While people take their seniors to nursing homes for care, not every facility has the best healthcare environment to allow such seniors to stay safe from infections. Nursing home patients are so vulnerable to sepsis. And thus, special care should be taken to ensure infection control measures are followed to the letter. When this doesn’t happen, nursing home patients can get sepsis which can be attributed to negligence.
If your patient seems to have certain infections and you are not sure whether it’s sepsis, this guide will help you understand what causes sepsis, ways to detect the infection, and how you may file a negligence claim.
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Causes Of Sepsis
Sepsis is a condition that occurs when the body goes into overdrive as it tries to fight infection. The immune system is made to release chemicals to fight germs. Instead, when these chemicals overreact and cause inflammation, one is said to have suffered from sepsis. Sometimes, a nursing home patient may suffer from sepsis because of their poor immune system or age. However, sepsis may also emanate from nursing home neglect. When this happens, it becomes easy to file a claim of negligence with a lawyer’s help. According to Mayo Clinic, there are many causes of sepsis in a nursing home. Some of them include infections in:
- Wounds or burns: You may have taken your senior to a nursing home because you were unable to take care of their wounds or burns. If special care is not taken to those wounds or burns, sepsis may occur.
- Lungs: Lung infections may emanate from other patients spreading infections such as pneumonia from one to another. Where beds are too congested or poor mobility, such infections spread faster.
- Digestive system: Due to bacteria passed on from poor feedings practices.
- Urinary tract infections: One of the most common infections is the prolonged use of a urinary catheter in patients.
As the above infections worsen, they may cause the victim’s brain to become impaired. Whichever reason could have rendered your senior to develop infections, you may have a claim. But this is only if you prove that sepsis was caused by negligence. Apart from sepsis, there are many nursing home injuries, such as falls, broken bones, bedrail injuries that may require one to look for the best accident attorney in Alaska to help them file a personal injury claim.
How To Detect Sepsis
If you took your senior to a nursing home and you are made to believe they may be suffering from sepsis, you can look for the below symptoms to conclude that indeed they have sepsis. Some of the most common signs include:
- Low blood pressure
- Fatigue
- The patient seems confused or has a change in their mental status.
- Abnormal respiratory rate
- High blood pressure
When a patient has the above signs, the best and quick way is to see a doctor to diagnose whether they may be suffering from sepsis. Once a medical doctor approves that they are suffering from such an infection, you may think about filing a claim.
Filing A Sepsis Claim
Anyone who takes their senior to a nursing home expects total care of their loved one. And that they will get the treatment they need. Instead, you find seniors suffering from avoidable injuries due to negligence. In such a case, you can file a claim. But this is if you have identified signs of negligence in your patient suffering. Just as stipulated earlier, sepsis may or may not be a sign of neglect. It requires someone who has dealt with similar cases to offer advice. You may choose to work with a lawyer to help show whether neglect is a factor in your case. To file your claim, your lawyer may help you prove that:
- There was poor infection control.
- There was a failure to protect the patient from health hazards.
- The staff handling the patient was not adequately monitored.
- After diagnosis, the infection was left untreated.
Many people may be held liable for sepsis. This could be:
- Negligence staff
- Inadequate training
- Error in medication
Where it may not be clear who may be liable for the nursing home neglect, getting legal advice may help identify the responsible parties. If it’s clear that the nursing home was negligent and the facility played a role in the infection, then the facility may be held liable for the damages.
If you’re a nursing home negligence victim or suspect that your loved one has sepsis due to negligence, you can look for an attorney who has experience in handling such cases to offer help on handling such a case. This is the only way your rights or that of a loved one can be protected. The compensation received can help cater for medical care, personal care any other cost that may be incurred with the connection of sepsis. Where one dies due to sepsis, a lawyer can guide whether it would be appropriate to file a wrongful death claim.