We place our elderly loved ones in long-term care facilities to ensure that they have the care needed to live out their lives in comfort and contentment. In most cases, our elders need assistance with day-to-day activities that we cannot provide at home because most of us have jobs to attend. You may already be aware that long-term care facility neglect can harm our loved ones in many ways. Suffering severe burn injuries is an often-overlooked area of concern for these patients.
Burns can occur in several different ways inside a nursing facility. For example, if staff members serve food or beverages that are too hot, patients could suffer burns. Older patients are typically more susceptible to burns and often have a difficult time recovering from burn injuries. Long-term care facility neglect is a real problem in terms of protecting older family members from burns and ensuring they receive treatment for burns.
Other ways elder patients might experience burns in a California nursing facility include:
- Overheated baths and showers
- Overheated therapeutic devices such as heating pads
- Sunburns from being left outside for too long
Adding to this problem, many elders experience peripheral neuropathy. This means that if the nerves responsible for carrying messages to the brain are diseased or damaged, burn victims may not immediately know that they are injured. When elders reside in a home where long-term care facility neglect is a problem, they may not receive immediate treatment for any burns they have suffered. In some cases, the staff might not even know that an injury has occurred.
Some burns are purely accidental and will never happen again. However, if your elder suffers repeated burn injuries that seem to worsen before healing, it might indicate long-term care facility neglect is an issue in his or her residence.
We urge you to seek immediate medical care as well as legal guidance if your older family member frequently experiences unexplained injuries. You can learn more about these and other elder abuse issues by continuing to explore our website.
