Nursing Home Abuse Blog - Page 21 of 35 - The Law Offices of Barry G. Doyle, P.C.

Aperion Care Capitol fails to obtain equipment to treat bed sore

April 7, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

Aperion Care Capitol nursing home was cited and fined by IDPH after it failed to obtain the medical equipment needed to carry out a doctor’s order to treat a resident suffering from a bed sore.

The resident at issue was admitted to the nursing home on July 10 with a Stage IV bed sore to her coccyx. A Stage IV bed sore is the most severe kind, involving exposed muscle and/or bone. It carries a high risk of becoming infected and may lead to osteomyelitis. On July 24, the resident’s wound care doctor ordered the use of a wound vac. Due to a breakdown in communications at the nursing home, the order was not placed.

On August 7, the surveyor for IDPH was in the facility and made inquiries after speaking to the resident and finding out that the wound vac had not been obtained and that the size of the wound had increased, indicating a decline in the overall condition of the wound. The order was placed that same day after the surveyor began asking questions and the director of nursing acknowledged a breakdown in communications at the nursing home.

Federal regulations provide that when a resident enters a facility with a bed sore, the nursing home is required to provide care and treatment necessary to promote healing, prevent infection, and prevent the development of new skin breakdown. The wound vac was part of that required treatment.

At its heart, a nursing home is a business. Well-run businesses run on systems that ensure that the work of the business gets accomplished. The care planning process is an example of system. It helps make sure that the care that residents need gets delivered. The supply ordering process is another system which in this case did not work right, and as a result the care that the resident was supposed to get was not provided. It also amounts to a violation of at least one and likely several federal regulations.

One of our core beliefs is that nursing homes are built to fail due to the business model they follow and that unnecessary injuries and illnesses and wrongful deaths of residents are the inevitable result. Order our FREE report, Built to Fail, to learn more about why. Our experienced Chicago nursing home lawyers are ready to help you understand what happened, why, and what your rights are. Contact us to get the help you need.

Other blog posts of interest:

Moweaqua Rehab resident suffers multiple declining bed sores

Unstageable bed sore at Nokomis Rehab

Failure to obtain necessary respiratory equipment at California Gardens

St. Anthony’s fails to treat pain during wound care

Generations at Rock Island fails to treat bed sores

Improper care of diabetes at Aperion Care Capitol

Click here to file a complaint against a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health

Park Pointe resident suffocates as a result of fall

April 5, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

Park Pointe Healthcare & Rehab was cited and fined by IDPH after a resident suffocated after falling from bed at the nursing home and being trapped in between the wall and the bed.

The resident at issue had limited mobility die to a recent hip fracture and significant musculoskeletal weakness and needed assistance with bed mobility, meaning that staff members were required to help her move in bed. She was recognized as being a fall risk, and the bed was placed in a low position and a scoop mattress was used as a fall prevention measure. However, the bed was placed only about a foot from the wall.

During the middle of the night, she fell from bed, but instead of hitting the floor, she got wedged in between the bed and the wall. Due to her limitations in strength and mobility, she remained stuck in that position and died due to positional asphyxia, which meant that she was trapped in that position, unable get sufficient air in to breathe and as a result, suffocated. This was determined by the coroner, and will serve as the basis of a wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home.

This nursing home had some reasonable steps in place as part of her care plan to address her fall risk, including the use of a low bed and a scoop mattress. However, those good steps were undone by placing the bed so close to the wall that it resulted in this lady suffocating when she fell from bed. The risk of positional asphyxia is one of the reasons that the use of bed rails is discouraged in the nursing home industry. This is an unusual set of circumstances for a wrongful death claim from a nursing home fall – unless there is a brain bleed, most often deaths from nursing home falls are much more remote in time from the injury, as is commonly the case with hip fractures.

Other blog posts of interest:

Resident at Park Pointe in Morris sustains multiple fractures in fall down stairwell

Failure to assist resident to bathroom at Heritage Health in Peru results in fall

Two serious falls at Holy Family Villa

Failure to follow care plan at Tower Hill

Siderail accident at Illini Heritage

Fall results in broken vertebra at Heritage Health – Mendota

Side rail accident at Lexington of Lombard

Click here to file a complaint against a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health

Unsafe Transfer at Alden Estates of Orland Park

April 2, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

Alden Estates of Orland Park nursing home was cited and fined by IDPH after a resident suffered a broken leg during an improper transfer.

The resident at issue was one for who extensive assists with transfer was necessary and the nursing staff had in fact identified that the resident was most safely transferred using a sit-to-stand lift. Use of the sit-to-stand lift was actually incorporated into the resident’s care plan. The nursing home has 3 floors with 4 sit-to-stand lifts available for use: one for each floor and an extra. On the day in question, the resident wanted to return to bed because of pain associated with sitting in his chair. The lift was unavailable, so the CNA’s decided to transfer the resident without the lift.

They attempted to transfer the resident using a pivot transfer technique. In doing so, they heard a loud popping sound from the resident’s leg. The resident was sent to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a fractured tibia and a femoral neck, or hip fracture.

There are two issues which jump out in looking at this situation. First the aides very clearly violated the resident’s care plan, and disaster was the result. The whole point of having a care plan is to minimize the risks to the health and well-being of the resident. This is a resident who likely suffered from osteoporosis and was therefore at increased risk of fractures even with the relatively low additional stresses posed by a pivot transfer. Second, nursing home are required to provide the resources needed for the residents’ care. If there was no lift available, that is a source of concern.

It is also worth noting that this is a resident who did not have surgery done to relieve two fractures, including a fracture of the femoral neck. Hip fractures are one of the common results of nursing home falls and when surgery is not done to repair a hip fracture, the victim is likely doomed to immobility which causes increased risk of developing bed sores, as well as constant pain with even minimal movement. Serious consequences from a serious lapse in judgment.

Other blog posts of interest:

Failure to follow care plan at Tower Hill

Failure to give diabetes Medication at Alden Estates of Orland Park

Unsafe transfer at Grove of Skokie

Unsafe transfer at Alden Town Manor results in broken hip

Failure to use footrests on wheelchair leads to broken leg at Lexington of Orland Park

Click here to file a complaint against a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health

Resident chokes at Grove at the Lake

March 31, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

The Grove at the Lake nursing home in Zion was cited and fined by IDPH after a resident choked on a hot dog.

The resident at issue had a diagnosis of dysphagia, or difficulty with swallowing, and a history of choking. This diagnosis and the history of choking demonstrated that she was at risk for choking. With a recognized risk of choking, the nursing home actually did the appropriate thing: they developed a care plan which addressed the resident’s risk of choking. The care plan included observing the resident while eating for signs and symptoms of choking.

