Helping a loved one move into a nursing home is a step you take for their protection. You recognize that they can no longer live independently because of physical limitations or cognitive decline. You expect that living in a professional facility will protect them, but they ended up dying prematurely despite the move.
Your family may feel strongly that the neglect or abuse your loved one endured at the nursing home directly contributed to their death or that negligence on the part of the nursing home staff played a major role in their situation.
How nursing homes contribute to early deaths
Nursing home employees often don’t provide adequate care to their residents, ignoring warning signs of illness or even overly abusing certain residents. Maybe someone had bedsores that led to an infection that went untreated for weeks.
You may want to bring a wrongful death lawsuit against the facility, which requires proof of fault and of financial losses. The largest component in many wrongful death claims consists of someone’s lost earning potential and household contributions, neither of which will apply when someone already lives in a nursing home facility. Is it possible to claim losses when someone is already well past the age of retirement when they die?
Yes, there are expenses your claim can recover
The first and most obvious benefit of filing a wrongful death claim after your family’s tragedy is that you can seek the funeral costs to inter your loved one and also their care costs related to their injury or untreated medical condition.
Beyond that, surviving children and spouses can make claims for compensation based on the loss of companionship, love and guidance when a family member dies. In scenarios involving grossly negligent behavior or intentional abuse, the Florida courts could also award your family punitive damages. This is additional financial compensation not tied to a specific loss but rather to the misconduct of the other party.
Your family will have to absorb numerous losses when coping with the unexpected and tragic death of a loved one who could have potentially survived for many more years with proper medical support. A wrongful death claim can both reduce the financial consequences your family suffers and create unignorable consequences for the individuals or facility responsible for your loss.
Considering a wrongful death claim related to nursing home negligence can help grieving families move on after a tragedy.