Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
Table of contents
- Why Bedsores Happen in Nursing Homes
- Is a Bedsore Always Grounds for a Lawsuit?
- What You Need to Prove in a New Jersey Bedsore Case
- Nursing Home Neglect Claims Across New Jersey
- How Long Do You Have to File a Claim?
- Recent Victories: PR&A Law Nursing Home & Pressure Ulcer Settlements
- Meet the Attorney: Sherri L. Warfel
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Contact PR&A Law Today
A bedsore in a facility where your loved one is supposed to be receiving care is one of the most distressing situations that a New Jersey family has to deal with. Bedsores, also referred to as pressure ulcers or pressure injuries, are generally preventable with proper care. Therefore, when a pressure ulcer does develop on a nursing home resident, it usually is an indication that the staff members have not been following proper procedures to care for the resident such as turning and monitoring the skin for signs of pressure damage and making sure that the resident is receiving proper nutrition and hydration.
New Jersey nursing homes may be held legally responsible when negligent care causes a bedsore to develop or an existing pressure injury to worsen. As with any lawsuit in New Jersey, residents and their families of nursing home residents can collect for all of their medical expenses as well as for their pain and suffering. In the most serious of cases, they can even collect for a nursing home resident’s wrongful death.
Below we will discuss how bedsores can result in lawsuits against nursing homes and how these lawsuits work under the laws of New Jersey. We will also detail how the nursing homes in Mercer County and the rest of New Jersey are held accountable for the actions of their staff members. Lastly, we will explain how the experienced nursing home abuse lawyers at Pellettieri Rabstein & Altman can help families from all over New Jersey in their search for justice.
Why Bedsores Happen in Nursing Homes
Pressure sores, also known as pressure ulcers, occur when skin and/or underlying tissue is subjected to sustained pressure, typically over bony areas of the body, such as the back of the heels, ankles, knees, hips, sacrum (at the base of the spine), buttocks, back, elbows, or shoulders. They can be prevented in most situations with appropriate care of residents who are unable to move by doing the following:
- Reposition immobile residents every two hours
- Use pressure-relieving mattresses and cushions
- Keep skin clean and dry, especially for incontinent residents
- Offer proper nutrition and adequate fluid intake to prevent skin breakdown
- Inspect skin daily and document any changes
As the staff of a nursing home fail in their responsibilities due to the nursing home being understaffed, undertrained, or simply being negligent, pressure ulcers can develop. These sores, also called bedsores, can form in a very short period of time, and can progress in severity, within days or weeks, causing further injury until the sore is finally recognized and treated. Such a pressure ulcer can progress to a Stage III or IV wound, exposing muscle or bone and leading to serious complications including infection, sepsis and even death.
Is a Bedsore Always Grounds for a Lawsuit?
Not every pressure sore is the result of medical malpractice or negligence. Some residents are at greater risk for pressure sores due to age, diabetes, vascular disease, etc. However, nursing homes have a legal duty to prevent avoidable pressure injuries and a claim can be made when:
- A pressure sore developed or became worse while the resident was a patient at the facility.
- Failed to follow care plans for residents who had known risk factors for pressure sores.
- Staffing records, incident reports, and/or the resident’s medical records reveal failure in turning and repositioning the resident, failing to complete adequate skin assessments, and/or failing to appropriately treat existing pressure sores.
- The wound advanced to a later stage (III or IV) without documented intervention.
- The facility failed to notify the family or transfer the resident for treatment in a timely way.
N.J.S.A. 30:13-1 et seq. sets forth the Nursing Home Responsibilities and Rights of Residents Act, which outlines the rights of residents in a nursing home, including the right to receive care that promotes residents’ health and dignity and to be free from neglect. Violations of these rights can form the basis of a civil negligence claim as well as a complaint with the State nursing home regulator.
What You Need to Prove in a New Jersey Bedsore Case
In order to receive compensation for your loved one’s harm, your attorney will typically need to prove the following:
- Duty of care: the nursing home owed the resident a legal duty to provide adequate care and prevent avoidable injury.
- Breach of duty: The facility’s failure to meet required care standards, whether through actions of commission or omission, such as inadequate staffing, failing to provide appropriate training or ignoring known risk.
- Causation: the breach caused the pressure ulcer or made it worse.
- Damages (the resident suffered actual harm): medical expenses, pain and suffering, in addition to wound infection, a subsequent hospital stay, and ultimately death.
The strongest pressure sore cases are typically built with the resident’s medical records, nursing home notes, facility staffing for the time period in question, photographs of the resident’s decubitus ulcer(s), the resident’s wound care logs, and state health department survey findings against the nursing home facility.
Nursing Home Neglect Claims Across New Jersey
Nursing home neglect cases in New Jersey long-term care facilities are handled by the experienced lawyers at PR&A Law. We have represented clients and their families in cases involving nursing home neglect in facilities throughout the State of New Jersey, including facilities in Mercer County (Lawrence Township, Trenton), Camden County (Cherry Hill), Morris County (Morristown), and Essex County (Nutley), among other counties.
If your loved one developed a pressure sore while in a long-term care facility in Lawrence Township or Mercer County, PR&A can obtain facility care records and reviews of facility staffing history in connection with investigating and prosecuting your neglect claims.
How Long Do You Have to File a Claim?
