Bedsore Cases in Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Care Facilities

McGowan, Hood & Felder, LLC has represented numerous clients in regard to personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits against nursing home and assisted living care facilities alleging that the entities failed to prevent bedsores or failed to properly treat them once present. These failures have led to painful injuries and death.

Bedsores, also called pressure sores, pressure ulcers, or decubitus ulcers are areas of damaged skin and tissue that develop when sustained pressure cuts off circulation to vulnerable parts of the body, especially the skin on the buttocks, hips, and heels. Without adequate blood flow, the affected tissue dies. Persons in nursing homes and assisted living facilities are a vulnerable population for this condition because they rely on agents or employees of a long term care facility to assist them with proper positioning to help prevent the occurrence of pressure related ulcers. Bedsores fall into one of four stages based on their severity. The National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel, a professional organization dedicated to the prevention and treatment of pressure sores, has defined each stage as follow:

Stage I - Initially, a pressure sore appears as a persistent area of red skin that may itch or hurt and feel warm and spongy or firm to the touch. In blacks, Hispanics, and other people of darker skin, the mark may appear to have a blue or purple hue, or look flaky or ashen. Stage I wounds are superficial and go away shortly after the pressure is relieved.

Stage II - At this point, some skin loss has already occurred - either in the epidermis, the outermost layer of skin, in the dermis, the skin’s deeper layer, or in both. The wound is now an open sore that looks like a blister or an abrasion, and the surrounding tissues may show red or purple discoloration. If treated promptly, Stage II sores usually heal fairly quickly.

Stage III - By the time a pressure ulcer reaches this stage, the damage has extended to the tissue below the skin creating a deep, crater-like wound.

Stage IV - In the most serious and advanced stage, a large-scale loss of skin occurs, along with damages to muscle, bone, and even supporting structures such as tendons and joints. Stage IV wounds are extremely difficult to heal and can lead to lethal infections.
Bed sores usually result from sustained pressure on a vulnerable part of a person’s body. They are especially common in area that aren’t well padded with muscle or fat and that lie just over a bone, such as your spine, tailbone (coccyx), shoulder blades, hips, heels and elbows. Because your skin and the underlying tissues are trapped between bone and a surface such as a wheelchair or bed, blood flow is restricted. This deprives tissue of oxygen and other nutrients and irreversible damage and tissue death can occur.

In general, nursing home residents have higher rates of bedsores than do people who are cared for at home. Family members usually pay greater attention to their loved one than a nursing home or assisted living care facility.

Complications of bedsores include:

Gangrene. Different types of gangrene can occur which can create the need for amputation of a limb. These types of gangrene can occur over days or suddenly and changes in tissues are noticeable (the affected area changes color as the tissue dies).

Sepsis. Once of the greatest dangers of an advanced pressure sore, sepsis occurs when bacteria from a massive infection enter your bloodstream and spread throughout your body - a rapidly progressing, life-threatening condition that can cause shock and organ failure.

Necrotizing fasciitis. This rapidly spreading infection destroys the layers of tissue that surround your muscles. Initial signs and symptoms include fever, pain and massive swelling. Without treatment, death can occur in as little as 12 to 24 hours.

Cellulitis. This acute infection of your skin’s connective tissue causes pain, redness and swelling, all of which can be severe. Cellulitis can also lead to life-threatening complications, including sepsis and meningitis - an infection of the membrane and fluid surround your brain and spinal cord.

Bone and joint infections. These develop when the infection from a bedsore burrows deep into your joints and bones. Joint infections (septic or infectious arthritis) can damage cartilage and tissue within days, whereas bone infections (osteomyelitis) may fester for years if not treated. Eventually, bone infections can lead to bone death and reduced function of your joints and limbs.

According to a federal government study, 30 percent of U.S. nursing homes were cited for almost 9,000 cases of abuse between January 1999 and January 2001. This may be an understatement of the problem since incidents of abuse and neglect often go unreported.
The problem of nursing home abuse and neglect will not go away in the foreseeable future. As the baby boom generation ages, the demand for nursing home care continues to grow. Nearly 17,000 nursing homes in the United States currently care for 1.6 million residents, and that number is expected to quadruple to 6.6 million residents by 2050. These staggering numbers will dramatically increase the stressors on a system already crippled by staff shortages, poor working conditions, lack of supervision, and inadequate training.

Some of the attorneys at McGowan, Hood & Felder are well versed in how to decipher nursing home records and determine the cause and complications of bedsores. We have an on-staff nurse that assists with an initial impression of whether a case has merit or not. Our lawyers have been litigating nursing home cases for many years. We aggressively litigate nursing home cases and strive to provide our clients with top tier representation.

The attorneys at our firm work closely with referring attorneys to bring a case to successful resolution. The attorneys of our firm who litigate nursing home cases are constantly updating their education and ability to resolve nursing home cases. W. Jones Andrews, Jr. of McGowan, Hood & Felder has helped to litigate many nursing home cases. W. Jones Andrews, Jr. is currently litigating nursing home cases and is available for consultation by email at jandrews@mcgowanhood.com or telephone (Toll free) 1-877-644-6400.

Please visit our website at www.mcgowanhood.com for comprehensive information on nursing home abuse and neglect. (Toll free 1-877-327-3800).

Very truly yours,

McGowan, Hood & Felder, LLC

W. Jones Andrews, 1517 Hampton Street, Columbia, SC 29201