In recent news that our Baltimore nursing home negligence attorneys have been following, a wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by the husband of a 60-year-old Portsmouth Regional Hospital patient, who alleges that the hospital’s negligence and sub-standard care caused his wife to die from infected bedsores.
According to the lawsuit filed last month, Robert Vozzella claims that the hospital failed to detect and treat his wife’s pressure sores, or decubitus ulcers, that developed on her backside while she recovered from surgery. The bedsores reportedly weren’t discovered for three days, and although Vozzella went through two months of pressure ulcer surgeries, the sores became infected due to reported fecal contamination—that led to her wrongful death.
As our Maryland nursing home attorneys have recently discussed, pressure ulcers affect nearly one million people every year, causing nearly 60,000 deaths from complications of serious bed sore development.
Pressure sores often develop in hospitals or nursing care facilities, where patients are immobile for long periods of time without moving. When patients are immobile, often recovering from surgery, or receiving medication, it puts pressure on certain parts of the body, causing the areas to lose circulation—leading the skin to breakdown and develop pressure ulcers.
With proper bed sore care and prevention, pressure ulcers are entirely preventable and even reversible, if discovered quickly enough and given the right treatment and necessary environment for comprehensive healing.
In Prince George’s County, contact our attorneys at Lebowitz and Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers.
Hospital Bedsore Lawsuit Filed Over Death of 60 Year Old Woman, AboutLawsuits.com, May 12, 2011
Washington DC Nursing Home Neglect Can Cause Bedsores, Washington DC Injury Lawyer Blog, January 31, 2011
Related Web Resources:
Bedsores (Pressure Sores) Prevention, Mayo Clinic
National Institutes of Health, (NIH): Medline Plus: Pressure Ulcer Research
National Institutes of Health, (NIH): Medline Plus: Osteomyelitis
NCHS Data Brief: Pressure Ulcers Among Nursing Home Residents: United States 2004
Related Blog Posts:
Nursing Home Sued For Negligence after Patient Died from Pressure Sore Complication, Maryland Nursing Home Lawyer Blog, May 4, 2011
Daughter Sues Nursing Home for Negligence After Mother Dies from Pressure Sores, Maryland Nursing Home Lawyer Blog, March 10, 2011
Nursing Home Negligence Lawsuit Accuses Rehabilitation Center of Decubitus Ulcers, Wrongful Death, Maryland Nursing Home Blog, February 16, 2011