On the night of the choking accident, the nurses on duty were at the nurses station while the residents were being fed dinner. A CNA brought the resident to the nurse’s station and said that the resident was having difficulty breathing. The nurse recognized right away that the resident was not breathing and took her to her room to begin resuscitation efforts. She did a finger sweep of the mouth which pulled out meat and began CPR. 911 was called and she was brought to the hospital, where she survived but was required to undergo a tracheostomy and placement of a feeding tube.

When IDPH came to interview the staff on duty, no one admitted to being the aide who brought the resident to the nurse’s station. All of the aides further denied knowing that the resident was a choking risk.

When a resident is recognized as being at risk for choking based on their medical diagnosis and a demonstrated history of choking, care planning to address that risk is the right thing to do. However, in this case, the Grove fell short in two respects:

The care plan itself was inadequate. While placing general responsibility to observe for choking is a start, the high risk that a choking accident will result in the wrongful death of the nursing home resident called for placement of the resident at a feeder table where there is a specific aide responsible for assisting residents in need of help with eating. Having this intervention in place allows the resident to get help immediately when a choking incident starts.
The care plan was not communicated to the staff charged with providing the care. There were a number of aides in the dining room at the time of the choking accident, but none of them knew that the resident was at risk for choking. If they didn’t know that, there was no special need for them to be paying attention to this resident choking. Communicating the contents of the care plan to direct care staff is a basic part of the care planning process.

This choking accident was a highly preventable accident. A better care plan effectively communicated to the staff would have either avoided this accident all together or at least kept the consequences of the choking incident from being so grim. It is a classic example of why effective care planning is an essential tool for providing good care in nursing homes – and why it is so effective for prosecuting nursing home abuse and neglect cases.

Other blog posts of interest:

Resident suffers broken jaw at Grove at the Lake

Resident chokes to death at Iona Glos

Unsafe transfer at Grove of Skokie

Fatal choking accident at Glenwood Nursing & Rehabilitation

Resident bleeds to death at Warren Barr North Shore

Moorings resident chokes to death

Click here to file a complaint against a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health

Wheelchair transport accident at Heartland of Galesburg

March 28, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

Heartland of Galesburg nursing home was cited and fined by IDPH after a resident suffered a broken neck in a fall involving the facility’s transport van.

The resident was a long-term resident who was known as being impulsive and having poor safety awareness. A staff member was taking him to the local hospital for a CT scan after a previous fall. After arriving at the hospital, the staff member released the securing restraints for the wheelchair and told the resident to wait while he adjusted the lift gate. While the staff member was doing that, the resident released the wheelchair brakes and the wheelchair rolled backward and tipped over backwards resulting in the resident suffering a fracture of the C5 vertebra.

While at first blush, this nursing home fall may seem to be the “fault” of the nursing home resident. After all, he was the one who released the brake to the wheelchair. However, one recurrent theme in our nursing home fall cases is that residents who demonstrate impulsive behaviors or poor judgment for their own safety should not be counted on to do the things that are necessary to assure their own safety. That is the reason why things like bed alarms should be part of the arsenal of fall prevention tools.

In this case, there was a resident who was known to be impulsive and have poor judgment for his own safety. Under these circumstances, relying upon him to leave the brake in place was a mistake by the staff. The securing restraints should not have been released until the staff member was ready to take the resident off the transport. This simple mistake in judgment cost the resident a broken neck.

Other blog posts of interest:

Heartland of Galesburg resident dies due to untreated urinary tract infection

Unsafe transfer at Heartland of Galesburg results in dislocated hip

Brain bleed from fall at Good Samaritan Home in Quincy

Medication error at Bloomington Rehab

Wheelchair accident at Avanti Wellness

Improper use of restraints at Paris Healthcare Center

Urinary catheter injury at Marigold Rehab in Galesburg

Click here to file a complaint against a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health

Two Serious Falls at Holy Family Villa

March 28, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

Holy Family Villa in Palos Park has been cited again by IDPH, this time for two serious nursing home falls. One caused a brain bleed with resulted in the wrongful death of the nursing home resident. The other caused a fractured hip.

In the first fall, the resident was assessed as a fall risk and had a care plan which called for the use of a helmet, a low bed, and floor mats. She was also on a toileting schedule which called for her to be checked on every 2 hours during sleep hours. Staff was also to do hourly checks to make sure that she was wearing her helmet, even while in bed.

On the night of her fall, she was toileted at 12:30 a.m., checked on and found sleeping at 1:30 a.m., and then there was no further documentation of her being checked on until she was found crawling on the floor at 4:30 a.m. She was brought to the hospital where she was discovered to have a brain bleed. The family elected to not have surgery performed, and she died two weeks later.

This is a situation which illustrates the use of a toileting schedule as a fall prevention measure. The resident in this case was due at least two additional rounding checks, at 2:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. which were not done. As a result the resident attempted to get out of bed on her own to go to the bathroom, resulting in a a fall with fatal injuries.

In the second fall, the resident was also assessed as a fall risk, and had a care plan which included the use of a low bed, floor mats, and a concave mattress. The resident’s roommate was dying, so he was temporarily moved to a different room to allow the roommate’s family some privacy. When he was moved to the different room, the staff was not made aware that the care plan included the use of a concave mattress. As a result, he was given an ordinary, flat mattress. He rolled out of bed and suffered a fractured hip.

This resident’s care plan had an effective means for preventing exactly the kind of nursing home fall that resulted in this man’s fractured hip. However, the contents of that care plan were not communicated to the nurse charged with caring for him in the room he was given on a temporary basis. As a result, the measures were not taken.

These nursing home falls demonstrate the importance of implementing the care planning process in nursing homes on a day-to-day, shift-to-shift basis. Each of these resident had plans in place which if carried out likely would have prevented the serious injuries and death of these nursing home residents. This is part of why when we prosecute nursing home abuse and neglect cases, we look closely at the care planning process as a framework for our investigation.

Other blog posts of interest:

Head Injury in Fall at Holy Family Villa

Fall From Bed at Symphony of Joliet

Unsanitary conditions found at Holy Family Villa

Brain bleed after resident rolled from bed at Bria of Palos Hills

Resident rolled from bed at South Holland Manor

Click here to file a complaint against a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health

Wheelchair accident at Avanti Wellness

March 27, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

Avanti Wellness & Rehab was cited and fined by IDPH after a resident suffered a brain bleed due to a fall from a wheelchair.

