A Nursing Home Neglect Lawyer At Our Firm Can Help
Infections And Sepsis In Mobile, AL Nursing Homes
Was your elderly loved one properly cared for? Part of a nursing home’s job is to provide residents with the care they need to stay as healthy and independent as possible, but too many nursing homes in Alabama fail to meet that responsibility. One of the most serious forms of nursing home neglect is allowing an infection to fester and become septic. The Mobile, AL nursing home neglect attorneys at Braswell Murphy, LLC hold them accountable.
The Role Negligence Plays In Infection Care
Nursing homes have a responsibility both to care for their residents’ basic needs and prevent infections from occurring, and to appropriately treat infections when they do occur. Some ways nursing home neglect can contribute to infections include:
- Neglecting basic needs: Nursing home residents can develop infections when they are not regularly bathed and changed.
- Failing to turn residents in bed: Nursing home residents with limited mobility can easily develop pressure sores (bedsores), which can become infected.
- Medication errors: Failing to give residents all medications as prescribed can allow infections to occur, especially if the resident has been prescribed antibiotics.
- Unsanitary conditions: Because residents tend to have fairly weak immune systems, infections can spread rapidly in a nursing home if staff neglect general sanitation.
Some of the most common types of infections in nursing homes include urinary tract infections (UTI), pneumonia and staph infections. Any sort of infection can be hazardous to nursing home residents’ health.
When left untreated for too long, infections can develop into sepsis, a life-threatening medical condition that means the infection has spread to the bloodstream. Key warning signs of sepsis include high body temperature (over 100 degrees) and elevated heart rate (over 90 beats per minute). Sepsis requires immediate medical treatment in order to prevent permanent damage or death.
