{"id":12040,"date":"2022-04-19T10:18:51","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T18:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/?p=12040"},"modified":"2022-04-19T10:18:51","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T18:18:51","slug":"can-nursing-homes-be-held-responsible-for-wrongful-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/2022\/04\/19\/can-nursing-homes-be-held-responsible-for-wrongful-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Nursing Homes Be Held Responsible for Wrongful Death?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP&amp;sectionNum=377.60.\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">California law<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> defines wrongful death as a death of a person caused \u201cby the wrongful act or neglect of another.\u201d Under this definition, a nursing home can be held financially responsible for a wrongful death that occurs while a person dies in their care.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Common Causes of Wrongful Death in Nursing Homes<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Common causes of wrongful deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Neglect \u2013 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nursing homes have a legal duty to provide proper care to residents. If staff withholds food, health care, medication, or attention from a resident and the resident dies as a result, the nursing home may be liable for the death. Residents who are neglected may suffer from malnutrition, dehydration, disorientation, falls, or attacks from other residents. Signs of nursing home abuse include the presence of bedsores, declining health, unexplained weight loss, malnutrition, and insomnia.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Abuse \u2013 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nursing homes can also potentially be held liable for a resident death that occurs when they negligently hired or retained abusive staff members who harmed the resident. Signs of nursing home abuse include unexplained injuries, fear around certain staff members, and regressive behaviors like sucking a thumb or rocking back and forth.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Unsafe environment \u2013 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nursing homes are required to comply with state and federal regulations, but many of them routinely fail safety inspections. They may have unsanitary conditions that put residents at risk, such as unclean environments and a lack of cleaning standards that make these vulnerable individuals more likely to get sick or injured. They may also fail to provide a proper fall risk assessment or have fall hazards like a lack of bedrails or cords on floors.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Medical malpractice \u2013 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nursing homes provide medical care to patients. If they provide inadequate care, fail to properly diagnose patients, or make medication mistakes, these errors can potentially kill the resident. Patients who have untreated conditions or sepsis may have suffered medical malpractice that caused their death.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nursing homes have a legal obligation to maintain a safe environment for patients and to provide proper care to them. When they fail to uphold this obligation, they can be the subject of a wrongful death claim.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some factors that contribute to personal injury and wrongful death incidents in nursing homes include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Understaffing<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Negligent hiring and retention policies<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lack of training or poor training<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lack of supervision<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chronic fatigue of workers due to understaffing<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who Can File a Wrongful Death Claim in California?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">California limits the ability to file a wrongful death claim to certain family members. This includes the decedent\u2019s:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Surviving spouse or domestic partner<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Children or grandchildren<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Parents<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Legal guardians<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Next of kin<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Potential Damages in a Wrongful Death Case<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The surviving family may be able to obtain compensation for funeral and burial expenses, medical expenses, lost wages, and the loss of the decedent\u2019s society and companionship. It can be difficult to quantify these damages, but a wrongful death lawyer from Aitken * Aitken * Cohn can help. Additionally, a lawyer can seek punitive damages, which are meant to punish the defendant for particularly egregious behavior and to prevent similar conduct in the future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Contact Us for Help<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If your loved one died while in the care of a nursing home, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/contact\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">contact<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> our experienced wrongful death lawyers. We can conduct a thorough investigation to determine the factors that contributed to your loved one\u2019s death and identify who is responsible. Our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/orange-county-wrongful-death-lawyer\/\">Orange County wrongful death attorneys<\/a> provide a free case consultation to explain your legal options.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California law defines wrongful death as a death of a person caused \u201cby the wrongful act or neglect of another.\u201d Under this definition, a nursing home can be held financially responsible for a wrongful death that occurs while a person dies in their care.\u00a0 Common Causes of Wrongful Death in Nursing Homes Common causes of&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/2022\/04\/19\/can-nursing-homes-be-held-responsible-for-wrongful-death\/\">read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrongful-death"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}