A 79-year-old resident of the Lake Shore Healthcare and Rehab Center here in Chicago developed multiple bed sores while a resident at the facility. The victim has been diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer and is on hospice care.
Needless to say, there is no positive prognosis for metastatic pancreatic cancer. However, the patient was alert and aware of the place and time. Every resident in a nursing home must receive a skin evaluation at the time of admission, and this resident already had two open wounds to his legs. The plan of care developed by the wound-care specialist noted the resident to be at high risk for skin breakdowns and ordered routine moisturizer and skin inspections.
20 days after the resident was admitted to Lake Shore Healthcare and Rehab Center, state nursing home inspectors toured the facility. At 10:00 AM they noted the resident was awake and lying on his back. At 1:30, the inspectors noted that he was still on his back. Over the next two days, the inspectors never saw the resident in any position other than prone on his back.
The inspectors demanded to see the resident’s skin and found numerous bed sores including one that was “black with necrotic tissue.” The Certified Nurses Aide (CNA) present told inspectors that “It did not look like that when I saw it two days ago.” One of the wound-care specialists also claimed to have never seen the bed sores.
As an experienced bed sore lawyer, I’ve seen situations similar to this one before. The painful pancreatic cancer diagnosis probably means that the resident is on powerful painkillers, making it very easy for the nursing home staff to ignore and overlook his condition.
Bed sores, also known as pressure ulcers and decubitus ulcers, are almost always signs of nursing home neglect. Bed sores develop when people are kept in one position for an extended period of time. Damp conditions (such as unchanged bed sheets or diapers) and poor nutrition and hydration exacerbate the problem. When the resident of Lake Shore Healthcare and Rehab was left on his back for days at a time, bed sore development was a foregone conclusion.
One of our core beliefs is that nursing homes are built to fail due to the business model they follow and that unnecessary injuries and illnesses and wrongful deaths of residents are the inevitable result. Order our FREE report, Built to Fail, to learn more about why. Our experienced Chicago nursing home lawyers are ready to help you understand what happened, why, and what your rights are. Contact us to get the help you need.
Other blog posts of interest:
Snow Valley cited for bed sores