Chicago Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

The month of July is Elder Abuse Awareness Month in Illinois. Over the next few weeks, communities will sponsor events aimed at creating greater awareness about this problem, which the US Administration on Aging says continues to affect about 700,000 to 3.5 million elderly persons in the US each year. Unfortunately, these figures are low estimates when you consider that only one out of every five abuse cases is reported.

At our Chicago nursing home neglect and abuse law firm, we are dedicated to combating Illinois elder abuse and making sure that our clients and their families are compensated for injuries and deaths caused by Illinois nursing home negligence. There are steps that you can take to protect your loved one from Chicago elder abuse including:

• Before choosing your loved one’s nursing home, actually visit the assisted living facility and personally inspect the place.
• Talk to nursing home workers at each facility and watch how they interact with patients.
• Observe the residents to see whether they seem happy and comfortable at the nursing home.
• Check out the Medicare Web site to see how the assisted living facility fared under the federal rating.
• Once your loved one is admitted to a nursing home, visit and call regularly.
• Watch out for signs of elder abuse or neglect.

According to the Illinois Department on Aging, there are up to 80,000 Illinois elder abuse victims each year. The state is encouraging people to "Break the Silence" and report any suspected elder abuse and neglect incidents. Remember that elder abuse takes place in Illinois nursing homes and in private settings. Chicago, Illinois elder abuse and neglect can lead to physical injuries, emotional trauma, health complications, sepsis, elder financial abuse, clogged breathing tubes, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, malnutrition, dehydration, choking accidents, wandering accidents, fall accidents, bedsores, and death.

Help prevent elder abuse, Chicago Tribune, June 25, 2010

Illinois Department on Aging urges people to “Break the Silence” and report suspected incidents of Elder Abuse, Illinois Department on Aging, June 14, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Illinois Department on Aging

Elder Abuse and Neglect Act

US Administration on Aging

Nursing Home Compare, Medicare.gov

An investigation by a state department of health has found the Jones-Harrison assisted living facility guilty of nursing home neglect in the death of a dementia patient who left the residence and wandered off last November. The report says that nursing home workers thought the woman had gone home with a family member.

However, while a relative did sign the woman out of the nursing home the day before the incident, she did bring the patient back to the assisted living facility. She did not, however, sign the resident back in.

It wasn’t until the next morning that the missing woman was discovered near a parking garage. She had no pulse and had frozen to death. She died from hypothermia due to exposure to the cold. The same family member who had checked the patient out says that nearly 17 hours after the woman was last seen, the nursing home still hadn’t called the cops.

According to investigators, a maintenance worker who left the facility on the day the patient wandered off had left a cyclone gate door open. The worker said that he purposely did not take the time to lock the door because he was cold and wanted to get to his vehicle as quickly as possible.

The health department determined that the assisted living facility and the maintenance worker were both negligent in causing the woman’s death. The report found that Jones-Harrison failed to properly oversee the resident registry and did not put into action in a timely manner the protocol for dealing with missing persons.

Wandering/Elopement
If your loved one is a nursing home patient who needed supervised care and he/she got hurt after wandering off the property undetected and without supervision, you may have grounds for a Chicago nursing home neglect lawsuit . Fall accidents, becoming the victim of a violent crime, hypothermia, dehydration from severe heat, and getting hit in an Illinois car crash are some of the reasons why patient elopement from a nursing home can be so dangerous.

Minneapolis Nursing Home Guilty of Neglect in Patient's Freezing Death, MyFoxTwinCities, May 20, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Preventing Elopement, Repertoire, March 2008

Dementia and Alzheimer’s Care, Helpguide.org