Dedicated to Protecting Seniors by Holding Nursing Homes Accountable for Abuse, Neglect, and Mistreatment
Wrongful death, pressure sores , malnutrition, dehydration, broken bones and other injuries suffered in nursing homes may be signs of abuse, neglect or mistreatment. When nursing homes accept our loved ones - parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles - as residents, they promise to treat them with dignity, respect and compassion and agree to care for them according to proper standards of care. Unfortunately, nursing homes fail too often to live up to their responsibilities. Despite legal requirements for nursing homes to provide proper care and dignified conditions for residents, there continues to be a crisis of poor nursing home care in our country. As a result, too many of our most vulnerable citizens suffer needlessly every day.
If you are concerned about a loved one’s care in a nursing home, assisted living residence or other healthcare facility in Rhode Island or Massachusetts, contact PADWA LAW. Our law practice is dedicated to protecting seniors from harm by holding nursing homes and other institutions accountable.
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Attorney Jeffrey Padwa is highly trained and experienced in investigating and pursuing cases against nursing homes and other healthcare facilities that abuse, neglect and mistreatment the elderly. |
As our loved ones get older, their health may decline, but many injuries and deaths suffered in nursing homes are not inevitable:
- One woman called us after her mother choked to death on food, even though she was supposed to be served only soft foods and supervised while eating.
- We heard from a woman whose mother developed large bedsores on her heels and on her coccyx. She was taken to the hospital, but was in such bad condition from the bedsores, dehydration, and malnutrition that she died.
- A daughter contacted us after her mother suffered a neck fracture when she fell off the toilet. The nursing home did not follow the care plan that called for supervision when toileting because she was at risk for falls. Her head smacked against the bed frame when she fell breaking her neck.
- A woman went to nursing home after a hip fracture to get physical therapy and rehabilitation. However, her daughter noted that the nursing staff was not attentive and did not respond to her mother's calls for help. The woman was not able to toilet on her own She developed a severe urinary tract infection that went undiagnosed and untreated, and ultimately died from sepsis
- Another call came not from a family member but from a funeral home director, who said that the bedsores on the feet of a man he was embalming were the worst he had ever seen. The man's feet were black and looked like they were rotting off.
- We were contacted by a nursing home resident who was sexually assaulted by a maintenance worker. After she reported the assault, the nursing home sent her to a psychiatric hospital against her will for “delusions and hallucinations.” The maintenance worker sexually assaulted 2 other residents before he was caught.
It is stories like these that keep Attorney Padwa fighting to protect our seniors who are neglected, abused, and mistreated in nursing homes and assisted living residences. I offer a free initial consultation to those who are concerned about a loved one's care. If the case passes my initial review, I will begin an investigation that includes interviewing witnesses, preserving and photographing evidence, researching the nursing home, examining nursing home and hospital records, examining department of health investigations and surveys, researching previous lawsuits against the nursing home, and consulting with medical and legal experts from across the country.
If I find evidence of abuse, neglect, or mistreatment we will file a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit. We fight to hold the nursing homes accountable and to make certain they know that someone is watching, which helps prevent similar injuries to other seniors.
Jeffrey Padwa is passionate about protecting the elderly. His law practice is devoted to prosecuting cases of injury and wrongful death involving elderly persons in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Research shows that the quality of nursing home care can be terrible in America. Unfortunately, too many people believe that nothing can be done to make things better. Bad care and treatment are ‘to be expected.’ Since the Nursing Home Reform Act was passed in 1987, nursing homes are legal responsibility to provide sufficient care and services so that every single resident attains or maintains their highest practicable physical, mental and psycho-social well-being. Nursing homes are also responsible for ensuring that every resident receives “appropriate treatment and services to maintain or improve” his or her abilities in activities of daily living (such as eating on one’s own, going to the bathroom or bathing).
Nursing homes give families excuses when they fail to meet these and other legal responsibilities: “We are busy with other residents on the floor right now,” “There just isn’t enough staff to take care of that,” “I’m sorry, but the nursing home does not have enough money or resources to provide ‘special’ services.” These excuses do not relieve nursing home from the legal duties to their residents.
Holding nursing homes accountable is essential to reduce mistreatment and neglect and to improve the quality of life and care of residents. If a nursing home is providing inadequate care, action should be taken immediately. Think about other situations where you are a consumer: If you went to a restaurant, would you accept it if they seated you but then nobody came to take your order for over an hour? What if you asked someone where the bathroom was and they told you that they did not have time to help you? If you ordered a hamburger and they brought you a bowl of soup instead, how would you feel?
Most of us would not tolerate any of these situations. We would probably be outraged. So why do we accept it when nursing homes fail to provide adequate care and decent quality of life for our most vulnerable citizens? As a community, we pour enormous amounts of money into nursing homes every day. More than twenty years ago, in the face of horrendous conditions, our country passed a strong law to ensure that every single nursing home resident in the United States is treated with dignity and receives the care they need to achieve the highest possible level of physical and psychological well-being. Unfortunately, the government is often not able (or willing) to effectively enforce the law. When that happens, it is up to us – residents, families and friends – to make sure that nursing homes follow the law and are held accountable. The lives of our nursing home residents, now and in the future, depend on it.