Colorado Nursing Home Bedsores Lawyer

Once a bedsore forms, the damage goes far beyond the skin. Medical bills pile up. Families rearrange their lives. The emotional toll hits hard. And while no amount of money erases what happened, financial compensation gives families the resources to get proper care—and to hold negligent nursing homes accountable.

Nursing home bedsore claims in Colorado usually fall into three categories of damages. Each serves a different purpose. Together, they aim to make the injured person as whole as possible.

Economic Damages

Economic damages deal with the straightforward dollars and cents. These are the costs that come with receipts, bills, and pay stubs attached. In a nursing home bedsore case, these often include:

• Medical expenses: This covers hospital stays, surgeries, wound care, antibiotics, physical therapy, and any medical device or treatment needed to manage the bedsore and related complications. In severe cases, families need to hire in-home healthcare workers or transfer their loved one to a better facility.
• Future medical costs: Some bedsore injuries require long-term care, including specialized treatment centers or ongoing home care. Colorado law allows for recovery of future medical expenses when the injury leads to permanent disability. Expert testimony from doctors usually establishes these costs.
• Out-of-pocket expenses: This might include transportation costs to and from appointments, special mattresses to prevent future sores, and any other direct expenses tied to the injury.
• Loss of income: While less common in elder care cases, if the person injured contributed financially to their household or had other sources of income lost due to the injury, this gets calculated into damages.

Colorado doesn’t cap economic damages in nursing home negligence cases. Families may recover the full amount spent or expected to be spent because of the bedsore injury, as long as they present adequate documentation and proof.

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages deal with the pain, suffering, and overall loss in quality of life. These damages don’t come with a bill attached, but they’re very real.

• Pain and suffering: Bedsores hurt. Stage 3 and 4 ulcers cause chronic, intense pain, sometimes lasting for months or even years. Colorado law allows families to seek compensation for the physical suffering endured by the victim.
• Emotional distress: Watching a loved one suffer from preventable wounds leads to emotional trauma—not just for the person injured but for the entire family. Courts recognize the mental anguish these injuries cause.
• Loss of enjoyment of life: When a resident loses mobility or independence because of bedsore complications, their life changes permanently. Non-economic damages address this loss.

Punitive Damages

Punitive damages exist to punish especially reckless or intentional misconduct and to deter others from doing the same. Colorado courts don’t award these lightly. But in cases where a nursing home acted with blatant disregard for resident safety—ignoring known risks, falsifying records, or covering up bedsores—punitive damages may be on the table.

Under Colorado Revised Statutes § 13-21-102, punitive damages generally can’t exceed the amount awarded in actual damages. However, if the defendant continues their reckless behavior during the case (for example, intimidating witnesses or hiding evidence), the court may double the punitive award.

How a Lawyer Calculates These Damages

No two bedsore cases look the same, but most lawyers in Colorado use a methodical approach to calculate damages. Here’s how they do it:

• Gather medical records, billing statements, and care plans to establish the economic losses.
• Work with medical experts to project future costs of care and determine the extent of physical suffering and disability.
• Collect testimony from family members, friends, and caretakers about how the injury affected the resident’s daily life and emotional well-being.
• Investigate the nursing home’s track record, staffing logs, inspection reports from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), and any prior complaints or violations.