Last month, a lawsuit was filed against a nursing home in Joliet for failing to provide proper care and medical treatment to a patient at the facility. As a result of the nursing home’s negligence, the patient had to have part of his left leg amputated.
Having part or all of a limb amputated is disabling and may require patients to undergo intense therapy sessions in order to learn how to live and function without a hand, foot, leg or arm. But for the Joliet patient, the amputation was especially devastating because the right side of his body was already paralyzed.
The patient has since been moved to another facility and the nursing home is now at risk of having its state license revoked. The incident involving the patient had prompted officials to investigate the nursing home. The investigation revealed that more than 20 other incidents of abuse or neglect had occurred at the facility during a period of five months.
The patient’s lawsuit was filed against the Joliet nursing home on Feb. 28. The lawsuit states that the man became a patient at the facility in June 2010. While the man was a resident at the nursing home, he suffered several health complications because he was severely neglected by workers.
The patient suffered from bed sores because he did not get the help he needed to move around enough. He also suffered from dehydration. Even after suffering from these injuries, the nursing home continued to ignore the patient’s needs. It is not certain whether staff failed to properly diagnose the patient’s bed sores when he developed the sores; however, it is certain that even if the sores were detected in a timely manner, the patient still did not receive the care he needed to prevent the bed sores from causing additional health problems.
The sores became infected. In order to fix the problem, the man had to have part of his left leg amputated. The man’s family said that they were “outraged” when they discovered that their loved one had been treated so poorly at the nursing home.
Source: ShorewoodPatch, “Man’s leg amputated due to Joliet nursing home negligence: lawsuit,” Ron Kremer, March 6, 2013
- Our firm provides counsel to patients and families who have been harmed by medical negligence and nursing home abuse. To learn more about our firm and practice, please visit our Joliet medical malpractice attorney page.