The resident was wheelchair-bound but self-propelled at times. “Self-propelling” for residents in wheelchairs means that they use their feet to pull their chair forward. It is a good thing for them in that it promotes activity and social interaction. In order for them to self-propel effectively, the foot rests need to be removed from the wheelchair so the foot rests do not interfere with their ability to use their feet.

However, residents who self-propel rarely do so 100% of the time, and when that happens, they need to be treated like every other resident who uses a wheelchair. That means that the wheelchair must be properly equipped with foot rests. Without foot rests, they are at risk for nursing home falls due to their feet becoming entangled with the wheelchair, with the floor, or with the environment around them. When that happens they risk sustaining lower leg fractures or being thrown from the wheelchair.

That was what happened to this nursing home resident. An aide began pushing the resident without first putting the foot rests on the wheelchair. Her foot got caught and she was thrown from the wheelchair. She suffered a laceration to the forehead and was sent to the emergency room where a scan showed the brain bleed.

The nursing home had long-standing policies which required the use of foot rests when moving a resident in a wheelchair. The reason for that policy was grounded in assuring resident safety. Obviously, that policy was not followed, and this fall and injury occurred.

Other blog posts of interest:

Wheelchair accident at LaSalle County Nursing Home

Fatal fall at Forest Villa

Bed sore requires surgery at Regency Rehab

Fall from shower chair at Charleston Rehab

Failure to use footrests on wheelchair leads to broken leg at Lexington of Orland Park

Medication error at Grosse Pointe Manor

Click here to file a complaint against a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health

Improper use of lift at Danville Care Center

March 27, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

Danville Care Center has been cited by IDPH for improper use of a mechanical lift which resulted in a resident suffering a broken leg. Sadly, this is not the first time Danville Care Center has been cited by IDPH for issues involving unsafe transfers of residents.

The resident at issue had a care plan which called for use of a mechanical lift with the assist of two due to her immobility. Further the sling was to be crossed behind her knees rather than placed in between her legs. On the morning in question, the sling to the lift was not crossed between the resident’s knees. When the resident was lifted from the bed, she fell to the floor. X-rays later established that she suffered a broken tibia.

Following the simple steps in a resident’s care plan is a crucial step toward avoiding unnecessary injuries for nursing home residents from things like falls and bed sores. In this case, there was a good plan which had proved successful day after day. However, on the day of the injury, the care plan was not followed and the fall and injury resulted.

Mechanical lifts like a Hoyer lift are certainly beneficial in a nursing home setting. Used properly, they can provide for safe transfers for residents who are not able to safely participate in their own transfers. Further, they can save on wear and tear on the staff who do such physically demanding work. However, they pose real risks of devastating injuries such as hip fractures when a mechanical lift is used improperly.

If you have had a parent or other loved one suffer injury as a result of a mechanical lift accident, unsafe transfer, or nursing home fall, contact our experienced Chicago nursing home lawyers to learn more about what your rights are. The initial consultation is free, and there is no obligation to hire our firm if you do contact us.

Other blog posts of interest:

Gardenview Manor resident fractures hip during unsafe transfer

Improper transfer at Avenue Care

Broken Equipment at Danville Care Center

Failure to use lift at Frankfort Healthcare

Resident falls from lift at Oregon Living & Rehab

Click here to file a complaint against a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health

Failure to follow care plan at Tower Hill Healthcare

March 27, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

IDPH issued a citation and fined Tower Hill Healthcare Center in South Elgin after a resident suffered a fractured femur during an improper transfer.

The resident in question had lower extremity contractures and as a result, her care plan called for to be transferred from bed to her wheelchair using a mechanical lift with an assist of two. On the morning in question, rather than use the mechanical lift, the aide attempted a pivot transfer to move the resident from her bed to her wheelchair. In the process of doing so, the aide lost control of the resident dropping her to the floor. Rather than call for a nurse and report the fall, the aide got her back into her wheelchair and went about her day. As a result, the resident experienced pain all day before being sent to the emergency room at 8:40 pm, where a femur fracture was diagnosed.

There are a number of issues that are apparent from this situation:

Clearly, the aide violated the resident’s care plan and this resulted in the femur fracture. This is a clear basis for a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit. It very clearly should not have happened. The more interesting question is why? Did the aide not know what the care plan called for? Was the facility so understaffed that the aide chose to rush through the process of getting the resident out of bed because of the press of work to be done? A “yes” answer to either question speaks to systemic problems at this nursing home.
The aide failed to notify the nurse of the fall when it occurred, and as a result, there was a delay of several hours in getting the resident to the emergency room. CNA’s are not trained to evaluate whether a resident suffered an injury in a fall, and with falls, there are situations where there is a delay in the onset of symptoms which is why there is a 72-hour fall watch in well-run nursing homes.
This resident was on a blood thinner. Fractures bleed, and when a resident is taking a blood thinner, the bleeding will be more significant than it might otherwise be. This is all the more reason that falls involving nursing home residents who are on blood thinners must be reported and addressed immediately.

Nursing home falls involving unsafe transfers such as this one are the very definition of an unnecessary injury. This one in particular appears to have roots in the very way that the nursing home was operated.

Other blog posts of interest:

Failure to follow recommendations leads to fall and facial fractures at Tower Hill

Care plan violation at Central Nursing Home

Brain bleed from fall at Landmark of Des Plaines

Resident dropped twice in 24 hours breaks leg

Unattended resident falls at Lexington in Bloomingdale

Failure to use mechanical lift leads to hip fracture

Click here to file a complaint against a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health

Resident Rolled Out of Bed at Warren Barr – Lincolnshire

March 27, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

The root cause of the nursing home fall that resulted in this citation by IDPH to Warren Barr in Lincolnshire was the failure of a CNA to follow the resident’s care plan.

The resident who was injured as a result of this incident was care planned for assist of two with bed mobility. This means that two staff members (usually aides) would be required to be on hand when the resident was being moved, turned, or rolled to one side in her bed. This was intended as a safety measure to make sure that she was not injured in being handled by an aide working on their own and to keep her from falling from bed.

On the day in question, the resident had an episode where she was incontinent of bowel. The aide came in and began to provide her care even though there was only one aide in the room. He did not wait because other staff members were too busy to help. He placed her on her side and began to clean her and as he did so, her leg shifted and went over the side of the bed. The rest of her body followed, and she fell to the floor suffering a laceration to the knee which required six staples to close.

