California Elder Law Attorney Blog

Serious personal injury cases routinely occur in Nursing Homes causing wrongful death says Peck Law Group Accident and Injury Lawyer Steven Peck.

Take the example of a recent case that involved a horrific infected bed sore also known as a pressure ulcer and decubitus ulcer, which as a result of the infection caused the elder individual to become septic. A terrible way to die!!

Negligence is a required component of a wrongful death action and a personal injury accident. The outcome of the investigation into this accident will be of great interest to those families who have sustained the loss of a loved one and to those who have been critically injured as a result of the neglect of the skilled nursing facility.

Infection from bed sores is a serious complication that can lead to serious injury and even death says California Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorney Steven C. Peck.

There are several types of infection from bed sores that a patient can develop when their pressure sores are not promptly and adequately treated. Each year in the United States about one million people develop bed sores (also known as pressure sores and decubitis). Bed sores develop when the blood supply to the skin is cut off for two hours or more. Bed sores are a common ailment suffered by people who are bedridden or confined to a wheelchair.

Approximately sixty thousand people die as a result of infection from bed sores. Infection from bed sores occurs when bacteria develops in the affected area. These bacteria can cause significant damage to the skin, blood, bones, muscles, and other tissues in the affected area. Infection from bed sores is more likely in the presence of sweat, feces, urine, or other moisture when these materials come in contact with affected skin.

Infection from bed sores is preventable when proper and prompt care is administered to a patient who has developed bed sores. Proper diet and hygiene are crucial to prevent infection from bed sores. A diet rich in protein, vitamins and minerals can help to prevent bed sores and infection from bed sores. A person who is bedridden or uses a wheel chair should be shifted often to reduce prolonged pressure to certain areas. In order to prevent infection from bed sores, a patient's skin should be kept clean, dry, moisturized, and away from harsh chemicals. Patients who are incontinent or are at an increased risk of infection from bed sores should be monitored closely and checked frequently for any signs of infection from bed sores.

When a person develops a bed sore, the skin in the affected area first becomes discolored and may be tender and itchy. As the tissues begin to atrophy (die), blisters and open wound abrasions develop. These craters can grow to invade and destroy deeper soft tissues, muscles, bones, tendons, and joints. The potential for infection is high when a bed sore becomes exposed to external elements of moisture and bacteria.

Signs of infection from bed sores can include pus drainage from the bed sores; a foul smell from the wound; and tenderness, heat or redness in the skin surrounding a bed sore. If any of these symptoms of infection from bed sores are present a patient must receive adequate and immediate medical attention to avoid serious complications. Infection from bed sores can be treated with topical or oral antibiotics, and proper wound care and dressings.

Infection from bed sores can include gangrene (tissue death), bone infections (osteomyelitis), blood infections (sepsis), infectious arthritis, and scar carcinoma (cancer of scar tissue). Sepsis alone kills fifty percent off all people who develop this infection. When a patient develops an infection from bed sores, unacceptable standards of care are most likely to blame. Infection from bed sores is highly preventable in a nursing home facility and is often the direct result of nursing home abuse and neglect.

Continue reading "Infection from Bed Sores" »

Bedsores, also called pressure ulcers or decubitus ulcers, are areas of broken skin that can develop in people who:

* Have been confined to bed for extended periods of time
* Are unable to move for short periods of time, especially if they are thin or have blood vessel disease or neurological diseases
* Use a wheelchair or bedside chair (a hospital chair that allows a patient to sit upright next to the bed)

Bedsores are common in people in hospitals and nursing homes and in people being cared for at home. In the United States, approximately 9% of all hospitalized patients develop bedsores. Three percent to 14% of people in home care get them and so do 3% to 12% of all nursing home residents. People transferred from hospitals to nursing homes are particularly vulnerable, with 10% to 35% having sores when they are admitted to the nursing home says California Nursing Home Abuse and neglect Attorney Steven C. Peck.

