Nursing home neglect lawsuit filed after man’s death

Illinois residents often need to rely nursing homes to take care of elderly loved ones. These medical facilities are supposed to provide the day-to-day and medical care that their residents need. However, many facilities fall short of these expectations and nursing home residents are subject to injuries from abuse or neglect. In these cases, legal remedies may be available, which can be seen by one recent case.

There, an Illinois widow sued a nursing home that failed to properly care for her husband. The woman alleges in the lawsuit that her husband suffered fatal injuries because of the nursing home’s failure to call 911 after an accident.

According to reports, the man was in the nursing home after he suffered a broken leg. While in a wheelchair, the man was being lifted by a mechanical lift into the facility’s van. As the lift was being operated, it malfunctioned and the man was thrown from the wheelchair. His wife supposedly witnessed this accident and insisted that the staff call 911.

However, staff refused and instead loaded him into another chair and took him inside the facility. It wasn’t until 45 minutes after the incident that emergency workers were finally called to take the man to the hospital. It was later discovered that the lift had been improperly maintained.

It turns out that the man broke his neck in the fall. He died a couple of weeks later from complications related to his broken neck. As the result of a state investigation into the nursing home, which has been cited several times before for safety issues, was fined $50,000 for its conduct.

Family members have the right to take legal action against negligent nursing home facilities when Chicago nursing home neglect occurs. Families may be entitled to compensation when nursing homes injure or kill a loved one, which can go a long way towards helping cover unexpected losses and expenses.

Source: Illinois Times, “Springfield nursing home sued State, feds levy big fines,” Bruce Rushton, Oct. 13, 2016