Oakland Nursing Home Fall Lawyer
If a loved one has suffered a preventable fall in an Oakland nursing home, we’re here to help you pursue the answers and compensation your family deserves. Call us today at 888-887-9777 for a free consultation.
We have extensive experience suing the following facilities: Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Facilities, Memory Care Facilities, Adult Day Care Centers, and more.
EXPERIENCE
WON
AVAILABLE
ABUSE LAW FIRM
Falls often result in catastrophic injuries for nursing home residents, and many occur due to avoidable care failures. If your loved one has been hurt in a fall at a nursing home facility, you likely have many unanswered questions. Our Oakland nursing home fall lawyers fight for families like yours every day. Let us uncover the truth for you.
Table of Contents:
- What Lanzone Morgan, LLP, Can Do After a Loved One Falls in an Oakland Nursing Home
- The Fall May Be a Warning Sign of a Larger Care Problem
- Common Nursing Home Neglect Issues That Can Contribute to Falls
- Injuries an Oakland Nursing Home Fall Can Cause
- California Protections for Nursing Home Residents After a Fall
- What Evidence Can Help Explain Why a Nursing Home Fall Happened?
- What Families Should Do After a Loved One Falls at an Oakland Nursing Home
- Why Families Choose Lanzone Morgan, LLP, for Nursing Home Fall Cases
- We’re Ready to Investigate Your Loved One’s Nursing Home Fall
What Lanzone Morgan, LLP, Can Do After a Loved One Falls in an Oakland Nursing Home
A nursing home may claim a fall was unavoidable, but that explanation rarely tells the full story. Our elder abuse lawyers in Oakland can investigate to determine what happened and whether preventable care failures contributed to your loved one’s injuries.
While you focus on your family, our team can gather and review the evidence needed to understand what led to the fall. We’ll scour medical records, incident reports, care plans, staffing records, policy manuals, surveillance footage, and witness accounts. During our investigation, we’ll look for signs that indicate whether the staff missed known fall risks, ignored your loved one’s care plan, failed to provide adequate supervision, or maintained unsafe living conditions.
If we find evidence that neglect contributed to your loved one’s injuries, we’ll explain your legal options and pursue the accountability and justice your family deserves. We’ll counter the nursing home’s attempts to minimize its role in the incident and seek full and fair compensation on behalf of your loved one.
The Fall May Be a Warning Sign of a Larger Care Problem
A fall can sometimes signal that a resident’s care has not kept pace with changes in their condition. Older adults can decline quickly, and health changes may require staff to reassess how much assistance the resident needs.
While not every nursing home fall is related to neglect, an assessment of the resident’s history before the incident can reveal important details about the facility’s response to their changing needs. Previous falls, increasing mobility limitations, worsening dementia symptoms, and medication changes can show whether staff had reason to anticipate the resident’s risk. If evidence shows that those warning signs were present but the care plan or level of assistance did not change, the incident may indicate a broader pattern of unmet needs rather than an isolated event.
Common Nursing Home Neglect Issues That Can Contribute to Falls
Nursing home falls often stem from breakdowns in everyday care and broader systemic issues. Staff may fail to assist with transfers properly, fail to remove hazards in a resident’s path, or ignore the resident’s calls for help. Staffing shortages and inadequate staff training can contribute to many of these problems.
Communication failures between caregivers can also cause important details, such as changes in a resident’s mobility, to fall through the cracks. As a result, the resident’s care plan may fail to account for their fall risk and omit important fall-prevention measures.
Get started on your path to justice with Lanzone Morgan, LLP. With 75+ years of experience, we have a proven track record of holding nursing homes accountable.
Injuries an Oakland Nursing Home Fall Can Cause
Age-related changes in bone strength and healing ability can make falls surprisingly dangerous for seniors. A fall that might cause a minor injury in a younger adult can lead to a broken hip or wrist, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, or rotator cuff tear in an older nursing home resident. The extent of the injury may not always be immediately obvious, especially when a resident has dementia or speech difficulties that make it harder to describe new symptoms.
These injuries can quickly set off a chain of complications. For example, a resident who breaks a hip may need surgery and spend a significant amount of time in the hospital with limited mobility. During that period, they can lose muscle mass and struggle to perform daily activities independently. Some residents may never fully regain their previous level of mobility, and their reduced strength may leave them with greater care needs and a higher risk of developing other health problems.
