A nursing home fall turned fatal after staff at the Prairieview Lutheran Home in Danforth, Illinois, failed to properly respond after one of their residents suffered a fall.
As an Illinois nursing home lawyer, I’ve had experience with many nursing home fall incidents, and I’ve written about dozens here on this blog, including those that result in the death of the nursing home resident.
Typically, the victim is a resident suffering from a debilitating form of dementia, or is otherwise unable to properly communicate his symptoms. Nursing home staff are often unaware of the severity of the injury.
What makes this situation more egregious is that this resident’s nursing home fall resulted in an alarming and dramatic change of personality, and the staff at Prairieview Lutheran Home still failed to recognize the symptoms of a severe head injury.
The resident, a stroke victim, had been walking past the nurse’s station when she fell. A large bump was noted on the back of her head. The following day, the resident was extremely drowsy, had a markedly high blood pressure, and was unable to recognize her son when he visited.
Any one of these conditions should have been reason to call the resident’s physician and explain what had happened. Instead, the Prairieview Lutheran Home staff took no action until far too late. The woman was transferred to the hospital where she died from a cerebral hemorrhage.
So many nursing home neglect lawsuits also involve a wrongful death because the lives of nursing home residents are extremely fragile. Many people have said that a nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members. In the United States, we have extensive laws that govern how our weakest members are treated. Unfortunately, we don’t often do enough to make certain that those laws and regulations are being followed.
If you have a loved one who has been injured in a nursing home fall, or any other kind of nursing home incident, contact our Illinois nursing home lawyers for a free and confidential evaluation of your case.
Other blog posts on nursing home falls:
Fall and brain bleed at Alpine Fireside in Rockford
Fractured leg in fall at Columbia Rehab
Resident rolled out of bed by staff at Warren Park in Chicago