My DH is in a secured nursing home unit for Alzheimer's and the other day he pushed another patient (woman) who was using a walker. She fell, hit her head, was bleeding and had to go to the hospital. I started thinking can her family sue us???
Shannon, You need to speak to whoever is in charge in the NH. My husband hit a woman when he was in an Alz. facility but the people at the there told her family what they were going to do so they took care of it. Actually what they did was send my husband to a Geri-Psych to have his meds adjusted. Big mistake for him because everything was downhill from there. Be sure you know where and what they intend to do whether it's the NH or G.P.
i do believe it possible for anyone to be sued. including the facility for not having security issues in place to avoid such incidents. with a decent atty there is always a risk. if someone is seriously injured i think i would be prepared. good luck. just to be sure i would contact your own insurance company and see if you would be covered maybe under the medical clause. there may be a charge to add additional coverages if available as well. usually if you are sued the facility would be also included in the lawsuit. attys go after whoever has money and large insurance benefits. divvi
The above is good advice. Anyone can sue anyone, but many lawsuits go no where. Unfortunately they can still cost a lot of money on lawyers. See the director and see if any of the paperwork signed when someone enters the facility protects anyone from suits. Even then, people can still sue.
I agree that to find out you could speak to whoever is in charge of the NH, but, I certainly wouldn't.
The raising of such a question in the arena of occurence will send all sorts of helpful people asking questions which frankly put ideas into people's heads. I don't mean to be rude to anyone but if I was concerned about possibly being sued the last thing I would do is ask if I could be sued in the place it happened.
Also if such an idea enters people's minds around your husband and something else happens suddenly there is a stigma where in fact no suit has occured.
Ask competent people as long as they nothing to do with that nursing home.
I agree with Wolf-ask your attorney about your liability and what (s)he would recommend for coverage. And Wolf is correct-once someone in a facility gets the reputation of being aggressive, they often get balmed for things they didn't do or initiate. It's a delicate balance.
Jean21, my DH also went totally downhill after the geripsych hospital stay, one that resulted from him hitting the psychiatrist in his facility. He was sent to the ER and then to the geripsych. Actually, the sedation he needed to cooperate with a tooth extraction started the whole downhill slide as his agitation got out of control after that. That was in March and he died in August. As hard as those months were for all of us, when I read what people here on the boards are going through I am thankful that Don is no longer suffering from this horrible disease. I hate Alzheimers Disease so much! The current interest in breast cancer is great, but hey! I had that 20 years ago and guess what? I survived. Alzheimers Disease HAS no survivors. If I hadn't had the people on this board I wouldn't have made it through with my sanity. I read your entries and my heart breaks for each and every one of you, because I know where your journey will lead.
Pris...you said it all and you are so right. When I read these posts by others that are still fighting this batttle with their spouses my heart aches for them. And, I too am so glad that Jim didn't have to exist in the condition he was in (I don't call that living and he would have agreed). He is at peace now and I draw a lot of strenght from that.