Dialysis Related Injuries Can Be Prevented With Basic Precautions
When a person’s kidneys no longer work properly, dialysis can filter waste products from their blood. Your kidneys keep your blood clean and balanced. They filter 200 quarts of blood every day, filtering out waste and excess water, which becomes urine. Diabetes and high blood pressure are the two most common causes of kidney disease. As your kidney health declines, your renal function worsens. If your kidneys have less than 25% of their kidney function, serious health problems can occur. And, if your kidneys have less than 15% of their kidney function, dialysis or kidney transplant is required. About 11.5%...
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Dirty Needles May Be Cause Of Hepatitis B Outbreak In Nursing Home
We recently discussed the Hepatitis B outbreak at a North Carolina Nursing Home that has take the lives of several patients. Now as authorities look for the source of this outbreak, they are beginning to look at dirty needles as the source for spreading the disease from one patient to another. According to news reports, the owner of the facility (GlenCare of Mount Olive) claims that Division of Public Health investigators told him that the outbreak stems from five medical technicians had reused diabetes pens when checking patients' blood sugar levels. So far, eight patients at the nursing home have...
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Untreated Urinary Tract Infections In Nursing Home Patients May Result In Urosepsis
One of the most memorable cases I worked on involved a young man who was in a nursing home following a severe injuries he sustained in a construction accident. Due to the nature of the man's injuries, a catheter was used to drain urine from his bladder. Despite doctors orders to change the catheter every 30 days, months went by without any catheter change. In fact, six months went by without a catheter change. Finally, after six months without a catheter change, a nursing home employee recognized the obvious problems: cloudy / brownish urine and testicles extremely swollen due to...
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Oral Health In The Elderly Nursing Home Population: A Widely Ignored Threat To Patient Health
Most people never associate dental care with with nursing homes. To be honest, I never really did either until I was contacted by a family regarding a nursing home patient who developed a horrible infection in their mouth that went untreated for months. By the time the infection was diagnosed, it had progressed to the point that the man's jaws had become infected. Within weeks of the diagnosis, the man died from the infection. While the above situation is certainly a case of extreme neglect, dental care of nursing home patients is an issue that deserves more attention than it currently...
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Long-Term Care Hospitals: More Profit, Less Staff
There's been a lot of discussion recently regarding a New York Times article that details patient care at long-term acute care hospitals-- a relatively new type of medical facility for patients requiring long-term medical care. Although these long-term care hospitals have many similarities to traditional nursing homes, they are structured to take advantage of Medicare reimbursement rules that pay higher rates of reimbursement for treating chronically-ill patients. The Times, article chronicles, Select Medical Corporation and Kindred Healthcare, publicly traded companies that run long-term hospitals across the country. While long-term care hospitals may be more profitable than traditional facilities, the facilities...
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Under-staffing At Nursing Home Blamed For Pressure Ulcer, Infection & Subsequent Death
The son of a deceased nursing home patient blames 'under-staffing' as the primary reason why his mother fell and subsequently developed pressure ulcers. Gary Brown filed a lawsuit against a county operated nursing home in Nebraska on behalf of his deceased mother's estate. In addition to under-staffing, the lawsuit alleges the facility allowed his mother to develop pressure ulcers (also referred to as pressure sores, decubitus ulcers or bed sores) during her recovery from a fall at the facility. Despite the fact that the pressure ulcers progressed and became infected, the facility also allegedly failed to notify the woman's personal...
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New York Jury Punishes Nursing Home Where Man Develops More Than 20 Bed Sores
It never fails to amaze me. Frequently, when I tell people about some of the cases I work on involving bed sores, I only to get a 'so what?' reaction from them. Are the people who surround me heartless? Maybe some of them (just joking, honey)? Nonetheless, the reality is that most people have no idea what a bed sore truly is or the catastrophic consequences that my arise after a person develops them. When people actually see the gruesome photos of rotting flesh on a person's backside hear about the ongoing medical procedures that are necessary to heal the...
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Bed Sore Problems Compounded: Amyloidosis
One of the nursing home negligence cases my office is currently investigating involves the death of a man related to complications related to amyloidosis. Turns out, the man was suffering from an advanced bed sore on his coccyx (also called pressure ulcers, pressure sores or decubitus ulcers) that had progressed so far that the bone in the area had become infected (osteomyelitis). Elderly nursing home residents, especially those suffering from other diseases such as bed sores, have a higher risk of developing amyloidosis, a disease which can damage various tissues and organs. This can cause dangerous complications in residents...
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Left Untreated, Stomach Aches Can Be Deadly For Elderly Nursing Home Patients
Clostridium difficile (also called C. difficile or C. diff) associated disease (“CDAD”) is a bacterial infection that can cause diarrhea and serious intestinal conditions (such as colitis - inflammation of the colon). CDAD is responsible for about three million cases of diarrhea and colitis annually in the United States. C. difficile is naturally found in the environment and even in a small number (fewer than 3%) of healthy people’s large intestine. Most people in good health do not usually get sick from C. difficile because of the millions of intestinal bacteria that help protect the body from infection. When people-- particularly the...
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Video Demonstrates Proper Dressing Changes For Patients With Pressure Ulcers
In order to heal a pressure ulcer, staff at nursing homes, hospitals or wound clinics must pay extra attention to dressings on the wound. Too often, the problems associated with pressure ulcers are compounded when staff fail to follow physician orders with respect to the frequently of dressing changes or the dressings changes are not done properly. When dressing changes are not properly done, the wound will take longer to heal and the likelihood of infection increases. This video demonstrates proper dressing changing technique. Nursing Home Injury Laws: Bed Sore, Pressure Sores, Decubitus Ulcer, Pressure Sores Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers:...
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