The simple way of looking at this case is a simple violation of the care plan. The staff is required to follow the care plan – simple as that. On the days the care plan was followed, this resident was not injured. The day it was not, injury to the resident was the result.

The other level to this story is a question of understaffing. Federal regulations require the nursing home to have staff on hand on a 24-7 basis to meet the care needs of the residents. The reason that the aide violated the care plan is that everyone else was too busy. The understaffing very clearly related to the violation of the care plan which is why we believe that nursing homes are built to fail.

Other blog posts of interest:

Generations Oakton Pavilion resident falls and fractures hip

PA Peterson resident breaks both legs in fall

Resident rolled from bed at Victory Lakes

Short-staffing leads to fall at Warren Barr North Shore

Fall from bed at Harmony Rehab

Care plan violated at Villa at South Holland

Click here to file a complaint against a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health

Multiple fractures at Rolling Hills Manor

March 25, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

Rolling Hills Manor nursing home in Zion was cited by the IDPH after a resident suffered a fractured arm and hip while getting a shower.

The resident suffered from advanced dementia. On the day that she was to be showered, she was transferred from bed to a wheelchair to be brought to the shower by two CNA’s. During the transfer, her foot got caught in the sheets, her leg twisted and she said “ouch”. After she was brought to the shower, she became combative, leading one of the CNA’s to pin her arms against her side to give her a shower.

When she was returned to bed, one of the aides noticed that her arm looked different. This apparently provoked an eventual transfer to the hospital where it was discovered that she had a broken arm and broken hip. The orthopaedic surgeon was told that this happened in a fall and he believed that the injuries were consistent with that.

These are the issues I see with the care that this resident was provided:

The transfer was done improperly as it resulted in her foot being caught in the sheet, her leg twisting, and her breaking a hip. The resident was known to suffer from osteoporosis, so this is not a surprising outcome. Simply checking to make sure that her feet were clear before beginning the transfer would have avoided the hip fracture.
Once she arrived in the shower room, she became combative. The likely reason – pain from a freshly fractured hip.
This was not her first time being combative. In fact, this kind of behavior was addressed in her care plan, which called for the staff to take a break before continuing with care. The staff pressed forward rather than take the break the care plan called for.
The solution to the combative behavior – pinning her arms to her sides – should never be seen as acceptable and was truly a form of nursing home abuse and likely resulted in the broken arm. Why didn’t the staff follow the care plan and simply take a break from care? The likely reason is that they had more work to get done than they had time to do it – the signature of an understaffed nursing home. This probably also contributed to the underlying problem where her foot became entangled in the sheets.

This is a simple set of facts where the likely root cause of the accident was the failure of the nursing home to have enough staff on hand to meet the care needs of the residents. A very preventable and regrettable set of injuries.

If you have a loved one who suffered unnecessary injuries due to understaffing in a nursing home, we are here to help. Contact our experienced Chicago nursing home lawyers to find out what your rights and options are. There is no charge for the call and there are no fees if we do not get a settlement or verdict in your favor.

Other blog posts of interest:

PA Peterson resident breaks both legs in fall

Nursing home fall results in broken shoulder at Rolling Hills Manor

Unsafe transfer fatal at Smith Crossing

Understaffing results in fall at Manorcare of Libertyville

Resident bleeds to death at Warren Barr North Shore

Click here to file a complaint against a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health

Surgical wound infection at Presence Villa Franciscan

March 25, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

The Presence Villa Franciscan nursing home in Joliet was cited and fined by the Illinois Department of Public Health after a resident admitted for rehab following a revascularization surgery developed a significant infection at the surgical site.

The resident at issue had been admitted to the nursing home after undergoing a femoral-popliteal bypass surgery. There was a 7 cm incision at the surgical site which had been closed with 27 staples. The discharge orders included instructions to notify the surgeon if there was redness, swelling, drainage, or foul smell from the incision site and to paint the incision twice per day with Betadine and to cover with a dressing. Betadine is used to treat minor skin infections.

One of the basic jobs of a nurse is to notify the resident’s doctor when signs or symptoms of a cellulitis infection are present, and the things listed: redness, swelling, drainage, and foul odor are classic signs of an infection.

The resident returned to see the doctor 10 days after being admitted to the nursing home. During that time in between, there was only one nurse’s note which indicated that the nurses inspected the surgical incision and that one reflected that the Betadine had not been used because its telltale staining was not present. When the doctor saw the wound he quickly determined that there was an extensive infection that had been present for some time because the staples from the wound were coming out. He brought the resident back in for an extensive surgery to remove the infection. A wound vac was required to help close the wound.

One of the basic functions of the nursing staff is to monitor for signs and symptoms of infection. It is not up to them to diagnose and actual infection, determine what kind of infection is present, or how to treat the infection. That is the role of the doctor, but the doctor cannot do that when the nursing staff fails to notify him that there may be an infection present.

When I take depositions of nurses I ask if they agree that the doctors are not there on a 24/7 basis and it is the job of the nursing staff to act as eyes and ears for the doctor. I get universal agreement on that concept. The nurses here failed that role and subjected this lady to a more extensive surgery and a worse surgical wound.

Other blog posts of interest:

Untreated infection leads to resident death at Elevate Care South Holland

Resident Chokes to Death at Presence Villa Franciscan

Fatal infection at Alden Northmoor

Infection from skin tear at Eldorado Rehab

Unsafe transfer at Alden Courts of Shorewood

Click here to file a complaint against a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health

Head injury in fall at Holy Family Villa

March 25, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

A nursing home fall resulting in a head injury with staples resulted in a citation by IDPH to Holy Family Villa nursing home in Palos Park.

The incident at issue is an interesting one because it relates to the use of a toileting schedule as a fall prevention tool and the communication aspect of care planning for nursing home residents.

Incontinence is a contributing factor to two specific types of cases we see in our practice on a regular basis: bed sores and falls.

In terms of bed sores, when a resident is incontinent of bowel or bladder, exposure to urine and feces help keep the skin moist. Further, the chemicals in urine and feces helps break down the skin which leads to the development of bed sores and increases the risk of the development of infections such as cellulitis or osteomyelitis. It is one of the really well-recognized risk factors for the development of bed sores and is incorporated into the Braden scale.

Incontinence also is a well-recognized risk factor for nursing home falls. This comes principally from residents attempting to reach the bathroom without assistance simply in an effort to avoid soiling themselves. Whether a resident suffers from incontinence is a factor in every well-recognized form of fall risk assessment used in the long-term care industry.