New Jersey imposes a two-year statute of limitations for the personal injury claims and the wrongful death claims resulting from the negligence of the nursing homes. The two-year period commences on the date of the injury or the date of death. There are, however, several exceptions.
New Jersey law has a two-year statute of limitations for claims of abuse, neglect and malpractice against nursing homes. Therefore, a lawsuit must be filed within two years of the negligent act, or within two years of the date the injured party discovered the injury and could have determined that the injury was caused by the negligence of another party.
The two-year statute of limitations may be extended or paused in certain situations. The most common situation is when the injured party is a minor. Under these circumstances, the two-year statute of limitations shall cease to run on the date when the minor reaches the age of 18 years, and the minor shall have two years from that date in which to bring a personal injury action.
The statute of limitations applies to when the injury occurred and when the injured person found out that an injury occurred and that it may have been caused by negligence. Thus, a person who has suffered injury due to nursing home abuse or neglect should consider consulting with an attorney as soon as possible in order to ensure that he or she does not lose his or her right to receive compensation for his or her injuries because he or she waited too long to bring a personal injury claim.
Recent Victories: PR&A Law Nursing Home & Pressure Ulcer Settlements
Results matter, and our attorneys have a strong track record holding negligent facilities accountable. Recent and notable outcomes in nursing home neglect and pressure ulcer cases include:
- $750,000 settlement for the family of a nursing home resident who died after the facility negligently deprived him of necessary medication – a settlement achieved before trial.
- Pressure ulcer settlements ranging from $85,000 to $475,000, including cases involving Stage II ulcers and more advanced wounds, reflecting the range of outcomes depending on the severity of the injury and the facility’s degree of negligence.
- Infection-related settlements up to $250,000 for residents who developed serious infections due to inadequate wound care and monitoring.
Meet the Attorney: Sherri L. Warfel
Sherri L. Warfel is the Chair of the Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect practice group at PR&A Law. She has been representing victims of nursing home abuse and neglect for over 25 years. Her cases involve issues such as pressure sores, preventable falls, fractures and head injuries, infections and wrongful death. She has settled and tried hundreds of cases on behalf of elderly and infirm clients throughout New Jersey.
Warfel is a Certified Civil Trial Attorney by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. She sits on the Board of Governors for the New Jersey Association for Justice and is a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association and the Mercer County Bar Association. She was the Co-Chair of the Women’s Committee for the Mercer County Bar Association. Sherri is a frequent speaker at the NJAJ seminars on topics of Nursing Home Litigation as well as other seminars on topics of discovery strategy. In 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 Sherri Warfel was selected to be included in the New Jersey Super Lawyers.
Ms. Warfel graduated from The College of New Jersey and attended Rutgers School of Law where she received her J.D. in 1998. After law school, Ms. Warfel went on to clerk for the Honorable Linda R. Feinberg, Assignment Judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey. She then joined the law firm of PR&A in 1998 and began to focus on the practice of nursing home neglect cases.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can a Nursing Home be Held Liable for a Resident’s Bedsores?
A: Yes. A facility can be held liable for a resident’s bedsores where the facility failed to follow appropriate protocols for the resident’s skin care, repositioning and nutrition.
Q: My loved one developed a bedsore and wants to know if we can sue.
A: The answer to this question is yes. However, the severity of the bedsore can affect the type of compensation that the facility will have to pay. Typically, even the earliest stages of pressure injury, such as Stage I or Stage II pressure ulcers, can form the basis for a claim against a facility for negligence in their care. However, the compensation awarded in such cases will typically be less than in cases in which a Stage III or Stage IV pressure ulcer has developed, or in which the bedsore has become infected, requiring a resident to be transferred to a hospital for treatment, or in which a resident has died as a result of complications from a bedsore developed at a nursing home.
Q: How much do nursing home bedsore cases settle for?
A: First, cases with advanced stage sores can receive significant compensation for their worsened condition. Additionally, bedsore cases with subsequent infections, long hospital stays, and transfers can also receive significant compensation for these subsequent injuries. These types of cases have received settlements in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in prior New Jersey cases.
Q: What documentation and/or evidence is needed to bring a claim for neglect?
A: All medical records, all documentation of skin care and repositioning of resident, staffing for time of incident, photographs of wound(s) over time, copies of incident reports, and citations from State health department survey of facility.
Q: Does my loved one have to leave the nursing home before I can bring a claim for neglect?
A: No. A claim for neglect can be brought while the loved one is a resident of the facility. In fact, residents and their families have the right to bring complaints to the attention of facility staff and state health department surveyors, and facilities are prohibited from retaliating against residents and family members for doing so.
Q: How long does it take to resolve a nursing home bedsore case?
A: Every case is unique and some can settle in a matter of months. However, in many cases of severe injury, there are many disputed facts that have to be determined. Those cases can take years to resolve, including going to trial. We will fight for the amount of compensation that your loved one deserves in their individual case.
Contact PR&A Law Today
If you suspect your loved one has developed a pressure sore while they were a resident of a nursing home, we urge you to seek legal advice immediately. At PR&A Law, we represent injured New Jersey residents and their families. Our offices are located in Lawrence Township, Cherry Hill, Morristown, Nutley and Trenton.
If you or a loved one has a pressure sore caused by a nursing home, contact us online to set up a free consultation with a New Jersey nursing home neglect attorney.
