Chicago Personal Injury Law Blog

California authorities have issued a citation and the highest possible fine to a nursing home after a resident died from a brain bleed. The woman who suffered the injury was taking blood thinners for a number of chronic conditions. While being helped into bed by a physical therapist, she hit her head against a bed rail.

The physical therapist did not report the injury because he did not think that it was serious and nurses caring for the woman did not report the decline in the resident's condition to the doctor. By the time the brain bleed was discovered, it was impossible to save the woman.

The incident where the woman hit her head on the bed rail would qualify as a fall because of the uncontrolled way in which she hit the bed rail. Given that she was on blood thinners, a brain injury was a real possibility, and once the bleed began, continued use of blood thinners would have made it very difficult to control the bleed. All falls in nursing homes must be reported in order to allow careful monitoring of the resident in the days and hours following the fall.

Nurses serve as the eyes and ears of the doctors for monitoring the condition of the residents in the nursing home. All changes in condition, such as an alteration in consciousness or alertness, must be reported to the physician so that the doctor can make a decision to admit the resident to the hospital for further testing. Even without the reporting of the fall, this situation could have been salvaged had she been promptly admitted to the hospital. The failure of the nursing staff to report the change in condition was an example of nursing home neglect, and unfortunately, sealed the fate of this resident.

Labels: br, falls in nursing homes, Nursing home abuse and neglect