Bedsores can lead to severe medical complications, include bone and blood infections, bacterial infection in a joint, a wound that is deep enough that it exposes bone, and - rarely - scar carcinoma, a form of cancer that develops in scar tissue.

Bedsores form where the weight of the person's body presses the skin against the firm surface of the bed. In people confined to bed, bedsores are most common over the hip, spine, lower back, shoulder blades, elbows and heels. In people who use a wheelchair, bedsores are most common on the lower back, buttocks and legs. This pressure temporarily cuts off the skin's blood supply. This injures skin cells and can cause them to die. Unless the pressure is relieved and blood flows to the skin again, the skin soon begins to show signs of injury. At first, there may be only a patch of redness. If this red patch is not protected from additional pressure, the redness can form blisters or open sores (ulcers). In severe cases, damage may extend through the skin and create a deep crater that exposes muscle or bone.

Muscle is even more prone to severe injury from pressure than skin. A bedsore can involve several layers of damaged tissue.

The pressure that causes bedsores does not have to be very intense. Normally, our skin is protected from being injured by pressure because we move frequently, even when asleep.

Although pressure on the skin is the main cause of bedsores, other factors often contribute to the problem. These include:

* Shearing and friction - Shearing and friction causes skin to stretch and blood vessels to kink, which can impair blood circulation in the skin. In a person confined to bed, shearing and friction can occur when the person is dragged or slid across the bed sheets. This can also occur when the head of the bed is raised more than 30 degrees. This increases shearing forces over the lower back and tailbone.

* Moisture - Wetness from perspiration, urine or feces can make the skin too soft and more likely to be injured by pressure. For this reason, people who can't control their bladders or bowels (people who are incontinent) are at high risk of developing bedsores.

* Decreased movement - Bedsores are common in people who can't move because they are paralyzed, recuperating from surgery for a prolonged time, being treated in intensive care for a long time, or are incapacitated by severe arthritis, stroke or a neurological problem such as multiple sclerosis. (People who can move without assistance have a lower risk of bedsores because they can shift their weight periodically.)

* Decreased sensation - Bedsores are common in people who have spinal cord injuries or other neurological problems that decrease their ability to feel pain or discomfort. Without these feelings, the person cannot feel the effects of prolonged pressure on the skin.

* Circulatory problems - People with atherosclerosis, circulatory problems from long-term diabetes or localized swelling (edema) may be more likely to develop bedsores. This is because the blood flow in their skin is weak even before pressure is applied to the skin. People with anemia are also at risk because their blood cannot carry enough oxygen to skin cells, even though circulation may be normal.

* Poor nutrition - Studies show that bedsores are more likely to develop in people who don't get enough protein, vitamin C, vitamin E, calcium or zinc.

* Age - Elderly people, especially those over 85, are more likely to develop bedsores because skin usually becomes thinner with age. Also, as we age, fat tends to shift away from the body surface, where it acts as a cushion, to deeper areas of the body.

Continue reading "What are Bedsores, also called Pressure Ulcers or Decubitus Ulcers?," »

As we reach for the dream of health care for all, we need to focus our reform energies on improving patient safety. Preventing medical errors will lower health-care costs, reduce doctors' insurance premiums and protect patients.

Taking away patients' rights does not improve the quality of our health-care system or produce cost savings. The myth that "reforming" our medical-malpractice system will somehow save money is particularly dangerous, as it asks us to give up a fundamental right in exchange for affordable and accessible health care. This so-called bargain would not benefit anyone except the insurance industry.

Instead, let's look at the real facts of medical malpractice and its cost implications and not take away the rights of innocent victims of medical malpractice and their families.

The true crisis in medical malpractice is negligent medical care. The Institute for Medicine estimates that more than 98,000 deaths a year are caused by preventable medical errors, making this our nation's sixth-leading cause of death. The cost to the system of these deaths alone is estimated at more than $29 billion dollars annually -- twice the cost of the malpractice system as a whole.

