By Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer on December 23, 2011 -
An experienced Arizona personal injury attorney will make sure that the rights of the elder will be upheld and protected. Many times, nursing home care unfortunately ends in the elderly being taken advantage of, either through physical abuse or emotional. When a loved one is hurt in a nursing home, it is important for the family to know that it is good to take steps to protect the elder from being abused and neglected in nursing home facilities. Loved ones who file claims when their elderly loved one has been injured in a nursing home are helping to protect other individuals in the future from being hurt and are seeking justice.
Arizona Elder Abuse and Neglect Statistics
In Arizona, there are about 10,000 reports of elder abuse made each year. The majority of the victims of elder abuse are usually females and are ages 75 years old and above. The adults who are abused are usually those who are mentally and physically impaired.
Arizona State Vulnerable Adult Law
A person who has been employed to take care of a vulnerable adult and who has been found to have either caused an injury or who has endangered the life of a vulnerable adult may be charged with a felony.
Contact a Professional Arizona Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer
A professional Arizona nursing home abuse lawyer will make sure that the rights of the vulnerable elderly will be protected. When an elder is hurt by someone who is supposed to be taking care of them, it is likely that this is not the first person who has been hurt by the caretaker. Most family members bring claims when their loved ones have been hurt to seek justice and to make sure that other innocent elderly individuals are not hurt in the future by the same care taker. The Breyer Law Offices, P.C. offer free consultations and there is no fee unless we win. Call today for your free consultation.
When a loved one enters a nursing home, you expect that nursing home employees will perform their duties with compassion and respect. Some workers do not take this responsibility seriously and choose to engage in physical and emotional abuse of their patients. Two California nursing assistants were recently sentenced to 20 days in jail and two years of probation for their role in a prank involving dementia patients.
As a prank on the workers coming in on the next shift, these nursing assistants coated dementia patients with ointment. The goal was to make them slippery so that the workers on the next shift would have difficulty performing their duties. This “prank” was a form of elder abuse, as it caused serious risk of harm to vulnerable nursing home residents. Arizona nursing home patients are also at risk for elder abuse and neglect.
Arizona Adult Protective Services investigated more than 6,400 reports of mistreatment in 2010, many of which were made by social service and health care workers. These workers reported suspected Arizona elder physical abuse, financial exploitation, neglect and emotional abuse perpetrated by the family members, home health workers and nursing home employees charged with caring for the elderly.
Jacob Mueller, a former police officer and Prescott private investigator, focuses on investigating elder abuse suspicions and conducting thorough background checks on those who apply for jobs giving them access to elderly people. Mueller says there is no national background check people can use to investigate health care workers before hiring them. An Arizona criminal background check may not reveal felony crimes perpetrated in other states, putting the elderly at risk for abuse or financial fraud.
If a loved one has experienced abuse or exploitation at the hands of an unscrupulous nursing home worker in Arizona, contact the Breyer Law Offices P.C. at 602-457-6222. One of our experienced Phoenix nursing home abuse attorneys will review your case thoroughly and help you develop a plan of action.
When a person involved in a personal injury suit dies from causes unrelated to their injury, many of the rights available under the lawsuit are lost. However, this is not true for nursing home abuse cases.
The law in Arizona protects claims that are made against negligent nursing homes even if the elderly person died as a result of an illness unrelated to their abuse. Therefore, the law does not allow abusive nursing home to avoid responsibility for their actions just because the claimant passed away. The reason for this is simple – most victims of abuse in nursing homes are elderly and they may not survive the long and arduous road of a personal injury case.
When abuse in a nursing home does occur, it can be shocking and devastating for the entire family. But it’s important to connect with an Arizona nursing home abuse attorney who can offer an honest assessment of the case and whether or not a personal injury claim can – and should – be pursued.
At Breyer Law Offices, we are experienced elder Phoenix abuse lawyers, and can give you honest answers and guidance, as well as educate you about all of your legal options, so you can make the best decision for your loved one.
Finding a Phoenix nursing home abuse attorney can be a challenge. Not because there are a lack of nursing home abuse attorneys in Phoenix, but simply because it can be hard to find an attorney who has the experience you need and who is the right fit for you and your family.
Nursing home abuse cases have more of an emotional element to them than most other kinds of injury cases. People entrust a nursing home with their loved one and when that loved one is abused, it can take an emotional toll on the entire family. Families may feel angry, horrified, and even guilty that they trusted a caretaker with their loved one. For that reason – and also to protect possible future victims – nursing homes must be held responsible for the abuse the victim suffered at the hands of nursing home staff.
In these kinds of cases, the first step is to find out whether there is evidence to support the Arizona nursing home abuse claim. The best way to do so is to hire an experienced nursing home abuse attorney in Phoenix. At Breyer Law Offices, we are experienced in nursing home abuse cases, and can give you honest answers and the guidance you need, as well as educate you about all of your legal options, so you can make the best decision for your loved one.
Nursing home patients in Arizona often rely completely on their caregivers to properly medicate them. Yet there are times when these caregivers fail to follow through on those entrusted to their care. Caregivers may intentionally overmedicate their charges in order to keep them from complaining or voicing concerns about their treatment. Sometimes treatment or medication vital to a patient’s health may be withheld at a nursing facility. Such failure to adequately care for those in their care is unacceptable, and such abuse or neglect at Arizona nursing homes is covered by both Arizona law and the Arizona Adult Protective Services Act.
