Nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other businesses devoted to providing long-term care for both vulnerable and elderly adults have a duty under federal and state law to provide considerate and high-quality care to every one of their residents. There are no circumstances under which a facility failing to fulfill this duty is acceptable—but unfortunately, there are far too many Missouri nursing homes neglecting and abusing residents every year.
Learning your loved one has suffered mistreatment from the very people entrusted with their around-the-clock care can be a uniquely devastating and disorienting experience. Fortunately, help is available from a capable and compassionate Maryland Heights nursing home abuse lawyer at OnderLaw. In addition to ensuring your family member is safe from further harm, our dedicated personal injury attorneys can also help them enforce their right to demand civil recovery or help you enforce that right on their behalf.
The Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services accepts complaints and tips about the mistreatment of elderly adults inside long-term care facilities or in private homes through its Adult Abuse & Neglect Hotline (1-800-392-0210) as well as through an online reporting tool. It is worth emphasizing, though, that these measures are intended for non-emergency situations that can be investigated over a relatively long period of time. If there is any immediate threat to a nursing home resident’s physical or psychological well-being, it is imperative to get law enforcement involved by calling 9-1-1.
It should also be noted that not every instance of mistreatment inside a nursing home warrants measures as extreme as these. In some situations, resolving inadvertent neglect or even intentional abuse of a nursing home resident is possible by reporting the mistreatment to trusted nursing home staff members or facility administrators. Our knowledgeable Maryland Heights nursing home abuse attorneys can discuss what course of action might best fit a particular situation during an initial consultation.
If anyone working for, responsible for operating, or contracted with a nursing home in Missouri allows a resident to get hurt through accidental neglect or malicious abuse, that person—and the facility as a whole—may be held liable for any physical, financial, and personal losses that their misconduct directly causes that resident to suffer. Compensable damages in this sort of civil claim may include:
If abuse or neglect inside a Maryland Heights nursing home directly leads to a resident’s premature death, our qualified team of lawyers at OnderLaw can alternatively help surviving family members demand compensation through a wrongful death claim for their own ensuing losses—including funeral and burial costs, lost love and companionship, and emotional anguish.
Abuse and neglect inside nursing homes can have physically debilitating and even life-threatening consequences on people who cannot defend themselves or advocate on their own behalf. Instead, it may fall to you as a family member of a nursing home resident to keep an eye on their condition and be proactive about anything that may be a sign of mistreatment.
Help from a Maryland Heights nursing home abuse lawyer at OnderLaw can be vital from start to finish of this uniquely sensitive type of case. At OnderLaw, we’re not just on your side, we’re by your side. Learn more by calling today.
