Nashville Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer

Nashville Nursing Home Abuse Attorney

After all the effort you went through choosing the right nursing home for your parent or other elderly loved one, the last thing you want to hear is that they are suffering from nursing home abuse. Unfortunately, this is a far too common occurrence. If this has happened to you, allow our attorney to stand for your loved one’s rights. A Nashville nursing home abuse lawyer can help you take crucial steps to protect your loved one and recover essential compensation.

Hire a Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer in Nashville, TN

It can be devastating when the facility you trusted with your loved one’s care fails to provide it. It can be hard to know what to do next. At the Law Offices of Daniel L. Clayton, we offer clients throughout middle Tennessee more than 35 years of experience in personal injury claims, including nursing home abuse. Our team can walk you through your options and help you protect your loved one.

Part of what makes Daniel L. Clayton so successful in these cases is that he is as committed as his clients are to their cases, and as a Nashville personal injury lawyer, he does everything in his power to pursue the ideal outcome for their legal needs.

Understanding Neglect Vs. Abuse

Both neglect and abuse in nursing homes can have significant impacts on your loved one’s physical, mental, and emotional health, but they can be distinct from each other. Nearly 13% of the population in the Nashville-Davidson area is over the age of 65, and 3.8% are 75 to 84 years old.

• Neglect. This is unintentional harm caused by careless behavior and insufficient care. Neglect in nursing homes may be shown through lots of falls, pressure sores, unaddressed health needs, poor hygiene, dehydration, a lack of social interaction, and unclean rooms. To file a claim for neglect, you must prove that the staff or facility breached their duty of care to your loved one, and this was the cause of their injuries.
• Abuse. This is intentional harm by a facility or individual staff at a facility. It can include physical or sexual abuse, emotional abuse, or financial abuse and fraud. When you are able to prove that the harm was intentional, you can prove that the party breached their duty of care to your loved one.

Both abuse and neglect can result in a claim against the individual or facility that engaged in the act or allowed it to happen. 61% of the nearly 4,000 complaints against healthcare facilities in 2022 investigated by the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission (HFC) were against nursing homes, and nearly 15% were substantiated. The HFC is located in the Andrew Jackson State Building.

Nursing home abuse and neglect can lead to serious injuries, for which an individual or a facility may be liable. In the decades our firm has been taking these cases, we have held liable parties accountable for injuries such as:

• Bedsores
• Malnutrition
• Dehydration
• Slip-and-falls

Our firm can help you hold negligent or malicious parties responsible for the harm they have caused.

Nursing Homes Neglect Examples

There are a variety of ways nursing home neglect can present. These include:

• Abuse by third parties, due to insufficient security
• Errors in accurate and on-time medication
• Lack of supervision leading to wandering or elopement
• Abuse or altercations between residents due to the failure of staff to intervene
• Failure of the facility to control and treat outbreaks, wounds, and other needs, leading to disease and infection
• Negligence by the facility when hiring staff, including a lack of background checks
• Improper use or overuse of restraints and sedation

Types Of Nursing Home Abuse

There are many ways in which the staff at a nursing home can harm a resident. The primary types of abuse in nursing homes include physical, emotional, verbal, sexual, or financial abuse. These different kinds of abuse may present different warning signs:

• Physical or sexual abuse may have signs like sudden cuts or bruises, weight loss, broken personal items and mobility aids, genital injuries, or new sexually transmitted illnesses.
• Emotional or verbal abuse may show signs like your loved one becoming agitated when certain staff are in the room, acting withdrawn, or receiving intentionally neglectful care.
• Financial abuse may be present in stolen items, use of checks or credit cards, withdrawn funds, unpaid bills, and unexpected changes to a will, trust, or power of attorney designations.

Ending these cases through a settlement is often the fastest and simplest way of resolving things. However, if negotiations cannot provide you and your loved one with the outcome you deserve, Daniel L. Clayton is prepared to fight for you in court. Whether your loved one suffered a permanent injury or even died because of a nursing home’s abuse, you can trust that a personal injury lawyer you can count on is fighting for you.

The Benefits of Working With a Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse Attorney in Nashville, TN

It’s important to hire a nursing home abuse lawyer for many reasons. Of course, these issues should not be ignored, but loved ones may not always know what to do. An attorney can help you take steps to hold the facility or an individual liable for the injuries and harm to your loved one. This compensation can make it easier to treat your loved one, give them support, and find a better place for them to be cared for.

An attorney gathers important evidence, assesses the party or parties who are liable, and calculates the damages sustained. The primary cost in these cases is the medical treatment needed to help your loved one recover from neglect or abuse. There are also damages like pain and suffering, loss of quality of life, and emotional trauma.

FAQs About Nashville, TN Nursing Home Abuse Laws

What Is the Compensation for Elderly Abuse in Tennessee?

When you have a successful claim for elderly abuse in Tennessee, you may be able to recover all compensatory damages sustained, and potentially even punitive damages. Compensatory damages include economic and non-economic damages like medical treatment costs, long-term rehabilitation care needs, lost or damaged property costs, and pain and suffering. Punitive damages are awarded in cases with malicious, intentional, or reckless actions, so they may be awarded in abuse cases, but are less common in negligence cases.

What Is Negligence in a Nursing Home?

Negligence in a nursing home includes neglect of basic care and hygiene needs, medical care neglect, and emotional or social neglect. These behaviors occur when facilities and staff provide insufficient care, causing harm to the resident or residents they are meant to care for. It can cause residents to fall more often, medical needs to worsen, residents to be dehydrated or lose weight, medications to be missed, rooms to be unclean and unsafe, and residents to be left in isolation.

How Do You Deal With Abuse in a Care Home?

If you suspect abuse in a care home, your first steps should be to ensure your loved one’s safety, document information and evidence, and discuss your concerns with your loved one. You can talk with the care home’s management or the care team for your loved one. If you think your loved one is in immediate danger, contact emergency responders. In other cases, file a complaint with the Tennessee HFC. Then, contact an attorney about your legal options for compensation.

How Long Do You Have to File a Claim for Nursing Home Abuse?

You have one year to file a claim for nursing home abuse in Tennessee. While there may be some exceptions to this rule, most injury claims must be filed within this time. If you miss the deadline, you will be barred from recovering compensation for yourself or your loved one. A lawyer can help you assess your unique case’s time frame, but it is always important to act quickly.

Contact a Nashville Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer For A Free Assessment

Instead of juggling your injury claim with your loved one’s health, let the Law Offices of Daniel L. Clayton take care of your case. Call our Nashville office at (629) 895-5444 or contact us. We can help you and your loved one move forward after experiencing nursing home abuse. Let attorney Daniel L. Clayton put his knowledge and experience to work for you.