You may have made the tough decision to place your loved one in a nursing home facility so that they may receive the 24-hour healthcare and supervision that you cannot give them yourself. It may have taken a lot to entrust the facility’s staff to care for your loved one when you could not be present for them. This is why you may feel a rush of guilt, regret, and hurt when you come to realize that your loved one was harmed during their nursing home stay. Or even worse, if they wrongfully passed away. If this is the unfortunate reality of your situation, please follow along to find out whether you have grounds to sue a nursing home for wrongful death and how a proficient New York City wrongful death attorney at Mark L. Bodner, P.C. can help find a glimmer of justice after this devastating event.
Under what circumstances can I sue a nursing home for wrongful death?
According to its legal definition, wrongful death is when an individual’s death was caused by the negligent or intentionally harmful actions of another person or entity. Further, this other person or entity could have prevented this individual’s death if they had acted with reasonable care instead. So, in the context of your loved one, their death may be considered a wrongful death if it resulted from the nursing home facility’s staff’s failure to protect them. This may be seen if your loved one sadly passed away after a doctor administered an overdosage of their medication; if a nurse did not serve them their daily meals or water; if a staff member forcefully entered their room and physically assaulted them; etc.
It should be mentioned that you must share a certain relationship with your loved one to move forward with a wrongful death lawsuit legally. That is, New York State law holds that you must be the decedent’s surviving spouse, child, or parent; the personal representative of their estate; the court-appointed guardian of their child; and under certain circumstances, their sibling, cousin, or grandparent.
Are there other grounds on which I may sue a nursing home?
Importantly, your loved one may not have lost their life, thankfully. But they may have still been made the victim of abuse, neglect, or other harmful activities by the nursing home facility’s staff. With this, they may have still incurred bodily injuries, economic damages, and non-economic damages. Ultimately, you may still sue a negligent nursing home on behalf of your loved one in these situations. Namely, via a medical malpractice lawsuit. This should not come before you remove your loved one from this unsafe environment into immediate safety, though.
You should know that a talented New York City medical malpractice attorney is here to assist you with whatever your legal issue may be. So please reach out to us at Mark L. Bodner, P.C. today.