Yet despite the numerous injuries and deaths from preventable medical injury, most injured people do not file lawsuits, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. Public Citizen found that malpractice litigation costs amount to less than 0.6 percent of overall health-care spending, and malpractice payouts are at an all-time low. In Washington state, medical-malpractice cases made up just 0.3 percent of all civil cases filed between 2002 and 2008, according to data from the Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts. As national expert and author Tom Baker said, "We have an epidemic of medical malpractice, not of malpractice lawsuits."

State of Washington Registered Nurse and Lawyer Patricia Greenstreet believes that the so-called malpractice "reforms" offered by the insurance industry will not only increase the costs for injured families; they will result in breaking many families financially. When that happens, taxpayers pick up the continuing costs of these often-catastrophic injuries, the insurer gets a free ride, and the costs don't go away. This is no bargain or trade-off. It's robbery.

Another persistent myth is the wrong idea of "defensive medicine" and the costs that it purports to add to the health-care system. The idea that extra tests are ordered only to protect from fictitious lawsuits, and not because of our fee-for-service health-care system that rewards ordering extra tests and procedures, is defied by research and common sense. Insurance companies and Medicare will not pay for unnecessary costs, treatments and procedures.

No empirical evidence demonstrates that defensive medicine exists. On the contrary, a 2004 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office noted, "some so-called defensive medicine may be motivated less by liability concerns than by the income it generates for physicians or by the positive (albeit small) benefits to patients."

The best way to save money in the health-care system is to prevent injuries from preventable errors in the first place.

Public and private organizations like the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and HealthGrades are offering cutting-edge solutions for the prevention of the costs -- and human misery -- caused by these errors. Let's follow the example set by anesthesiologists, who looked at their own practices to increase patient safety by developing new guidelines to reduce errors. The safety changes they implemented make them among the safest practitioners in the U.S., with malpractice insurance rates that have fallen.

It is by curing the epidemic of preventable medical errors that we can achieve reduced costs for patients and families, but also for the whole system. Let's focus on what has been proven to reduce costs and improve lives -- eliminating preventable errors -- rather than giving up fundamental rights as a bargaining chip.

Continue reading "Prevention of Medical Errors The Real Culprit For Innocent Victims" »

A college pole vaulter died earlier this week after missing the landing pad during practice at the University of California-San Diego. Leon Roach, 19, landed head first on concrete during a training jump Saturday. Roach immediately became unresponsive and was later pronounced brain dead at the hospital. A similar tragedy occurred just over a year ago near Seattle, Wash., when a high school athlete was critically injured. Ryan Moberg, 18, died after sustaining head and neck injuries when he missed the mat and landed on the ground during an indoor practice at DeSales Catholic High School.

It is just these types of injuries that previously led the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina to label the pole vault the most dangerous sporting event. Reviewing statistics from 1983 to 2000, there were thousands of injuries, but most shocking was the fact there was an average of one pole vault-related death a year.

These types of stories are all too common. In 2005, head injuries sustained from a failed vault took the life of 16-year-old Floridian Jesus Quesada. Penn State vaulter Kevin Dare, 19, died after a fall during the Big Ten Conference Championships. Samoa Fili II, 17, died of head injuries from a fall suffered while his father videotaped him competing for Wichita (Kan.) Southeast High School.

Since his son's death, Ed Dare has been campaigning for helmets to become mandatory for all scholastic vaulters. Legislation is pending in some states to do exactly that, but there is resistance from some who say a specific vaulting helmet doesn't exist or there is no proof helmets won't cause new problems.

The pole vault is most dangerous due to the heights that are reached and the level of skill and difficulty that is involved to pull it off. Heights cleared commonly reach 15 feet for high school boys and the world's top women, while 19 feet is reached for the world's elite men. Often when a vault goes awry, the vaulter falls backward, completely out of control, and is unable to protect himself. In addition to head injuries, it is also very common to see fractures of the arms and legs as the vaulter hits the ground.

Should a loved on be the vicitm of a catastrophic injury please contact Steven Peck's Premier Legal toll free at 1-866-999-9085 to talk to an experienced catastrophic personal injury attorney and visit us on line at www.premierlegal.org