Broken Hip from Fall in Nursing Home...

by Campbell
(Hardyston, NJ, USA)

My Mom has Dementia and Parkinson's disease and is in a nursing home. She fell out of a chair while at the home and broke her hip. Her resulting injuries required surgery and her health has deteriorated badly since the incident.

Can we sue the nursing home for negligence in not keeping a proper eye on her? She has gone from sick to extremely sick as result of this incident. We're concerned it could get worse and she may never get better. Thank you.

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ANSWER for "Broken Hip from Fall in Nursing Home...":

Campbell (hardyston, NJ, USA):

You can sue anyone, at any time, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the correct action to take. The nursing home may be liable. The law requires nursing homes to function with a high standard of care toward it's patients. The question in your mother's case will be whether or not the nursing home breached that standard of care. There isn't a clear answer to that question.

To determine whether the standard of care has been breached you will need to know several things. Some of them are whether the nursing home has had previous complaints for negligence which were reported. Another matter will be whether the nursing home has been sued before for injuries resulting from patients residing at their facility. The questions will be if they have, when they have, and what the result was.

In other words, the nursing home's history will be very important in determining whether or not your claim against the nursing home will be successful.

Since laws change frequently and across jurisdictions you should get a personalized case evaluation from an attorney licensed in your state (if you haven't already). Find an experienced local attorney to give you a FREE personalized case review here.


Best of luck,

Law Guy