Certain medical issues are a known problem as people age. Many people are familiar with the idea that bone density drops later in life. Therefore, people are more inclined to fractures when they fall during their golden years. Dementia is another profoundly disabling medical challenge that people associate with advanced age.
A loss of mobility is another common age-related health concern. Fall risk combined with lower energy levels may leave people largely bound to their beds or a comfortable chair later in life. Many people assume that bedsores are inevitable in situations where people have declining mobility, but bedsores are largely preventable.
Many bedsores are the products of negligence
Pressure ulcers or bedsores tend to develop at the points where the body has constant contact with furniture. For those who lay down much of the day, the backs of their heads, under their shoulder blades, the buttocks, and the heels are some of the places most likely to see bedsore development. Bed sores might develop on the underside of the thighs of someone who spends most of their day in a comfortable chair.
Workers at nursing homes know that bedsores are a risk and have an obligation to protect residents. They can achieve this by encouraging occasional movements every few hours and repositioning people. The use of a variety of different types of cushions can help take pressure off of certain body parts even if someone remains in bed most of the day.
Frequent inspections for bedsores are also important. Spotting the early warning signs of bedsores can save nursing home residents from severe pain, infection and worse tissue damage. Particularly in scenarios where bedsores occur in more than one area and where they progress beyond the first one or two stages, it is reasonable to believe that a nursing home’s negligence may have played a role in the situation.
Better monitoring of patients and more interventions when bedsores initially develop can protect people from the worst-case scenario in which bedsores become deep wounds and put someone at risk of a severe infection. Pursuing a nursing home negligence lawsuit could help cover the major expenses that bedsores can sometimes generate. A lawsuit might also lead to a nursing home changing the way that it supports vulnerable residents.