News & Editorials from Merlin

May 17, 2009

The Anguish And Pain Of The Pressure Sore That Could Have Been Avoided

One of the largest concerns about aging parents is to keep them safe, keep them healthy and keep them happy. This often means being placed in a Long Beach nursing home for care or having an in home health agency provide in home care for the aging parent.

This care also means personal care and ensuring the skin is in good shape, the elderly person has tender skin that can be damaged easily and that includes pressure sores. These are sores that appear on the skin in places like the hips, knees and heels and are caused by pressure remaining on one part of the skin for an extended amount of time. This is because the bones press against the muscle, tissue and skin breaking it down until a pressure sore appears.

These sores are painful, they can become infected and if not cared for properly prior to breaking the skin, they can become decubitus ulcers and even require surgery if severe. They are caused by not helping the elderly person that stays in bed rotate, so that sores do not appear and under the heels. This is something that also needs to be watched for carefully with the aging person that spends extended hours in a wheel chair.

The health care professional should be trained to care for the aging parent to avoid pressure sores. The problem with this is that while the family entrusts the elderly family member care to this person they may not actually have the proper training to care for the elderly. This is the fault of the Long Beach nursing home or in home health agency, as an example, for not hiring trained personnel or not having proper training for the employees they do hire.

When pressure sores form, it takes an extreme amount of skin care to keep them from becoming worse and healing. This is skin that has been damaged, and it causes the elderly person a great deal of pain.

The nursing home or in home health agency are ultimately responsible for this lack of care and need to be held responsible by the family, since they are the spokesperson for the aging adult who might be frightened in taking action. The family needs to consult with an elderly abuse attorney, because this is a professional that can hold the nursing home responsible for their neglect. When this occurs in Long Beach the experience of an Orange County elder abuse attorney that aggressively fights for the rights of the aging adults is the attorney the family needs to consult one at the contacts below:

Address: 633 West Fifth Street, 28th Floor, Los Angeles, CA, 90071; 6700 East Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 275, Long Beach, CA 90803; 14007 Palawan Way Marina del Rey, CA, 90292; 201 Wilshire Blvd, Second Floor, Santa Monica, CA, 90401; 620 Newport Center Drive, Suite 1100 Newport Beach, CA, 92660. Phone: 888-400-9721; 213.596.9642.

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