A nursing home resident at the Heritage Health nursing home in Bloomington, Illinois fell from the toilet and injured his head. The damage was extensive and required hospitalization and “burr hole” surgery to treat.
According to the resident’s plan of care, one staff member should have been present to assist with all transfers. That included being moved onto and off the toilet. Instead of waiting for the resident, however, the staff member who was present left. According to the interviews conducted by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), he left to help another resident. There’s no strong evidence indicating how long the Heritage Health resident was left unattended.
At some point, the resident attempted to move or reach for something, and experienced a severe nursing home fall. The emergency room report indicated a closed head injury, facial lacerations, and intracranial bleeding.
The resident was bleeding inside his skull. That blood was creating pressure on his brain. In order to relieve that pressure, surgeons needed to drill a hole into his skull called a “burr hole”.
Nursing home falls are extremely dangerous. Not only can they cost residents extremely valuable mobility, it can also cause extremely damaging head injuries.
It will remain to be seen if the reFasident at Heritage Health in Bloomington will experience long standing mental damage as a result of this fall, but it’s certainly within the realm of possibility.
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 on nursing home falls:
Cumberland Rehab resident suffers brain bleed in fall from toilet
Resident falls from commode in Pontiac
Failure to follow orders causes fall with fractures at Alden Waterford
Failure to assist resident to bathroom at Heritage Health in Peru results in fall
Brain injury from fall at Watseka Rehab
Brain bleed after resident rolled from bed at Bria of Palos Hills
Fall results in broken vertebra at Heritage Health – Mendota
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