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New York Nursing Home Death Lawsuits

The aging process has the potential to be very harsh when it comes to illnesses and the possibility of serious injuries. Things that may not have previously affected an individual suddenly become the source of pain and suffering for the elderly. Something as simple as walking up or down a short set of stairs is an easy task for the young, but it can be extremely difficult as the human body gets older, stiffer, and frailer.

In some situations, living alone becomes far too dangerous for older individuals and they may not be able to remember how to care for themselves properly or complete the necessary activities of daily life. Whether it is feeding themselves, taking care of personal hygiene, or remembering to take the right medications, these daily tasks can be very challenging for elderly people of a certain age. For these individuals, only a few options exist.

They may come to rely on their family members such as their grown children to take care of them and administer medications, but adult children have lives of their own and may not be able to become full-time caretakers for their elderly parents. Another option may be to hire an in-home nurse to complete these tasks, but that can be very expensive, if not covered by medical insurance. The last option that many people utilize is the expert medical care of trained professionals at nursing homes.

Nursing Home Negligence Attorney New York

When people entrust their loved ones to the care of those working at nursing homes, they believe that the staff members of the nursing homes have the best interest of the patients in mind at all times. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and elder abuse and neglect can occur. In the worst of circumstances, the abuse or neglect actually leads to reports that nursing home residents died.

When nursing home deaths occurred for reasons other than purely natural causes such as old age, those reports need to be investigated. If it is found that the nursing home residents died due to negligence or abuse from staff or administrators, those individuals responsible must be held liable for the wrongful nursing home deaths they caused.

At Gregory Spektor & Associates, our New York wrongful death attorneys have the experience, knowledge, and skills to handle file a lawsuit on behalf of you and your family after the death of a loved one who was one of the nursing home residents who died as a result of neglect or abuse.

Deaths occurring because of someone else’s neglect or carelessness are unthinkable, especially for the families of those nursing home residents, and our attorneys will investigate and find out exactly why the nursing home residents died to determine if your family member’s death can be included in a potential lawsuit. Wrongful death is a terrible situation, but a successful lawsuit may be able to lessen the stress placed on your family from the medical bills and funeral costs associated with the death.

New York Nursing Home Death Lawsuit

What Is Nursing Home Wrongful Death?

Wrongful death is the legal practice area associated with the untimely passing of a loved one due to the negligence or abuse of another person. In cases involving nursing homes, the responsible party is often a member of the staff of the nursing home or someone in the administration. Neglect and abuse are two different categories of elder abuse, but each can lead to severe injury and even death.

In general, though, these cases can become complicated because more than one individual may be involved, especially if other people were aware of the neglect or abuse when the nursing home residents died. In cases of neglect, the staff member or administrator did not meet the standards of care, but the reasoning is usually not malicious. Reasons like staff shortages often lead to inadvertent elder neglect.

Elder abuse, on the other hand, has the intent to cause harm, intimidation, or punishment to the elderly resident. Physical, psychological, and sexual abuse all fall into this category, and nursing home abuse can certainly lead to the untimely deaths of the residents in the care of these nursing home staff members.

A wrongful death lawsuit filed against a negligent or abusive employee at a nursing home will obviously not bring you and your family solace after losing your loved one. However, cases against nursing homes can show that this kind of abuse will not be tolerated by the public. Elderly individuals have rights, and the nursing homes charged with their care should be aware of this fact and make their health and safety a priority.

At Gregory Spektor & Associates, we make your wrongful death lawsuit a priority so that you and your family can get your much-needed financial compensation, and we are able to demonstrate that elder abuse will not be tolerated.

When a wrongful death lawsuit is successful, the outcome will never replace the lost loved one in the minds or hearts of the family, but the financial compensation of a favorable settlement can at least ease the burden associated with any remaining medical bills, outstanding bills from the nursing homes, and any funeral and burial expenses. With the financial situation under control thanks to the settlement, the family can properly grieve their loss and find a way to begin moving past it. Nursing home deaths are unjust when caused by negligence or abuse, and those responsible need to be held liable.

New York Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer

Common Causes of Deaths for Nursing Home Residents

Individuals entrusted to the care of nursing homes need to be treated with respect but also have the right supervision and medical assistance needed for a long and pleasant life. Unfortunately, neglect or abuse cases and deaths go hand-in-hand for nursing homes. The consequences of negligence and abuse can be fatal, and it is the elderly individual as well as their loved ones who will suffer these consequences.

It is devastating that some nursing homes are afflicted by employees and administrators who do not care about the lives of those residents they are supposed to assist throughout their lives. When these staff members are negligent or abusive, deaths occur all too frequently.

Some of the most common causes of wrongful death in nursing homes include:

  • Medication errors
  • Failing to follow doctor’s orders
  • Nursing negligence
  • Bedsores
  • Malnutrition
  • Dehydration
  • Falls
  • Infections
  • Illnesses
  • Patients wandering off and getting hurt
  • Complications from injuries

Whether the wrongful death was caused by malicious abuse or negligence due to an issue such as staff shortages at the nursing homes, the result is still catastrophic for the patients and their families.

When a wrongful death has occurred, the family of the loved one should contact an experienced personal injury attorney who also specializes in elder law. In Queens, New York, the wrongful death attorneys at Gregory Spektor & Associates can handle your case and hold any negligent nursing homes responsible for the deaths they have caused.

 

Effects of The COVID-19 Pandemic on Long Term Care Facilities

The COVID-19 pandemic caused disproportionate illnesses and deaths at assisted living and nursing facilities. Throughout 2020 cases and deaths rose substantially at long term care facilities, and the required reporting was not always completed accurately by the staff. Data sources later revealed true estimations of how many residents of nursing homes were infected and killed by the Coronavirus.