One way that incontinence is addressed in the long-term care industry is by getting residents on a toileting schedule. How this is done is that over several days, the staff records when it is that the resident had to go to the bathroom and what is was. This is called a bowel and bladder assessment. Using that data, the staff can plan to get the resident to the bathroom at certain times of the day.

When this is done right, it serve to greatly reduce the risk of developing bed sores and falls. When a resident does not soil themselves, urine and feces do not make the skin moist and break down the skin causing bed sores. When a resident is being brought to the bathroom when they need to go, they are not trying to do it themselves and falling and breaking a hip.

In this case, the staff did the bowel and bladder assessment and found that there was a regular pattern to the resident’s incontinence. The facility policy called for bringing the resident to the toilet 10-15 minutes in advance of the anticipated times.

On the night that this resident fell, there was an aide on duty who was not familiar with the resident and was not aware of the any special plans for toileting the resident. It was not part of the usual practice there for CNA’s to do shift-to-shift reports. The resident’s pattern was to go to the bathroom at midnight. The aide on duty that night checked on the resident at 11 pm and saw her asleep and planned to return at 1 am.

At 12:40 a.m., the resident was heard calling for help. Responding staff members entered the room and saw the resident on the floor with blood coming from her head. She was brought to the emergency room where she received 10 staples and two units of blood. After she received the two units of blood she became unresponsive and died within 48 hours of the fall. This may well be a basis for a wrongful death suit.

There was a reasonable plan of attack in place at this nursing home: they did a bowel and bladder assessment and came up with a data-based toileting schedule. The problem is that no one ever bothered to tell the person charged with carrying it out what had to be done and as a result, there was a fall which may have well cost this woman her life.

Past that, this event is an indicator of a systems failure at this nursing home in that there was clearly no mechanism to inform that direct care staff what they should be doing.

These kinds of unnecessary injuries and deaths of nursing home residents are the basis of our practice. If you have a loved one who suffered injuries due to a very preventable accident such as this, please contact our experienced Chicago nursing home lawyers to determine what your rights are and what steps you can take to prevent this kind of accident from happening to another family.

Other blog posts of interest:

Hygiene and bed sore issues at Holy Family Villa

No fall prevention care planning at South Suburban Rehab

Failure to use mechanical lift results in ankle fracture

Resident rolled from bed at Harmony Rehab

Two serious falls at Holy Family Villa

Multiple injuries in fall at Symphony of Midway

Click here to file a complaint against a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health

What Does a Grievance Officer Do?

March 24, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

Federal regulations regarding nursing homes were revised in 2016 to include a grievance process. The new regulations created a new set of rights which had not existed previously. How these are being implemented in practice is something that experience will teach.

The new regulations provided that:

Residents have a right to file grievances regarding resident’s rights;
The nursing home has an obligation to provide information to the resident about how to make a complaint or grievance
The resident has a right to and the facility must make efforts to promptly resolve grievances.

These are welcome changes to federal regulations regarding nursing homes. In theory, this should help resolve problems before they get too advanced. One basic right is that residents have a right to be free of abuse and neglect, with specific rights regarding care planning in a nursing home, bed sores, and falls in nursing homes.

Beyond simply creating a set of right for residents and obligations for the nursing home regarding grievances, the regulations also set up a framework for how these rights and obligations should be carried out. These steps include:

Having a written policy which spells out the grievance process, the people involved and the right of the resident to be provided with a copy of the grievance policy on request;
Identifying a Grievance Official who is responsible for investigating the grievance, attempting to resolve the grievance, and providing a written response to the grievance;
Taking measures to prevent further violations of residents’ rights while the grievance is being investigated;
Required reporting to the State of any violations involving neglect, abuse, unknown injuries, or misappropriation of property;
Providing written decisions pertaining to the grievance, including a summary of steps taken to investigate the grievance, a summary of findings, and any corrective actions taken
Maintaining records pertaining to grievances for a 3 year period

If these steps are in fact taken, this has the potential to elevate the quality of care provided in a nursing home setting as well creating a record which can be obtained during our pretrial investigation process which could show that problems that caused injury or wrongful death to our client was in fact a long-standing, recurring problem.

Failure to use mechanical lift results in ankle fracture

March 6, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

The Center Home for Hispanic Elderly was cited and fined by the Illinois Department of Public Health after a resident there was discovered to have a fractured ankle.

The resident at issue had numerous long-term medical issues including muscular weakness and cognitive impairments. Due to these conditions, use of a mechanical lift with an assist of two was required. The usual process that would be followed would be for the resident to be moved from bed using a mechanical lift with a shower sling, transported to the shower room in his wheelchair, and placed in a shower chair using the lift for showering. After the shower was over, the process was to be reversed.

The day that the resident was injured, the resident was transferred to his wheelchair with a single aide, taken in for showering, and in the process of transferring the resident to the wheelchair from the shower chair, the resident’s ankle was twisted. He subsequently developed swelling and pain in the ankle. His doctor ordered x-rays which showed the ankle fracture.

This is a case where there was a reasonable assessment of the resident’s needs and a reasonable care plan in place to assure his safety. However, there are two additional steps which must be followed for a care plan to be of any real value: 1) communication – did the aide know what she was supposed to be doing? and 2) implementation – was the plan carried out?

Obviously, we know that the plan was not followed. The reason that it wasn’t should be an important point of focus in any nursing home abuse and neglect suit arising from this accident. If it was due to a breakdown in the process of communicating the care plan to the aide, then there is a facility-wide systems issue that deserves much more focused attention. If it was the case that she knew what she was supposed to do but chose not to, one issue that would deserve careful attention is the issue of understaffing – did the aide feel like she simply had too much to get done and not enough help to do so, leading her to skip the necessary safety steps.

This kind of unsafe transfer is really a form of nursing home fall – and is one which we see repeatedly in the cases where IDPH has issued citations and fines, such as here, here, and here.

Our Chicago nursing home lawyers have great experience in analyzing the root causes of injuries from falls and unsafe transfers. Please contact us today for an analysis of your rights and options after an accident in a nursing home. There is no charge for contacting us and you are not obligated to hire us if you do call.

Click here to file a complaint against a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health

Resident Rolled Out of Bed at Village at Victory Lakes

March 4, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

The Illinois Department of Public Health issued a citation to Village at Victory Lakes nursing home in Lindenhurst after a resident suffered a broken leg in a nursing home fall when she was rolled out of bed by an aide.

The resident in question was bed bound and had next to no movement on her left side due to the effects of a stroke. Her care plan called for assist of two with bed mobility, which includes rolling and turning in bed. The resident needed this level of assistance because of the deficits she had from the stroke.

