California Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog
Hip fractures are among the most serious types of broken bone injuries, and they are especially common among older adults. In addition to being common among the elderly, hip fractures are a leading cause of poor outcomes for those elderly patients, as UCLA Health explains. While older adults can fall in various situations without another party being liable, when falls and hip fractures happen in nursing homes, the facility is almost always responsible for the fall due to negligence. Our Marin County nursing home neglect lawyers can tell you more about hip fractures in nursing home falls and why you may be able to hold the facility accountable for an elderly parent’s life-altering injury.
Why Are Hip Fractures So Dangerous for Nursing Home Residents?
Hip fractures can happen at any age due to trauma in a serious fall from heights or in a motor vehicle crash, for example, but they are especially dangerous when they result from an older adult’s same-level fall.
Among the elderly, even a minor hip fracture is a serious event, as Yale Medicine explains, that will nearly always require surgery. With any type of surgery, and especially an emergency surgery after a hip fracture, there are additional possibilities for complications that can include infections, bed sores, urinary tract infections, and blood clots. Beyond the procedure and the risks that can accompany it, many older adults who sustain a hip fracture continue to experience severe pain, many lose their mobility due to increased frailty, and hip fractures can even be linked to premature death.
Nursing Home Liability When Hip Fractures Occur in San Bernardino Facilities
Nearly all hip fractures among older adults that happen in nursing homes result from falls, and usually those falls involve falling sideways, according to UCLA Health, and these types of falls are almost always avoidable. How is a nursing home responsible when a fall like this happens that results in a hip fracture?
Most of the time, hip fractures do not result from any type of intentional abuse. Instead, falls happen when nursing home residents are not receiving the appropriate degree of supervision that they require based on their circumstances, or the appropriate level of assistance with mobility to prevent falls. At the same time, nursing homes can also be liable for hip fractures caused by falls when they fail to properly assess residents for their needs, including extra help with mobility or activities of daily living, such as bathing or dressing, or even getting out of bed or out of a chair.
Contact Our Marin County Nursing Home Neglect Attorneys to Find Out More About Filing a Claim
Hip fractures in older adults are often devastating and debilitating injuries, as we discussed above. They are preventable, yet they often happen in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities due to negligence. If you have an elderly loved one who fell and suffered a hip fracture while residing at a nursing home, it is important to discuss the details of the accident with a San Bernardino County nursing home abuse and neglect lawyer. There are many reasons and circumstances under which a facility can be liable for a hip fracture, as we discussed above, and we can help your family to move forward with a claim to hold the facility accountable. Contact the Nursing Home Law Group today for more information.
See Related Blog Posts:
Are Medication Errors a Form of Nursing Home Negligence in Oakland?
Over 1 Million Residents at Risk: What New Federal Data Reveals About Nursing Home Staffing
