Lawsuit Filed Against Nursing Home in Mother's Death
An Illinois man has filed a lawsuit against a nursing home in the premature death of his mother. 66-year-old Neida Niles died after a fall in 2007. The suit claims that the nursing home did not properly assess her risk of a fall and did not treat the bed sores and skin infection that developed because of the fall.
Neida Niles was a resident of the Prairie Village HealthCare Center in Jacksonville, IL when she fell during a routine dialysis treatment in April 2007. The suit alleges that the nursing home did not properly assess her fall risk and take proper precautions to prevent her from falling.
In addition to her fall, Niles developed bed sores and a skin condition when she was bed ridden following the fall. Bed sores, also known as pressure sores or pressure ulcers, occur when a person lies on one part of their body for a long period of time. Nursing homes are supposed to regularly turn bed ridden residents to prevent them from occurring. The development of bed sores is usually a sign that residents are not being turned properly.
Falls and bed sores are both problems that frequently occur because of inadequate staffing levels and improper training of staff. Prairie Village HealthCare has a history of both problems and the suit claims that this was a contributing factor in Niles' death. According to a Medicare report, which gave the facility the lowest possible rating, an average nursing home resident receives 42 minutes of registered nurse care per day, but residents at Prairie Village only received 14.
For more information on nursing home abuse and neglect, please visit the Nursing Home Advocates.
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