Not a weekend goes by, when I am not asking in some social setting “What type of law do you practice?” Typically, I answer directly – “I sue nursing homes.” The last time I said this, the other person, a nurse, asked “I hope you sue the corporations and remind them they don’t hire enough nurses.” She clearly has some insight into for-profit long term care.
Other times, people will ask why someone would sue a nursing home. Examples I give: Because the nursing home let a resident roll down the stairs in his wheelchair; because they gave someone the wrong medicine and she died; because they didn’t give someone the right medicine and he died; because they didn’t feed someone’s grandmother and she died of malnutrition; because a lady was left unattend and left the facility, only to die in the cold; because a man was left unattended and fell and broke his neck; because someone was dropped and broke a hip; because the staff failed to treat a wound and the wound got so big, a lady’s bones were exposed….. The list goes on.. Too many cases and examples to recount.
The moral is – if you are going to put a loved on in a place like this – you need to be the eyes and ears. Oh yeah, and the BIGGER MORAL is – the priority of the companies should be taking care of patients, and not making money. Again, I ask for too much – capitalism with the goal of the greater good, not just immediate financial gain.