On the day of the accident, a new aide was providing incontinence care to the resident by herself. Providing incontinence care is a desirable things, as it help prevent the development of bed sores and provides residents with some degree of comfort and dignity. The resident was rolled on to her right side in the process of receiving the care, but due to her left sided weakness from the stroke, once she began to be rolled, she just continued to roll until she fell from the bed. The aide tried mightily to stop her form falling further, but a femur fracture was still the result.

There are at least three issues with the care that was provided here:

First, the aide violated the care plan. The care plan called for assist of two with bed mobility for a reason: to help make sure that the resident was not injured while being turned, rolled, or handled by a single aide working on their own. The failure to carry out the care plan as developed is a legitimate basis for holding the nursing home liable for the resident’s injuries.

Secondly, there was a failure to properly communicate the care plan to the aide. Having a great care plan is useless if no one knows what they are supposed to do, and this aide was a new aide who simply did not know what was supposed to be done. This is evidence of a huge systems failure at this nursing home.

Third, nursing homes are required to provide necessary equipment to prevent accident injuries to residents such as this one. There is a type of mattress called a scoop mattress which has raised edges which are intended to reduce the chances of residents falling from bed. Given her weakness on the one side, it was a reasonable safety measure which should have been part of the care plan.

The bottom line is that this was a very preventable injury from the way that the care plan was developed, to the process by which it was communicated to the staff charged with carrying it out, to what was actually done at the time of the accident.

Please contact our experienced Chicago nursing home lawyers for feedback and evaluation of your rights after unnecessary accidents and injuries in a nursing home.

Resident Rolled Out of Bed by Staff at Generations of Applewood

March 3, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

The Illinois Department of Public Health issued a citation against the Generations at Applewood nursing home in Matteson. The resident suffered a fractured hip as a result which required surgery.

The resident at issue had diagnoses which included muscle weakness and dementia. Her care plan called for assist of two with bed mobility. This means two staff members were required to move the resident while she was in bed.

The accident occurred when a single aide was providing incontinence care to the resident. By itself, this is desirable as it helps prevent the development of bed sores. However, there was only a single aide helping with the resident, and while the aide had the resident up on her side to provide the incontinence care, the resident reached for something on the bedside table and rolled out of bed. When she did this, she suffered the fractured hip.

Carrying out a care plan is one of the most basic things that must be on a day-to-day, shift-to-shift basis in a nursing home to help assure the safety of the residents there. Failing to carry out the steps which have been identified as necessary to help assure the safety of the resident leaves the resident vulnerable to unnecessary injuries such as from this nursing home fall.

Hip fractures are a serious injury for anyone but especially geriatric patients in a nursing home. Assuming that the resident survives the surgery without any serious intraoperative complications, many residents succumb to complications during the immediate post-operative period, commonly from heart attacks or strokes. Past that there are very residents who make a good recovery where they regain the ability to walk fully, which sets the stage for developing pneumonia, bed sores, and other issues which can result in wrongful death.

This injury was highly preventable – all that had to be done was to follow the steps outlined in the resident’s care plan. However, the staff failed to do so, and the hip fracture was the result. If you have a loved one who has been injured unnecessarily due to a failure to follow a care plan, please contact our experienced Chicago nursing home lawyers to learn more about your rights and what can be done to hold the nursing home accountable.

Fall and Brain Bleed at Alpine Fireside

March 1, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

The Illinois Department of Public Health issued a citation and fined Alpine Fireside Health Center in Rockford after a resident had a fall from a wheelchair and experienced a brain bleed.

This case is a classic example of a situation where things had been going wrong for weeks and everyone missed it.

The resident had a medical history which included atrial fibrilation. This is a condition where the heart at time beats in an irregular fashion and can produce blood clots. Blood clots can in turn cause a host of problems, most notably strokes. The usual treatment for this issue is drug therapy, most commonly a blood thinner like coumadin, and this is what the doctor ordered.

The use of coumadin is not risk free. When the blood is too “thin” this can lead to bleeding and when it is too “thick” this can cause clots. Find the “sweet spot” or the therapeutic range is done through a blood test called a PT/INR level test. Regular PT/INR testing is required to make sure that the resident stays in the therapeutic range. If the level goes too high (is supratherapeutic) or too low (subtherapeutic), then the dosage can be adjusted to bring it back into the therapeutic range.

Here the nursing home failed to get the required lab work done to measure whether PT/INR levels were in the therapeutic range. This apparently happened because the nursing staff failed to complete the lab requisition form. Without that lab work being done, the doctor did not know whether to adjust the coumadin and she continued to get the same dosage on a daily basis.

Things went on without incident until the resident had a fall while transferring herself from her wheelchair to her bed. There is no immediate indication that she struck her head and when she was assessed by the nursing staff she had elevated blood pressure and pain in her knees.

The ordinary course of action in most nursing home would be to do a 72-hour fall watch after an incident like this to make sure that there were no additional injuries which were not immediately apparent. This would include neurological checks to make sure that there was no head injury.

When the resident’s daughter arrived at the nursing home later that day, she recognized immediately that her mother was not herself and took her to the hospital herself. When she got there, lab work indicated that her PT/INR level was 7.4 (normal range 2.0-3.0) which was a critically high level. A CT scan of the head showed that there was a subdural hematoma, a form of brain bleed. The hospital discharge summary attributed this to the high coumadin levels.

This is a case where there were a number of issues:

The required lab work was not done as ordered which hid the fact that the PT/INR levels were climbing out of the normal range. This denied the doctor the ability to make adjustments to the coumadin dosage to bring it back into the normal range.
The circumstances surrounding the nursing home fall are not entirely clear, but a wheelchair-bound resident likely required assistance with transfer and this probably should have been included in her care plan. This is especially true because falls can have serious consequences for patients who use anticoagulant or blood thinning medications such as coumadin.
Once the fall happened, the follow-up was not done correctly. In most well-run nursing homes, there is a process for a 72-hour fall watch which would have detected the onset of neurolgic problems. Instead it was left to the resident’s daughter to discover them and act on them. That is not how things should be done.

We believe that many falls at nursing homes have their roots farther back in time than the day the resident hit the floor, and had the staff acted in the right way any time before that, the fall could have been avoided. Contact our law firm to have our experienced nursing home lawyers to review your situation. There is no charge for the call and your are not obligated to hire our firm if you do call.

