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Luckily one of the workers saw the incident and ran out to help the woman.  He took off his shirt and put it over the woman in order to put out the fire.  According to the fire officials, workers stated that they wheeled the woman out daily for her to smoke near the front of the entrance of the building where they are allowed to smoke.  It is unknown whether the woman was supervised at all while smoking.  The medical staff stated that the woman did not suffer from Alzheimer's disease and was therefore not required to have a supervisor while she was smoking.  The woman is currently in the hospital receiving treatment for her injuries. 

It is unfortunate that the worker's of this facility justify not supervising the woman because she did not suffer from Alzheimers.  There are plenty of medications and different ailments that can cause disorientation and cause her to drop her cigarette.  It is up to the supervisors of the medical facility to look after their residents and make sure that the safety of their residents is never compromised.  If your loved one was injured at a care or resident facility then you may want to discuss your options for compensation with a professional. 

Around 1pm the man ran outside barefoot trying to catch up to the mail carrier and when he tried to return to his home he fell and tried to crawl back on his hands and knees. Two women found him and carried him onto the grass and then into his home. The man seemed to not realize the severity of his own injuries. With the heat at over a hundred degrees in Phoenix, the pavement can reach up to 140 degrees. The man was later transferred to The Arizona Burn Center at Maricopa Medical Center suffering second degree burns on his feet. 

These situations can occur as a result of careless mistakes. In most they are only accidents that were the result of a rash decision without thinking. Yet there can be many explanations for this type of scenario. A mix up in medication could have left the man feeling disoriented, he may not have been properly monitored by a caretaker, or he could have suffered an improperly diagnosed health affliction. In those cases, there are negligent parties responsible for his burns. If you were involved in an accident that may have been caused by another person’s negligence then contacting an Arizona personal injury attorney is your best option for compensation. 

65-year-old Patricia Dias suffers from multiple sclerosis and was admitted to Bakersfield Heart Hospital for a blood pressure problem.  After a few weeks, she was transferred to LifeHouse Parkview nursing home to be treated for a bed sore.  After less than two weeks at the nursing home, Dias had developed severe burns over large portions of her body.  Her family transferred her out of the nursing home and outside doctors said the burns were most likely the result of a reaction to her medication and that the nursing home staff should have looked at them much sooner. 

It is likely that Mrs. Dias was a victim of nursing home neglect.  Nursing home staff must be attentive to the needs of their residents and take note of any unusual symptoms.  Side effects from medications are a common problem for nursing home residents, who are often taking several types of medication at once, and it is the job of the nursing home staff to notice and take action when side effects first develop.  Not taking action on side effects may make a small problem turn into a much larger one.

For more information on nursing home neglect, visit the Solomon & Relihan Nursing Home Advocates website.