Bed Sores and Nursing Home or Hospital Neglect

Elderly abuse is a growing problem in Georgia. We trust nursing home and assisted care facilities to take care of our elderly loved ones when it becomes too much to do on our own. Bedsores are a very serious condition. They are also known as pressure sores or pressure ulcers and they are a sign of nursing home neglect or abuse or medical malpractice for hospital patients. If you or a loved one have had to deal with bedsores after a stay in the hospital or while at a nursing home, call a Georgia Personal Injury Lawyer right away.

Bedsores are very common in patients who are bedridden. This includes nursing home and hospital patients who are confined to their beds or wheelchairs that cannot get up and reposition themselves on their own. A bedsore is caused when pressure on the area of the body sits on a patch of skin for a long period of time damaging the skin and causing it to break down. This is most common in the areas of the body such as the hips, elbows, ankles, heels and back where the bone and the skin are close together.

In order to prevent bedsores, positions should be switched every 15 minutes to an hour and the skin should be checked regularly for bedridden and wheelchair patients for the signs of a bedsore developing. A bedsore begins with a patch or red irritation on the skin and is very treatable at this level. If it goes untreated the skin and soft tissue in the area begins to break down causing permanent damage. Infection can set in and spread to the bone and muscle underneath. In the most serious cases of bedsores amputation may be the only option.

The CDC has estimated that 1 out of every 10 nursing home residents currently has a bedsore. This statistic is frightening as we trust our loved ones to nursing homes in order to keep them safe and well taken care of. Nursing home and hospital staff should know the sings of bedsores and be checking regularly for them. Proper nutrition and exercise are also important factors in preventing bedsores as they both increase the blood flow in the body.

If you have a loved one who has experienced the pain and negative effects of a bedsore or any other type of nursing home abuse, call the personal injury lawyers at The Berry Law Group today. We are very compassionate and want to work toward ending nursing home abuse forever.