Note: See important Covid-19 update below.

You or your loved one has been the victim of abuse or neglect in a nursing home, assisted living facility, or by an aide from a Home Health Agency.

Do you know what your rights are?

Here are the basics of what you need to know.

The most clinical and hospital-like of all the senior care community options are nursing homes. Nursing homes are residential facilities where a person lives or where a person can stay temporarily. It may be a temporary stay for recuperation after being in a hospital or a long-term stay in a residential facility.

Assisted living facilities (ALFs) are residential care facilities that provide housing, meals, personal care and supportive services to older persons and disabled adults who are unable to live independently.

Unfortunately, abuse and/or neglect of residents at nursing homes, ALFs, and Home Health Agencies are not rare. Florida has numerous laws that regulate the care and services provided by these facilities and providers.

Nursing home/ALF/Home Health Agency abuse is any type of harm that comes to elderly residents or cared for individuals, including physical or emotional injuries, sexual assault, financial exploitation, or other types of abuse.

Signs of nursing home abuse and neglect include:

• Pressure sores.
• Open wounds.
• Skin irritation.
• Dehydration and malnutrition.
• Physical discomfort.
• Silence and fear of speaking in front of caretakers.
• A death that resulted from staff failing to provide necessary medication or to call in doctors for medical treatment

If you or a loved one have sustained an injury resulting from abuse or neglect, you have the right to file an action for money damages.

This includes compensation for pain and suffering, medical bills, disfigurement, and disability. Punitive damages, which are additional damages that are awarded with the intent of punishing the wrongdoing may also be recoverable.

If the wrongful action caused the death of a resident, your family may be able to file a wrongful death claim. If you are a surviving spouse, you can also recover for the loss of your spouse’s companionship and for mental pain and suffering.

Please take note that there are statutes of limitations (time within which a claim must be filed or it will be forever lost) when it comes to nursing home, ALF or Home Health Agency neglect or abuse.

You must file a claim within two years of the date of discovery of the neglect/abuse or the date that it should have been discovered. Either way, no more than four years can lapse before a claim is filed.

If you believe that you or a loved one has been the victim of abuse or neglect, call us for a Free case evaluation. There is no obligation and you only pay if we win your case.

COVID-19 UPDATE

The COVID-19 pandemic poses an enormous threat to elderly people living in nursing homes. It is likely that many nursing homes have failed to adequately protect their residents from COVID-19.

If a resident contracts COVID-19, in order to file a suit, it must be shown that the infection is the result of negligence, that is, that the facility did not act within the required duty of care to protect the resident.

Congress and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration have been asked to shield nursing homes from litigation related to the pandemic. DeSantis has not directly answered whether he will grant such immunity. The Agency for Health Care Administration which regulates long-term care facilities has refused to weigh in on the immunity issue thus far.

Our law firm is accepting COVID – 19 related cases against nursing homes.                                                Call us at (305) 653-5555 for a Free case evaluation.