Unsupervised resident falls from wheelchair, breaks hip at Meadowbrook Manor in Naperville

February 23, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

Meadowbrook Manor in Naperville was cited by IDPH and fined $25,000 after a resident suffered a nursing home fall while unsupervised in the dining room.

The resident at issue suffered from dementia and was wheelchair-bound. She had a history of falls and had demonstrated frequent confusion. She also had a history of demonstrating impulsive behavior including attempting to get up out of her wheelchair unassisted.

The nursing home was short-staffed the morning that the resident fell, so a CNA assisted her in going to the bathroom, getting dressed, and then brought her down to the dining room before leaving to get another resident. The resident was left unattended and unsupervised at that point. A few minutes later, the resident’s chair alarm sounded. Staff responding to the alarm came into the dining room and found the resident on the floor having suffered an obvious hip fracture. The wheel locks to the resident’s wheelchair had not been applied.

IDPH issued a citation to the nursing home based on its failure to follow the regulations which require the nursing home to provide supervision and assistance as needed to prevent accidents.

Residents such as this one who have musculoskeletal issues, have a history of falls, have a history of impulsive behavior, and who either suffer from dementia and/or constant or intermittent confusion are residents who are by definition at high risk for falls. This is because the resident’s mental state is such that they cannot be counted on to follow steps to assure their own safety. This is especially true of residents like this one who have a history of demonstrating impulsive behaviors.

Short-staffing played a role in producing this fall as well. The nursing home was short-staffed that morning because one aide had called in and was not at work that day and the remainder of the staff was busy attending to other residents’ morning needs. This is an indicator that the margins for the staff being able to complete its daily tasks was so thin that missing a single person caused there to be no one available to supervise residents in the dining room.

Our firm regularly represents families of residents who have been injured as a result of falls in nursing homes. Contact our experienced Chicago nursing home lawyers to get information and advice about your legal rights after a nursing home fall.

Other blog posts involving nursing home falls:

Resident breaks both legs in fall from bed at The Grove of Fox Valley

DuPage Care Center resident burned by hot packs during therapy

Wheelchair accident at Avanti Wellness

Resident left on edge of bed at Manorcare – Libertyville falls

Fatal injuries in fall from wheelchair at Rosewood of Elgin

Fall results in fractured hip at Villa of South Holland

Click here to file a complaint against a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health

Danville Care Center Cited for Unsafe Transfer

February 17, 2019 By Barry G. Doyle

Danville Care Center was cited by the Illinois Department of Public Health for an unsafe transfer that left a resident with a fractured tibia.

The resident’s care plan called for her to be transferred from bed with a mechanical lift using two aides. In this case, a lift was used and two aides were in fact present when the lift was put into use (something that is not always the case). However, the supporting sling that the resident was placed in during the lifting portion of the transfer was set up properly, resulting in her sliding out of the sling and landing on the ground.

Making matters worse, the aides present in the room transferred her back to bed before alerting a nurse to the fact that a fall had happened during the transfer. When an aide becomes aware that a resident has fallen, a nurse must do an assessment before moving the resident who has fallen to determine whether there might be injuries which would make moving the resident unsafe. The aides moving the resident had the potential to make a bad situation much worse.

She was taken to the emergency room where a fractured tibia was discovered. Due to some of her other medical conditions and her lack of mobility, surgery was not an option. Instead, she will be placed in a boot to allow the fractures to heal. Had there been a fractured hip, deciding to not proceed to surgery would in essence sentence the fall victim to a lifetime of pain with any movement in bed because hip fractures generally do not heal without surgery.

This is not the first time Danville Care Center has been cited by IDPH for unsafe transfers. Hopefully, this latest citation will spur improved performance by its staff.

If you have a family member who has been injured as a result of an unsafe transfer in a nursing home, contact our experienced nursing home lawyers for a free, no-obligation assessment of your rights.

You Can’t Drive a Truck Anymore ….

June 4, 2017 By Barry G. Doyle

Sometimes after a work-related accident, a driver gets the sad news, “It’s time for you to look for another line of work. You just can’t drive a truck anymore ….”

It’s the kind of news that no one ever wants to hear, especially if they have found a line of work that they truly enjoy.

So, what do you do if you still have some work left in you, but you can’t drive a truck anymore?

The answer to that is in vocational rehabilitation or jib retraining which is one of the benefits your employer must provide for you if you are capable of working but are no longer capable of driving a truck. Your employer must provide you with the assistance you need to gain new skills to re-enter the workforce.

While you are undergoing job retraining, you are entitled to get disability checks of two-third of your average weekly wage while you are off work. If the new job you find does not pay you as much as your old position as a truck driver, you are entitled to a wage differential beneft of 60% of the difference between your old job and your new one .

Being told that you cannot go back to work as a truck drive is obviously disheartening news, but it is also a warning to you that you should be getting a lawyer to help you. Once you are eligible for job retraining, the company will certainly find every reason it can to cut you off of benefits, even if you have not found a new line of work. Getting qualified legal help can protect you against being treated unfairly by the insurance company.

If you have a current worker’s compensation issue which you need help on, please feel free to reach out to our office by calling our office at 312-263-1080 to discuss your issues and what options you have. There is no obligation to hire our law firm, and there is no charge for the call.

I hope this has been helpful, and if you know anyone who can benefit from this kind of information, please feel free to share this information.

We are here to help truck drivers after an on-the-job accident. Knowledge is power, and the first step in protecting your rights is to know what they are.

Stay safe!

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Other Types of Repetitive Trauma

June 4, 2017 By Barry G. Doyle

There are some kinds of injuries which are very easy to show were work related. For example, you are stepping down from a rig and you twist your ankle and break it. Very clearly work related.

Other kinds of injuries just sneak up you. You begin having problems that aren’t too bad at first, but get worse and worse over time. These are often referred to as repetitive trauma injuries. They are the net effect of having just gotten beaten up physically at work for days and weeks and months and years. Carpal tunnel syndrome is a common example of a repetitive trauma injury.

Repetitive trauma injuries can be covered by worker’s compensation IF it can be shown to be caused by your job. That is often the key issue in the case because with many conditions that are caused by repetitive trauma, there is a long list of other, non-work related things that could cause those to. You can be that the insurance company knows all of those potential other causes and will have skilled lawyers and shady medical experts trying to sell that as being the cause of your problems.

This is not to say that a repetitive trauma worker’s compensation case cannot be won, but they are much harder to win without the help of a skilled worker’s compensation lawyer who can help bring out exactly what you do for a living and how your occupation exposed you in a very particular way, day in and day out, to repetitive traumas that caused your problems.

