Phoenix Nursing Home Bedsore Lawyers

Some residents are medically fragile and at high risk. But many pressure ulcers are preventable. When a sore appears or worsens in a nursing home, it can raise serious questions about whether the facility provided reasonable care.

The clearest indicators are: your loved one did not have pressure wounds on admission; wounds developed or worsened after admission; and the facility’s records show gaps in skin assessments, repositioning, wound care, or physician notification. A review of the medical records is usually the first step in answering this question.

Faster than many families expect. Early skin damage can worsen quickly if pressure continues, moisture is not controlled, or infection develops. A wound that looks minor at first can become dangerous in a short period of time.

Yes. If staff failed to prevent, identify, document, or properly treat the wound, the nursing home and others may be liable for the infection and resulting complications.

Some facilities raise an unavoidable wound defense. For this defense to hold, the facility must document that the wound developed despite consistent provision of appropriate care — that every intervention was tried and properly recorded. Facilities that lack that documentation, or whose records show sporadic care, cannot credibly claim unavoidability.

Arizona’s statute of limitations for nursing home neglect and medical malpractice claims is generally two years, but specific circumstances — including when you discovered the injury and who is being named — can affect this deadline. Acting promptly is important. Contact us to understand the timeline that applies to your situation.

A facility may still be liable if it failed to assess the wound, put an appropriate care plan in place, monitor the resident properly, or allowed the bedsore to worsen.

Yes. Arizona law allows surviving family members to bring a wrongful death claim when a loved one’s death is related to nursing home neglect or malpractice, including deaths caused by complications from untreated or poorly treated pressure ulcers.

If a resident dies because a pressure ulcer led to infection, sepsis, or other fatal complications, the case may become a wrongful death claim.

Ask for admission assessments, care plans, nursing notes, wound-care notes, medication and treatment records, repositioning logs, incident reports, staffing information, photographs, and related hospital records.

These terms refer to the same type of wound. “Bedsore” is the common term. “Pressure ulcer” and “pressure injury” are the current clinical terms. “Decubitus ulcer” is an older medical term still used in some records. All describe wounds caused by sustained pressure cutting off blood flow to tissue.