What’s Your Case Worth? (877) 541-1203
Bedsores, also called pressure ulcers or pressure sores, are painful, potentially life-threatening wounds that develop when sustained pressure cuts off blood flow to the skin and underlying tissue. While bedsores are preventable with proper care, they remain one of the most common forms of nursing home neglect.
If your loved one has developed bedsores in an Oakland nursing home, it may indicate severe neglect, and you have legal rights to hold the facility accountable. An Oakland nursing home bedsores lawyer can help you pursue justice and compensation.
TopDog Law connects families throughout Oakland with experienced attorneys who understand that bedsores are often signs of systemic neglect and who fight to protect vulnerable seniors.
Bedsores develop when prolonged pressure on the skin reduces blood flow to the affected area, causing tissue damage and potentially leading to tissue death. They typically form on bony areas of the body where skin is closest to bone.
Common locations include the tailbone and buttocks, heels and ankles, hips, shoulder blades, and the back of the head. Bedsores progress through four stages of severity:
Advanced bedsores are extremely painful and can lead to severe complications. These include infections that can spread to bones, joints, or blood. Sepsis is a life-threatening blood infection. Cellulitis is an infection of connective tissues. Osteomyelitis is a bone infection. Severe bedsores significantly increase mortality risk in elderly patients.
When nursing homes fail to prevent or properly treat bedsores, allowing them to progress to these severe stages, families have legal recourse under California law. The severity of bedsores often directly correlates to the strength of a neglect claim—advanced-stage bedsores provide clear evidence that a facility failed to meet its duty of care.
Bedsores are largely preventable with proper nursing home care, which includes regular repositioning, pressure relief, skin hygiene, adequate nutrition and hydration, regular skin assessments, and individualized care plans. Advanced bedsores (stages 3 or 4) typically indicate a failure in basic care due to understaffing, inadequate training, poor supervision, or profit-driven cost-cutting measures.
When facilities fail to implement these basic preventive measures, California law treats this failure as elder neglect or abuse rather than mere negligence. This distinction is critical because it opens the door to enhanced legal remedies designed to hold nursing homes accountable for profit-driven decisions that sacrifice resident safety.
Filing a claim under California’s Elder Abuse Act offers significant advantages over ordinary negligence, including recovery of attorney’s fees, punitive damages for proven neglect, a longer statute of limitations, and pain and suffering damages even if the victim is deceased.
To qualify, you must demonstrate the facility’s conduct was reckless, meaning they were aware of or should have been aware of a substantial risk of harm but failed to act.
Bedsore cases demand specific medical and elder care knowledge. TopDog Law connects families with skilled attorneys who understand how nursing homes can be negligent when caring for the elderly. Our network’s attorneys have a proven track record against major nursing home operators and their legal teams.
The development of severe bedsores (stage 3 or 4) almost always indicates neglect. This is important to know when building your case. Your lawyer can help you know for sure.
Nursing homes are liable for bed sores, even those that pre-exist. They must treat existing bed sores and prevent them from worsening. If pre-existing bedsores worsen or new ones develop, the facility is liable for neglect, which is often stronger evidence if the facility was aware of the problem. Nursing home neglect attorneys can compare medical records to document the progression of care under the facility's care.
Nursing homes often blame residents' medical conditions for bedsores, claiming they were unavoidable. However, even with high-risk factors like immobility or malnutrition, bedsores are preventable with proper care (frequent repositioning, special surfaces, nutrition, skin monitoring).
The presence of risk factors in a nursing home resident significantly amplifies the necessity for diligent prevention, rather than diminishing the responsibility to provide it.
Nursing home neglect lawyers collaborate closely with medical professionals and care specialists to meticulously review each case. This comprehensive approach enables them to establish the liability of nursing home facilities when they are found to have failed to implement appropriate preventive measures against bedsores, regardless of any pre-existing or underlying medical conditions of the resident.
These conditions, while potentially contributing to a resident's vulnerability, do not absolve the facility of its duty to prevent preventable injuries, such as bedsores, through proper protocols and care.
Proving inadequate repositioning for bedsores involves facility logs, staffing records, witness testimony, professional analysis of sores, facility policies, and surveillance footage. Attorneys identify record inconsistencies and utilize expert testimony to demonstrate that proper repositioning would have prevented bed sores.
Contact TopDog Law today, and we’ll connect you with an experienced Oakland personal injury lawyer from our network. They will thoroughly investigate the neglect, document how the facility failed to meet standards of care, pursue compensation, and fight to ensure your loved one receives the dignity and proper care they need. You can contact us by phone at (510)399-2705.
66 Franklin St Suite 300C
Oakland, CA 94607