Should you or someone you love in a nursing facility have been provided with a higher dosage of medication or had important medications or treatments withheld while a resident of a nursing facility, we invite you to contact us immediately. We will discuss with you your rights and how you may consider filing a claim against an Arizona nursing facility.
Many elderly or other physically disabled people in Phoenix are unfortunately listed as “fall risks” on their medical charts. Those who are at risk to falls often are under a significantly greater risk of injury. Those who are otherwise in a good physical condition are easily able, for the most part, to break their fall and keep from getting hurt. Those who are fall risks in Phoenix nursing home facilities often cannot do anything to break their fall, resulting in broken bones, broken hips, head trauma, and other serious injuries. Often and sadly, these falls are preventable.
Simple guidelines set out by medical professionals, when followed, help prevent falls and serious injuries in Arizona nursing facilities. It is often a sign of elder neglect in Phoenix when a person that is a fall risk sustains a serious injury due to a fall. Such negligence is preventable and often this type of claim will not only bring a measure of justice to the injured party, it will encourage nursing facilities to properly follow guidelines that help prevent future injuries from occurring.
Should you or someone you know have suffered a fall at a nursing facility and you have questions concerning the incident, we ask you to phone us for answers. We will readily provide you with an honest assessment of your nursing home neglect claim so that you can determine the best way forward for you and your family. Even if you later determine it is not in your family’s best interest to file a claim, gathering information from a skilled Arizona personal injury lawyer will help you understand your rights in such cases.
Bedsores often are one of the more obvious signs of nursing home abuse or neglect of an elderly or disabled person. Bedsores are for the most part completely preventable, but occur on a person’s body because he or she is not being properly cared for. The avoidable nature of bedsores and their causes is well-documented.
For those with loved ones in a nursing facility or nursing home that have suffered from bedsores and are wondering if this could be due to neglect or abuse, we urge you to call us. Usually such sores can be prevented, and experienced nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers such as ourselves will have experts who can review records and most often discover the reason the bedsores occurred and what care should have been provided to prevent them.
Anyone with questions about how Arizona law works in relation to bedsores in nursing homes or other nursing facilities, or matters relating to it, feel free to contact us with your questions. We do not just welcome calls from those wishing to bring a lawsuit, but also from those who are still deciding whether a lawsuit is in their best interests. As skilled Tucson personal injury attorneys with ample experience with Arizona nursing home neglect and abuse cases, we can provide you with the best information so that you can make the right decision on whether to pursue a nursing home neglect claim after the discovery of bedsores on a loved one.
Besides those nursing facilities that Arizona personal injury attorneys bring claims against for abuse or neglect, these same laws that they use in nursing home abuse cases also protect family members with physical or mental disabilities that are in facilities that care for them. Though there is rightfully a great deal of interest in nursing home neglect or abuse of the elderly, the Adult Protective Services Act also applies to those that are not elderly and at Phoenix nursing facilities. APSA protects all vulnerable adults under the Arizona legal system.
Should you suspect that a loved one suffers from emotional abuse, physical abuse, or neglect at a skilled nursing facility, we urge you to contact us. We will offer you information and honestly discuss the potential legal remedies available to you and your family member.
In the majority of Arizona injury accident cases when someone dies who was injured because of something unrelated to the accident that caused the injury, many rights are lost in the personal injury claim. Arizona law does protect claims that are made against nursing homes that abuse or neglect their charges, even if the elderly person later dies of something unrelated to the injuries incurred due to nursing home abuse or neglect. Arizona personal injury law thus does not allow negligent nursing homes from avoiding responsibility when an elderly person that was abused or neglected by the nursing facility dies of natural or other causes unrelated to the abuse or neglect.
For any questions about nursing home abuse cases in Phoenix, Tucson, or elsewhere in Arizona, we encourage people to find an experienced Arizona nursing home neglect attorney that will give honest answers and straightforward information about their case so that they can determine the best way forward for their loved ones and their family. Because of the difficulty experienced by the entire family, it is almost always not in their best interests to be told what they want to hear. Finding that a loved one has been abused or neglected by the same nursing facility into which their family entrusted their loved one is often shocking, and as experienced personal injury lawyers, we understand how important an honest assessment is for those considering filing a personal injury claim because of nursing home abuse or neglect.
Should your family suspect nursing home abuse or neglect, or simply have questions concerning the topic, please feel free to contact us. We will readily give you an honest evaluation of your claim and of the rights that you may have in your case.
Some of the best Tucson nursing home abuse attorneys rely upon the protections offered under the Adult Protective Services Act (APSA) when it comes to helping those who have suffered injury due to abuse or neglect in a nursing facility. Without exception, civilized people would agree that nursing home abuse or neglect are repugnant and unacceptable. Filing lawsuits in nursing home abuse cases not only offers justice to the person who has been abused, it also assists in preventing others from being abused or neglected in nursing home facilities.
It is not always easy for a family to decide whether to hire a nursing home abuse attorney. Many times, the family just wants to move on and forget about the incident. This may be best for certain families, and a decision not to pursue a nursing home claim in such cases should be made on what is best for the family. Yet families have a right to know that they can file a claim in cases of nursing home abuse or neglect in Tucson, Phoenix, or elsewhere in Arizona. Knowing this, families may then decide whether to file a claim under Arizona law when nursing home abuse results in injury to an innocent party.
For any questions about Arizona law and how it protects people from nursing home neglect and abuse, we invite you to contact our offices. We will provide the best information we can so that you can decide whether it is in your and your loved one’s best interests to proceed with a nursing home abuse claim.
