Hip fracture from fall in nursing home leads to death

A California man has filed a wrongful death suit against a nursing home, alleging that the failure of the nursing home staff to follow orders for a lowered bed, bed rails, and use of a bed alarm resulted in his wife falling and suffering a fractured hip.  The suit claims that following surgery to repair the broken hip, the nursing home resident developed aspiration pneumonia, which led to respiratory failure and eventually her death.

There are two important points from this news story:

1.  The types of fall prevention measures that were supposed to be put into place are very common in nursing homes, and the failure of the nursing home staff to implement physician-ordered fall prevention measures can be the basis of a nursing home neglect lawsuit.

2.  The mortality rate in senior citizens from complications arising from hip fractures after falls is very high.  According to some studies, it may be as high as 36%.  Pneumonia is one type of complication from hip fracture which too frequently results in the death of the fall victim.  The high rate at which nursing home residents suffer hip fractures is one reason that fall prevention is a major focus of care planning in nursing homes.