses this sort of mistreatment can cause is far from a simple task.
Beyond helping construct a comprehensive claim against every person responsible for a Tampa nursing home resident’s mistreatment, a dedicated lawyer from our firm could also help ensure that every possible economic and non-economic loss caused by that mistreatment is accounted for through an ensuing lawsuit or settlement demand. This could include everything from short-term medical bills and personal property damage to long-term physical pain, psychological distress, and lost enjoyment of life.
Call a Tampa Nursing Home Abuse Attorney for Assistance
As three brothers helping others, we know exactly how important family is and how upsetting it can be to find out that a loved one is being neglected or abused. We also know through extensive experience how complicated and challenging personal injury claims can be, even if you have lots of evidence, and how big of a difference professional legal help can make in your odds of achieving a positive case result.
A Tampa nursing home abuse lawyer at our firm is available to assist your family with whatever legal action you need to pursue to protect your most vulnerable family members. Call Perenich Law Injury Attorneys today to schedule a free consultation with a caring legal professional.
(727) 669-2828
