My mom was in a NH in March 2015. She received an antibiotic shot in the arm and has been complaining of pain ever since; Xray shows arthritis and cartilage breakdown. Prior to getting the shot there were no problems. Is there legal liability for her injury?
If the doctor didn't feel there was liability, that's the end of any possible liability issue.
Good med mal attorneys don't go out on a limb to file a suit for which they don't have medical substantiation.
I'm not medically trained at all, but based on that explanation it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that your mother's current problems could be from arthritis she has had for years. The shot might have triggered a flareup, or the timing might be coincidental.
I'm not legally trained, either, but it seems to me if shot was appropriate and the nurse did it in the usual way, I don't know how she could be liable for an arthritis flareup. Even if you get bad results from a treatment, the medical personnel are not liable unless they did something wrong.
But we can only speculate. As GA advises, if you want a legal opinion see a lawyer who specializes in these kinds of cases.
(In reference to your response post that she receives Medicare Part A.)
What I meant with my post about whether a personal injury recovery would disqualify her from Medicaid is that it could inflate her income. Medicaid is different from Medicare. Medicaid is aid based on the recipient's limited income and assets. It may cover medical costs that Medicare doesn't cost and also long term care in a rest home. If your mom is receiving or could be applying for Medicaid soon, you might consider how receiving a cash settlement could disqualify her. ( Most of the time, you are limited to $2000.00 in cash assets.) I would just check it out in advance.
If you end up with a large settlement, a good attorney should know how to put it into a trust for care needs without disqualifying her from other aid. But, if you are told that it will not be worth it, either because the injection was not given incorrectly or the damages are not related to it, it is probably not worth pursuing.