Q: My Grandma has been living in assisted living. She fell and broke ribs and no one took her to the hospital for 5 days
My grandma (90) had recently been in an assisted living home. She has fallen many times in her past few years there. But the most recent time she fell and broke ribs and the people caring for her made the judgment call to not bring her to the hospital because they figured there’s not much to be done for broken ribs. After about 5 days she had completely lost it. She was in so much pain, had a UTI caused by kidney damage and was incredibly confused and hallucinating (caused by the UTI which is commonly linked for elderly). Finally my aunt had to insist she go to the hospital and the doctor was shocked that the care staff hadn’t brought her in sooner. He said while normally broken ribs in a young person can’t be helped much by a hospital visit for older people it’s a HUGE risk. She’s now nothing like what she was before and will be in a full care nursing home the rest of her life paying upwards of $10,000 a month to the negligence of the staff in the assisted living. What can i do?
A:
I’m sorry to hear about your grandma’s falls in the assisted living facility. Repeated falls evidence a pattern and should trigger a healthcare facility to create a care plan to (attempt to) stop the falls. I doubt that was done in grandma’s case, which may be negligent on the ALF’s part.
Additionally, the failure to get her treatment is awful. That decision may have been made because they were afraid of facing the consequences for allowing her to fall.
I would consult with a nursing home abuse attorney immediately. She or he can gather important documents, evidence, CCTV footage, and witness statements before it’s too late.
I’m sorry again for what you and your family are going through. Seek out an elder abuse attorney to hold the facility accountable for its negligence.
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