California Protections for Nursing Home Residents After a Fall
California’s Nursing Home Resident’s Bill of Rights provides several key protections that apply to fall cases. Facilities must have sufficient levels of qualified staff to meet residents’ needs, maintain safe living conditions, and keep nurse call systems operational and easily accessible to residents. If a nursing home’s failure to satisfy these essential responsibilities contributes to a fall, the facility may be liable for the resident’s injuries.
The Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act takes these protections a step further by explicitly defining neglect. Under the law, neglect is the failure of someone responsible for an elder’s care to provide the level of care a reasonable person in the same position would provide, including failures to protect residents from health and safety hazards. That means a nursing home may have acted negligently if staff knew or should have known about a resident’s fall risk but failed to provide appropriate assistance.
What Evidence Can Help Explain Why a Nursing Home Fall Happened?
A nursing home fall investigation often starts with a review of the resident’s history. Medical records or incident reports showing prior falls or other high-risk conditions can help establish what staff knew before the incident.
From there, our Oakland nursing home abuse lawyers may focus on how staff responded to the resident’s needs and the immediate circumstances surrounding the fall. This may involve taking a close look at the resident’s care plan, photographs of the aftermath, surveillance footage, and statements from employees or other witnesses. Internal records from the facility, such as staffing schedules, policy manuals, and training documentation, can also show whether enough staff were available and whether they had the knowledge to take appropriate precautions.
Some of this evidence can disappear quickly, so it’s important to preserve it as soon as possible after a nursing home fall. Having a complete record of what happened before, during, and after the fall can be vital when the facility disputes the facts.
What Families Should Do After a Loved One Falls at an Oakland Nursing Home
Family members can play a critical role in protecting a vulnerable resident after a fall. Take the following steps to protect your loved one’s health and preserve any potential legal claim:
- Get your loved one immediate medical attention. Coordinate a prompt evaluation with their doctor, even if they don’t complain about any symptoms.
- Ask the facility what happened. Find out where the fall occurred, who was present, and what steps they took afterward. Write down any details you gather.
- Document everything. Take photos of visible injuries and the area where the fall happened. Save medical records, incident reports, and written communications with the nursing home.
- Look for a pattern. Review whether your loved one has had earlier falls, a history of unexplained injuries, or other signs that they’re not receiving adequate care.
- Speak with our attorneys. Contact us as soon as possible. We can determine whether you might have a nursing home abuse claim.
Why Families Choose Lanzone Morgan, LLP, for Nursing Home Fall Cases
Nursing home abuse and neglect cases are all we do. That singular focus has given us a deep understanding of the elements that build a strong case. We know how long-term care facilities operate, how nursing home corporations defend claims, and what it takes to hold them accountable.
Families come to us during an incredibly difficult time, and we don’t take the trust they place in us lightly. We strive to be a voice for the voiceless, and it shows in our hands-on approach, 24/7 availability, and dedication to understanding each client’s unique circumstances.
When we represent you, the negligent facility will know you mean business. We’ve recovered over $250 million in settlements and verdicts for people affected by elder abuse, and our advocacy has helped shape California case law.
We’re Ready to Investigate Your Loved One’s Nursing Home Fall
If your loved one suffered a fall and was injured in an Oakland nursing home, you deserve clear answers about what happened. Lanzone Morgan, LLP, can determine whether neglect played a role in your loved one’s injuries and pursue the justice your family deserves.
You pay nothing unless we recover compensation for your family. Call 888-887-9777 or contact us online for a free consultation with an experienced Oakland nursing home fall lawyer today.
Written and edited by our team of expert legal content writers and reviewed and approved by attorney Anthony C. Lanzone.
- Nursing Homes
- Assisted Living Facilities
- Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly, or RCFE
- Memory Care Facilities
- Skilled Nursing Facilities
- Adult Day Care Centers
- Continuing Care Retirement Communities
- Non-Emergency Transport Providers
- Acute Care Hospitals
- Nursing Home Infections
- Falls & Fractures
- Unexplained Broken Bones
- Bedsores/Pressure Sores
- Sepsis
- Medication Errors/Overmedication
- Unauthorized Use of Restraints
- Wheelchair Transfer Injuries
- Elderly Wandering & Elopement
- Elderly Sexual Assault & Abuse
- Dehydration & Malnutrition
- Poor Hygiene
- Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs)
- Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)
- Amputation
- Choking Deaths
- Wrongful Death
- Financial Elder Abuse