Making frequent visits to relatives and loved ones who are staying at a North Carolina nursing home may help to uncover signs of possible neglect or abuse. When a visitor first suspects that staff is failing in its duties to care for a resident, he or she may consider filing a complaint with the facility, state regulators or in civil court. An early reporting of an issue may result in a correction of the negligent actions. This can serve to prevent a vulnerable resident from suffering a serious injury, illness or death.
After seeing her elderly mother sitting in soaked sheets on several visits, an adult daughter was finally fed up with the way the facility’s staff failed to provide adequate care. As reported by CBS 17, the daughter had to wash her mother’s face because staff failed to do it and she also needed to change her mother’s sheets during a visit. As a patient with dementia and paralysis, she requires 24-hour care from the staff, which her daughter accuses them of neglecting to provide.
Accusations of neglect
The woman found in soaked sheets is not the only individual who has experienced a lack of care while staying at this facility. There allegedly were 21 complaints lodged against the nursing home dating back to 2011. While the complaints uncovered no deficiencies and the facility reportedly corrected the relevant issues, the daughter in this recent case claims she is the one who changed her mother’s sheets.
Allowing a resident to sit in soiled or filthy sheets is a serious cause for concern, not only for this particular individual, but also for the health and well-being of the other residents. Neglecting to care for an individual resident demonstrates that the facility may have problems with staffing, resources or governmental oversight. All of these possibilities may require filing a complaint or finding another facility.
Remedy the neglect
It may not be easy to transfer a resident from one facility to another, and the better option might be to file a complaint outlining the staff’s negligence or abuse. Relatives who look after their elderly parents may need to be aggressive in airing their grievances in order to remedy resident care issues.
