Lawsuit over patient’s death filed against Chicago nursing home

For some Chicago families, choosing to put a loved one or aging parent in a nursing home can be a difficult decision to make. Children of aging parents don’t want their loved ones to think that they are abandoning them, but at the same time, many families understand that they don’t have the equipment, time or resources that may be necessary to provide 24-hour care for loved ones who are unable to care for themselves.

Instead, many families trust that nursing homes will give their loved ones the appropriate medical care and attention they need. But this trust can also be broken very quickly, and when it is, the outcome is often devastating. For example, two years ago doctors had negligently prescribed medications for a Chicago nursing home resident. The nursing home resident died as a result of the medication errors, and now the victim’s family is pursuing a lawsuit against the facility for its negligence.

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed earlier this month in Cook County Circuit Court. The lawsuit states that two doctors had prescribed medications for the nursing home resident, and both doctors made mistakes when doing so. As a result, the victim received inappropriate doses and a dangerous combination of drugs, which caused her to suffer fatal health complications from an overdose. The mistake could have been avoided.

Although many nursing homes do provide quality care, families still need to be aware of nursing home abuse and negligence. When families notice that something might be wrong or that a loved one is not receiving appropriate care, families need to speak up before their loved ones suffer serious harm.

Unfortunately, not all families are able to prevent their loved ones from becoming victims of nursing home neglect or abuse, and sometimes families don’t know that their loved ones have been mistreated or wrongly cared for until it is too late. In these tragic situations, families may choose to pursue negligence claims or wrongful death claims in order to make sure nursing homes are held accountable for their dangerous mistakes and to also prevent other families from having to suffer undue harm.

Source: Chicago Tribune, “Nursing home blamed in wrongful death lawsuit,” Jennifer Delgado, Jan. 2, 2013

  • Our firm provides legal counsel to patients and families who have been harmed by similar incidents of medical malpractice like the incident discussed in today’s blog post. To learn more about protecting medical malpractice victims’ rights, please visit our Chicago nursing home neglect lawyers page.

Nursing Negligence

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