If you have a current worker’s compensation issue which you need help on, please feel free to call our office to discuss your issues and what options you have. There is no obligation to hire our law firm, and there is no charge for the call.

I hope this has been helpful, and if you know anyone who can benefit from this kind of information, please feel free to share this information.

We are here to help truck drivers after an on-the-job accident. Knowledge is power, and the first step in protecting your rights is to know what they are.

Stay safe!

When Someone Else Is to Blame For Your Accident ….

June 4, 2017 By Barry G. Doyle

Sometimes, drivers get hurt and there is someone else to blame for the accident. What happens then?

When you get hurt on the job, you are entitled to get worker’s comp benefits. These are paid by your employer or their insurance company regardless of who is at fault. The nice part about worker’s comp benefits is that they are (at least in theory) paid automatically, and allow you to keep food on the table and get access to quality medical care while you are off work.

The basic trade off for getting worker’s comp benefits is that you are not allowed to sue your employer or a co-worker if they are at fault for the accident where you were hurt.

However, that is not true when someone who is not yourself, your employer, or a co-worker is to blame for the accident. In that case you can pursue both a civil lawsuit AND a worker’s comp claim. You don’t have to choose.

You can actually recover many of the same kinds of things in a civil lawsuit that you get get as worker’s comp benefits (such as medical expenses), but those do not have to be paid out by the defendant in a civil lawsuit until the end of the case. In the meantime, your employer must continue to pay those benefits when they are due. However, you do not get to collect those benefits twice. You must pay those back to your employer at the end of the case.

Any case where there is both a worker’s comp case and a liability case is a complex kind of case where you you greatly benefit from getting the help of a well-qualified lawyer.

If you have a current worker’s compensation issue which you need help on, please feel free to reach out to our office by calling us at 312-263-1080 to discuss your issues and what options you have. There is no obligation to hire our law firm, and there is no charge for the call.

I hope this has been helpful, and if you know anyone who can benefit from this kind of information, please feel free to share this information.

We are here to help truck drivers after an on-the-job accident. Knowledge is power, and the first step in protecting your rights is to know what they are.

Stay safe!

Not Able to Drive a Truck and Making Less Money …..

May 26, 2017 By Barry G. Doyle

So ….. you got hurt on the job, can’t go back to driving and now are making less … a lot less than you were as a driver. What now?

When this happens, you may be entitled to receive a wage differential benefit. The wage differential benefit is equal to two thirds of the difference between what you are earning now and what you would have been making at your old job.

One interesting part of this benefit is that it tracks the raises that would have received had you kept working in your old job where all of the other benefit levels are frozen in time as of the date of your accident.

You are entitled to get the wage differential benefit for the longer of 5 years or until you turn age 67. This means that for drivers who are hurt after age 62, you would only get the differential benefit for 5 years.

One thing that commonly happens in cases like this is that the case is settled for the cash value of that differential. There are a lot of reasons why insurance companies or drivers may want to do that. Weighing out your options is one good reason to get legal help if you potentially have a wage differential case.

You should also be aware that when you are making a claim for a wage differential, you do not get to make a claim for permanency. You have to choose one or the other. In cases where the differential is small or you are near the end of your work life, it may make more sense to pursue a claim for permanency simply because it will put more money in your pocket. These are decisions that should be made with the help of well-qualified worker’s compensation lawyers.

Not being able to go back to work as a truck driver has a huge economic impact on your life and the well-being of you and your family. Determining what is the best option for you and the best way to maximize the money you receive from your case is something that is best done with qualified legal help.

I hope this has been helpful, and if you know anyone who can benefit from this kind of information, please feel free to share this.

We are here to help truck drivers after an on-the-job accident. Knowledge is power, and the first step in protecting your rights is to know what they are.

Stay safe!

Overtime in Worker’s Compensation Cases

May 26, 2017 By Barry G. Doyle

Most, but not all truck drivers, are FLSA exempt which means that they do not get paid overtime for working more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week. Which has you thinking, “Tell me something I don’t know …”

Your Average Weekly Wage is the most important number in your worker’s compensation case. It serves as the basis for computing the amount of the disability check you get while you are off work. It also is one of the key factors in determining how much your case will be settled for.

Getting shorted on your Average Weekly Wage can cost you thousands of dollars over life of your case.

For the drivers who are not FLSA exempt (and for anyone else who isn’t a truck driver), the risk of getting shorted on your Average Weekly Wage is really acute if overtime is a significant art of what you normally take home.

The rule is that overtime hours are only included if it is regular and mandatory part of your job. If it isn’t then your Average Weekly Wage is based on what you received for 40 hours of work.

This provides a lot of room for mischief on the part of the insurance company, all of which can cost you A LOT of money over the life of your case.

If you have any doubt as to whether your Average Weekly Wage is being calculated properly, then it is time to get legal help with your case. Every week that you go without getting legal help is just money out of your pocket.

I hope this has been helpful, and if you know anyone who can benefit from this kind of information, please feel free to share this.

We are here to help truck drivers after an on-the-job accident. Knowledge is power, and the first step in protecting your rights is to know what they are.

Stay safe!

Aperion Care Capitol fails to obtain equipment to treat bed sore

Park Pointe resident suffocates as a result of fall

Unsafe Transfer at Alden Estates of Orland Park

Resident chokes at Grove at the Lake

Wheelchair transport accident at Heartland of Galesburg

Two Serious Falls at Holy Family Villa

Wheelchair accident at Avanti Wellness

Improper use of lift at Danville Care Center

Failure to follow care plan at Tower Hill Healthcare

Resident Rolled Out of Bed at Warren Barr – Lincolnshire

Multiple fractures at Rolling Hills Manor

Surgical wound infection at Presence Villa Franciscan

Head injury in fall at Holy Family Villa

What Does a Grievance Officer Do?

Failure to use mechanical lift results in ankle fracture

Resident Rolled Out of Bed at Village at Victory Lakes

Resident Rolled Out of Bed by Staff at Generations of Applewood

Fall and Brain Bleed at Alpine Fireside

Unsupervised resident falls from wheelchair, breaks hip at Meadowbrook Manor in Naperville

Danville Care Center Cited for Unsafe Transfer

You Can’t Drive a Truck Anymore ….

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Other Types of Repetitive Trauma

When Someone Else Is to Blame For Your Accident ….

Not Able to Drive a Truck and Making Less Money …..

Overtime in Worker’s Compensation Cases

“A” Cause Is All You Need to Show in a Worker’s Comp Case ….

“Tell them it happened some other way …..”

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