When trusting your elderly family member to the care of a nursing home, you assume the best from the providers, the facility and the caregivers. Thoughts of neglect and abuse may never cross your mind.

Unfortunately, the reality of nursing home situations is nationwide occurrences of tragic neglect and malpractice. Around 60,000 people die from complications that developed through bedsores, with many passing away within six weeks of initial wound development.

Identifying a Stage 4 bedsore

Bedsores start as painful red areas on the body that eventually turn purple from a limited blood supply. When left unaddressed, the skin deteriorates and develops an infection. In a Stage 4 bedsore, the infection moves down through the muscles and ligaments to eventually reach the bone. In a nursing home scenario, a Stage 4 condition might indicate a failure of medical treatment or care-giving staff to address bedsores at an earlier stage.

Signs of a Stage 4 bedsore include:

• Pus or drainage from the wound
• Odor
• Blackened skin
• Exposure of bone or tissue
• Fever
• Swelling and redness around the sore

Knowing who is most susceptible to a Stage 4 bedsore

Any individual who develops a lower-stage bedsore could be at risk of the wound growing worse. Those who are in a higher risk category for bedsores include elderly patients with limited mobility, those with dementia or Alzheimer’s and those who reside in understaffed nursing homes.

For many nursing home residents, bedsores could indicate a level of neglect in care-giving. Left untreated, bedsores could hasten the death of your loved one. So for the answer to the question”can a bedsore lead to death and what your rights are Contact our medical malpractice attorneys Today at 508-809-7555.