Follow
Share

My mother fell and passed away from a preventable fall in a memory care facility.


What kind of attorney is needed to help with justice?

This question has been closed for answers. Ask a New Question.
Find Care & Housing
An elderly person with dementia fell, injured themselves, and died?

Stop the presses!

You may as well sue the sun for setting and making it dark.
Helpful Answer (5)
Report

She fell, but was it because she slipped?

Elders often lose their balance. Did she fall due to weakness in her legs? Did she have vasovagal syncope, which is not uncommon in elderly? (My MIL sometimes gets this when she goes to the bathroom at her LTC facility, and it causes her to become light-headed or faint for a very brief period of time.

Your other post said she fell "early in the morning" and had to yell for help for 20 minutes so obviously there were no witnesses to see what actually happened.

Unless there is video evidence of the incident, or a reliable witness I personally doubt you have a case. You can bring it to a personal injury attorney (aka "ambulance chaser") to assess your evidence to see if you have a winnable case. If you lose, you may have to not only pay your attorney but also the defendant's attorney fees.

I wish you comfort and peace in your heart as you mourn her loss.
Helpful Answer (4)
Report

People fall.
People can fall with bare feet, improper shoes or correct footwear.

Can fall when not holding anything, when using their walking aid improperly or when correctly using rails or their walking aid.

Can fall when alone. Can fall when supervisied or when assisted.

Legs give way, muscle weakness.
Feint, dizzy, confused, hallucinate.
Unable to see well, poor depty perception, poor spacial skills.

Sometimes the HIP BONE BREAKS because the bone is thin which CAUSES the fall.

Dementia causes brain changes which destroys ability to balance.

Grip socks will NOT prevent the myriad of reasons an elderly person falls.

Grief will bring denial. Anger. This is understandable but your anger here may be misplaced.
Hopefully in time: Acceptance.

Wishing you future peace.
Helpful Answer (4)
Report

It would be a medical malpractice attorney. But not to be harsh, you imho have to - Have To - realize that for a responsible attorney to be at all interested in taking a case, there needs to be reasonable expectation of compensation from the filing of a lawsuit.

And that means the incident was a wrongful death of a working age adult with dependents. Really to get any sort of payout for both the attorney and the family, you need to have the deceased have their young kids in the courtroom with a bereft pregnant widow with a huge mortgage. Actuarial tables have lifespan in the US at mid 70’s and these are used to affix future worth for lawsuits. LSS if over 75 zero. That is the reality.

You are bereaved and going through the emotions a death can leave you with. If your elder was on hospice, as a Medicare paid benefit of hospice, it will pay for grief counseling for family members who were POA or had been a caregiver. If so, please consider this.
Helpful Answer (4)
Report

All falls are ‘preventable’ if you are in an iron lung. The question for litigation is different – was the overall care adequate in terms of the contract? 'The fall led to her death' is not the same as 'caused her death' - and if you can't get your head around that, you are going to have a lot of problems with lawyers. Your (not her) damages are probably on the shaky side, too. Or were you more concerned with 'vengeance'?
Helpful Answer (3)
Report

Hiring an attorney will not bring your mother back. People with dementia fall, all the time.

I read your other infro and I see no legal recourse.

If you have money to burn for a Nuisance suit then go for it. You have a 10% chance of winning and I am being generous.

With a dementia affected person there is no such thing as a preventable fall.
Helpful Answer (3)
Report
lealonnie1 Mar 1, 2024
My mother fell 50x in AL and 45x in Memory Care Assisted Living because she forgot she couldn't walk and also refused to call for help to the bathroom. In regular AL, it was refusal to use her walker and paying NO attention to where she was going. It wasn't the AL or MCs fault, it was old age and dementias fault!
(4)
Report
Duplicate post on the same topic. Here's the first one, with responses. https://www.agingcare.com/questions/memory-care-responsibilities-to-resident-485935.htm?orderby=oldest
Helpful Answer (2)
Report

There's no such thing as a preventable fall with someone who needs to be in memory care. Old people with dementia fall. They fall all over the place. It's awful. The only good thing about it is if they were destined for a life bedridden, their teeth turned brown, their limbs contracted so they are in embryo position, double incontinent, unable to eat solids and their head lolling to the side if put into a sitting position, a fall would have taken them out of their misery before it came to that. The person I've described is my once-beautiful mother, who died of dementia at age 95. She was like that for years. If a fall had taken her out before she got to that point, I would have been dancing and singing with joy.

Don't expect 'justice" in a case like this. You tie yourself up for a couple of years, deal with depositions, mediation, interrogatories, egotistic lawyers on both sides, phone calls, letters, court dates, and on and on. Your stress will increase. You won't get your mother back. And since facilities have teams of lawyers who deal with this every day, you'll be just another case that gets handled forthwith.

My sincere condolences on the loss of your mother. But know that there are worse things to die of than a fall in memory care.
Helpful Answer (2)
Report
MargaretMcKen Mar 1, 2024
These 'cases' aren't really about 'justice'. Every time so far, they are either about money or punishment.
(0)
Report
She fell in memory care overnight by doing something that elderly try to do. MCs do not have room cameras. She did not call for help in your previous post. You think that 20 or so minutes relapsing before calling 911 was too long? Not if she was communcating to staff when they found her. So not necessarily because brain bleeds and strokes allow for more treatment time in the hospital and you do not mention how long it took to find the brain bleed.
Falls happen and this could have happened at home.
Helpful Answer (2)
Report

There are commercials all over the television and radio for law firms that "specialize" in this type of law suit.
Google is your friend do a search for your area.
Just keep in mind that a suit like this can take years. You will probably only get 1/3 of what they say the suit is "worth"
Helpful Answer (1)
Report

See All Answers
This question has been closed for answers. Ask a New Question.
Ask a Question
Subscribe to
Our Newsletter