Once the vaccines were widely available and distributed to those who were most vulnerable, especially the elderly at assisted living facilities and nursing homes, the rates of cases and deaths began to decrease. However, according to the COVID tracking project, the vaccination rates of the residents versus the vaccination rates of staff members are much higher. When fewer staff members at long term care facilities are fully vaccinated, that can place the elderly at risk of becoming infected, even with break-through cases.

If your fully vaccinated loved one was infected by an unvaccinated nursing home staff member and died as a result, you may be eligible to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home. Contact wrongful death attorneys at Gregory Spektor & Associates to discuss your case and let us determine if your situation with the long-term care facility may qualify.

How Do Wrongful Death Lawsuits Against Nursing Homes Work?

If your loved one was a resident of a long-term care facility in New York and died as a result of negligence or abuse in the nursing home, you may be eligible to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home. The first thing to do is to contact an experienced wrongful death attorney such as ours at Gregory Spektor & Associates to discuss your case in a free consultation.

Our lawyers will listen to the circumstances of your loved one’s death and determine if it may qualify as a wrongful death under New York law. This may even include deaths resulting from staff cases of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic which threaten the health and well-being of all residents of the long-term care facility.

Once we have discussed your case and determine that it may qualify as a wrongful death, we begin to investigate the situation. We will use all of the resources we have available to access your loved one’s patient files as well as any report of previous abuse or neglect from the nursing home as well as other deaths reported from the community. It is our responsibility to find out as much as possible about the residents and staff at these long-term care facilities.

Because we are not medical professionals, we will call upon our experts throughout the medical communities to assist us with understanding any medical reports and ensuring that everything is consistent with the circumstances you described. If the case is taken to trial, our wrongful death lawyers may use the expert medical professional as a witness on your behalf.

Once we have completed our due diligence and feel that there is a strong case for wrongful death, we will begin the paperwork to file a lawsuit against the facility which was the cause of your loved one’s death and possibly the deaths of other residents. Depending on the circumstances and the legal advice of the nursing home’s lawyers, we may go to trial or we may settle out of court. Either way, our attorneys will be prepared and will diligently fight for the rights of you, your family, and your deceased loved one.

In a successful case, your wrongful death claim will be settled with reasonable financial compensation to help you and your family may for any extraneous medical bills as well as funeral expenses for your loved one.

Who Is Eligible to File a Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against a Nursing Home?

In the state of New York, there is a finite number of people who may be eligible to file a wrongful death claim after a loved one dies as a result of reported abuse or neglect at a nursing facility.

This list of plaintiffs includes:

  • Immediate family members – spouses, biological children, adopted children, parents of unmarried children
  • Life partners and putative spouses
  • Distant family members
  • Financial dependents

If you believe you are included in this list and want to file a wrongful death claim against a negligent long-term care facility, contact the personal injury attorneys at Gregory Spektor & Associates to find out more about the process and to schedule a free consultation with our legal team.

 

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Contact Our New York Nursing Home Negligence Attorneys

At Gregory Spektor & Associates in Queens, New York, our experienced nursing home negligence attorneys understand how difficult it can be to lose a loved one, especially when the circumstances were so devastating. If you had entrusted your loved one into the care of a nursing home and feel betrayed by that facility’s negligence or abuse that caused your loved one’s death, contact our law firm to discuss your case.

Our team knows that no amount of money can ever replace the love, support, and connection you experienced with your loved one. A child can never replace his or her parent (at any age) with a sum of money. Spouses will never take an amount of money over the love and companionship they felt for their husband, wife, or life partner. Even distant relatives can feel the loss of an aunt, uncle, cousin, or another family member very deeply, and no amount of compensation can ever fill that void left behind. However, a nursing home negligence lawsuit can enable a family to endure a little less stress.

When nursing home negligence lawsuits are filed against negligence or abusive nursing homes in New York, the outcome our legal team at Gregory Spektor & Associates works for is a favorable settlement from the nursing homes. Nursing home abuse cases and deaths are preventable, and it is the duty of personal injury attorneys like ours to deter other nursing homes from continuing elder abuse and neglect.

When nursing home negligence lawsuits are filed, the primary goal is financial compensation for the families affected by the loss. However, a secondary goal is to show nursing homes that they need to show the proper care for their residents because the consequences can be devastating for all those involved.

Families of loved ones who have died in nursing homes know that the money from a nursing home negligence lawsuit settlement will not assuage the pain and feelings of loss. However, it can provide some stress relief when it comes to paying any remaining medical bills, nursing home fees, and funeral and/or burial expenses. In a time when a family deserves to grieve their loss, the last thing that should interrupt that process are calls from bill collectors (especially any from nursing homes) demanding payment.

At Gregory Spektor & Associates, we also understand that families deserve to grieve in peace which is why our law firm works on a contingency basis. Essentially, you do not have to pay us for our legal work unless we win you a financial settlement or favorable outcome from your wrongful death suit. That way, you will not have to worry about attorney’s fees or payments unless we win, and then our payment will come from the settlement itself.

If you and your family are grieving the loss of a loved one resulting from the negligence and/or abuse of a nursing home or long-term care facility, contact Gregory Spektor & Associates in New York. We have vast experience in all areas of personal injury and nursing home negligence law and we will draw from our connections in the legal community to work through your case.

Contact us today to schedule your free consultation with our experienced and skilled lawyers in New York.