My mother was a resident in a nursing home for all of 5 months and had to be sent out to the hospital twice. Now my mother is bed ridden and catatonic (cant speak) and has a peg tube. The 1st time she was sent out was for aspiration pneumonia which usually happens when a person in my moms position does not have head elevated. The 2nd time she was sent was because staff said that her peg tube had come out which I thought was bull crap. My mother has had a peg tube for 8 years and it has never miraculously come out. I'm my mothers only daughter and has been very hard on me. She has been in hospital for a month and a half now. Shes been picked and prodded such much that I'm thinking of letting my mom go peacefully. The doctors are talking about inserting another peg tube in her because the peg tube area that she had got infected. All of this because the staff at the home she was in were not on their jobs. Its been so rough that I'm thinking of sueing the home.
There may have been statutory and/or case law changes, but you'd have to speak with a med mal attorney to determine that.
In order to find a attorney who would take such a case, you'd need to know the standards of care for someone with your mother's conditions in your particular geographic area, and in the kind of facility she was in.
I.e., what's the standard of care for someone with a long term PEG tube, in terms of care, accidental separation of the tube, cleanliness, infection prevention, etc.
Deviations from the standard of care what you're looking for. A medmal attorney would order the records, which would be expensive (several hundred dollars depending on how far back her medical history would go, perhaps since receiving the PEG tube.
Then a physician would be contacted to review the records and verify deviation(s) from standards of care.
The secondary issue is what are the damages? Are they permanent? Can they be corrected? Other than emotional and physical pain and suffering, what permanent damage has been incurred?
Unfortunately, these were the criteria then. If the case doesn't meet those standards, many if not most med mal attorneys wouldn't bother.
These cases are handled on a contingency basis. If the law firm can't recover its costs and obtain a good settlement or trial outcome, they don't get anything, and have spent time and money pursuing a case with no reward.
You have another option: have you requested a meeting with staff to address deficiencies and ask for a remedial plan so these issues don't happen again?
Its simply not all the nursing homes fault (not defending them but in reality she was sent there after an acute episode of some sort). What happened prior to this NH admission? Truth is your mother is elderly and ill. We don’t know what her comorbid conditions are. What was the cause of why the PEG needed to be inserted 8 yrs ago?
I wish you luck on this difficult journey. If her doctors think she is dying, please call Hospice to assist you.