We had a very nice client who only wanted to ensure that her mother was being taken care of properly. You see, her mother was in a nursing home & even though she never saw her being mistreated there were some possible signs. When she would visit her mother she was always in her room & she began to see wound starting to appear on her mothers body for no reason. This woman was not wealthy but she knew she would pay anything to ensure her mothers happiness. Once we heard about this case we took it & started to investigate. We spoke to other people who lived in the home as well as relatives of the people living there. It would seem that there was a pattern emerging & though it did not seem intentional that the nursing home itself has encouraged the activity by the lack of structure it had permitted several disturbing things to happen.
There seemed to be an overall lack of concern for the elderly people who lived in the home. on many of them when closely examined there were bedsores which are easily avoidable in most circumstances. There was not enough staff on site at many times & the people who were there seemed to have little interest in the wellbeing of their patience. The nursing home tried to claim that it was unaware of the activity so should not be held liable but we did not agree with that opinion. Even though they did not encourage the activity they are still responsible for it because the patients were trusted to the care of the home who hired the staff.
Not only did we get the home closed after closer inspection but we were able to improve the livelihood of almost everyone involved. The nursing home ended up paying restitution & fines for the activity. When a new nursing home was chosen the family had many more options available to them because of the money they were awarded. They were very thankful & have started a whole new life as a result of this case.
It is our goal to rectify such situations when we come across them. This not only helps to improve the life of the person involved. Many lives were touched by this event & improved vastly because of it. If you know anyone in a similar situation please take action because sometimes you are the only person who can step in & change things you think are wrong. You do not just have to accept the story being given to you. If you feel there is something missing or more to the story it is ay least worth looking into even if you do not end up getting involved. Do what is right.