Hollywood Nursing home abuse lawyer

Published on: November 28, 2015

Study: 10 Percent of Older Americans Are Victims of Abuse

A review article published recently in The New England Journal of Medicine reveals a deeply troubling statistic: 1 in every 10 older adults is a victim of some form of violence or abuse.

Worse, researchers point out, this figure is all but certainly a vast underestimate considering it’s based on self-reported cases. When you consider that many victims suffer from dementia or isolation that makes them prime targets to start, these individuals may not have the ability to report what’s happening to them.

Still, even this estimate underscores how widespread the problem is, and the fact that families must be on alert for potential problems.

Interestingly, although elder abuse has been in existed in some form since the dawn of humanity, it wasn’t described by Western researchers until the early 1970s. In most cases, attempts to define the problem or respond to it have largely been limited because most studies focused on a small number of anecdotes. Even those that attempted to broaden the understanding were mostly flawed epidemiologically. That has started to change in the last decade, and that’s how we have come to this greater understanding about how serious this problem actually is. Continue reading →

Published on: June 8, 2015

Seven Nurses Charged After Nursing Home Neglect Results in Amputation

By Dean Freeman

It started with a broken finger. It’s not clear how the elderly woman’s finger came to be broken, but it was clearly not treated properly.

As a resident of a state-run nursing home providing around-the-clock care, that was the one thing she should have been able to count on.

But when she was taken to an orthopedic surgeon some five days after the fracture occurred, the doctor noted the bandage was tightly wrapped with 4 to 5 bandages. No fingers were exposed, and the wrapping was so tight, the doctor would later say, “Only God could have removed it.”

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Published on: December 3, 2014

Mattox v. Life Centers of America – Nursing Home Falls a Sign of Neglect

By Dean Freeman

Abuse and neglect of elderly nursing home patients is always reprehensible.

But there is something even more gravely distressing about a victim who dedicated a good portion of her career to protecting seniors in nursing facilities. As a mother of six and the first administrator on the Area Agency on Aging in her Idaho community, the dignity and well-being of elderly patients was her top priority, according to her obituary.

And yet, according to a civil lawsuit filed by her son, those same basic rights were not afforded to her as she resided in a nursing home at the age of 88.

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Published on: October 22, 2014

Boler v. Security Health Care – Arbitration Agreement Invalid

By Dean Freeman

It is becoming standard in many nursing home abuse and negligence cases to find defendants pushing to have claims settled in arbitration.

Often when nursing home patients are admitted, they and/or their relatives are bombarded with stacks of paperwork, which often include an “arbitration agreement,” binding parties who sign to resolve any disputes that arise from care before an arbitrator, rather than a judge.

What this paperwork often doesn’t clearly spell out is that by signing you are in effect signing away rights and protections and the ability to hold the company accountable for poor standards of care. It is possible – though not as likely – for plaintiffs to succeed in arbitration. Even so, damages tend to be more modest and settlements are often confidential, meaning there is no opportunity to warn others of the potential danger they may face when taking their loved ones to that facility.

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