Your Guide to Filing a Hospital Bedsores Lawsuit: Steps to Take

Florida hospitals provide long-term care for individuals who have a variety of medical problems or suffered a serious accident. However, when some facilities fail to care for those with limited mobility or bed-bound patients properly, these individuals often develop painful bedsores. At Gordon & Partners, we can help you seek compensation for an affected loved one and offer guidance for filing a Florida hospital bedsore lawsuit.

What Are Bedsores? 

Bedsores, also known as pressure sores, occur when affected people stay in one position too long in a bed, chair or wheelchair. One of the main causes of bedsores is the constant pressure on areas of the skin causes tissue degradation on the skin, causing the development of these sores. The thickness of the skin may impact where bed sores develop and areas with thinner skin usually become affected first, such as:

• The tailbone 
• Ankles 
• Hips 
• The back of the head 

Bedsores may occur in hospitals when patients remain bed-bound after serious surgeries, an accident that requires an extended hospital stay or if they spend long hours in a bed or chair. Patients who cannot change positions on their own and relieve pressure in a certain spot often suffer from bedsores and the breakdown of the skin in that area.

Who Has a Greater Risk of Developing Bedsores? 

Bedsores may develop on those with limited mobility or leg weakness that confines them to a wheelchair. Elderly individuals may also develop pressure sores in certain areas because of the thinning of the skin in a vulnerable area. This often includes the feet, especially the heels.

Individuals recovering from major medical surgery due to an accident or a necessary procedure, like a hip replacement, may also have a greater risk of developing bedsores. However, the medical staff handling your loved one’s case has a duty of care to prevent these sores before they cause infections.

Are There Different Stages of Bedsores? 

Bedsores usually develop over time. When they first begin and appear as a small, discolored lesion on the skin. When monitored and properly treated, recovery is usually successful.

Once unresolved bedsores become more serious, your loved one can experience skin loss and pain from the lesion. When open bedsores reach this stage, the risk of infection becomes much greater.

Stage three and four bedsores may cause serious skin loss and usually affect the deeper layers of skin tissue and muscle. Pressure sores that reach this stage can cause sepsis, a rapid drop in blood pressure, coma, and death.

Florida hospital workers typically strive to prevent and treat bed sores when they occur. However, when neglect causes pressure sores to develop, our attorneys at Gordon & Partners can help you file a lawsuit to gain compensation for the pain and suffering your loved one endured.

How Do You Start the Bedsore Lawsuit Process? 

Before you speak to our attorneys about a possible bedsore neglect case, gathering evidence to meet the burden of proof can help us build a solid foundation for your lawsuit. Once you discover bedsores on a loved one staying in a Florida hospital, you can take the following steps before delivering any evidence to our office.

Take Photos 

Gathering photographic evidence of any pressure sore on the body helps our attorneys gauge the seriousness of the issue and whether evidence of neglect is obvious or suspected. Take photos of the sores from different angles and note where they exist on your loved one’s body.

Speak To Hospital Staff

Once you discover bedsores on your loved one, speaking to the hospital staff, including nurses and attending physicians, can open a dialog about this problem. As the patient’s medical proxy who makes treatment decisions on his or her behalf, you have the right to question the hospital’s procedures, which employees play an active role in your loved one’s daily treatment and request records regarding their employment.

Gather Documentation

Bringing our attorneys relevant documentation allows them to build a strong case based on facts. Medical records, proof of the absence of bedsores before entering the hospital and measurements of the sores may all provide the evidence required to build a strong case.

How Do Attorneys Assign Value To a Hospital Bedsore Case? 

Once you decide to work with our attorneys, they use the material provided and several other factors to build your case. While most cases like yours seem like a simple matter of neglect, it can become complicated enough to require a lawyer who understands the intricacies of related matters, such as the hospital’s past incidents of bedsore development in patients after admission.

The severity of your loved one’s pressure sores also affects case value. For example, if a serious bedsore on the patient’s foot requires amputation of that appendage, the resulting pain and suffering carry a greater value. Our attorneys can request a variety of compensation, including:

• The cost of medical treatment 
• Pain and suffering 
• The cost of any required future care 
• Funeral expenses if your loved one died from pressure sore complications

Our attorneys will guide you through this process and keep you in the loop regarding case developments.

How Can You Protect Your Bedsore Case? 

As our attorneys prepare your Florida hospital bedsore case, we can represent you completely and field calls from hospital representatives and other individuals who may try to settle outside of court. This protects your best interests and your privacy.

Social media sites make armchair attorneys out of many people, and there are those always eager to offer you advice online. While you may feel frustrated about the situation, discussing any details of the case with anyone in a public online forum could cause serious damage. You can discuss privacy concerns with our attorneys to better protect the details of your case.

What Is Punitive Damage? 

Our attorneys examine all the details of your Florida bedsore injury case to ensure your loved one receives the fairest compensation, including punitive damages. Sometimes called pain and suffering, these damages punish the accused for gross negligence.

Punitive damages include compensation for the reckless or careless actions of the employees in the hospital. Once bedsores start to grow worse, they are noticeable, and a stage three or four pressure sore usually causes pus and wound drainage. Failing to notice these symptoms points to carelessness and neglect, both of which fall under punitive compensation.

How Long Does a Bedsore Negligence Case Take? 

Once we accept your case, the length of the process may vary depending on the details involved. For example, the hospital may ask for time to examine the development of bedsores on your loved one, the timeline and records of the staff involved.

Testimony and interviews that support your case may take weeks to gather. Our attorneys speak to witnesses and gather past disciplinary reports of the staff, if any, to prove past carelessness or neglect of patients in their care.

The Advantages of Hiring a Florida Bedsore Attorney

The many facets of bedsore lawsuits make them difficult to navigate, especially when they occur in a facility filled with highly trained healthcare providers. Working with our attorneys offers you a variety of benefits, including representation inside and outside the courtroom and case guidance from start to finish.

The decision to file a Florida bedsore lawsuit is not a simple one. Contact us today at Gordon & Partners and let us handle the burden of litigation so you can focus on your injured loved one’s healing.