Dietrich Law Firm PC Jed Dietrich Nursing Home Negligence Lawyer in Buffalo NY

Alright, let's talk about something very serious. When your loved one is living in a nursing home, you hope they are getting the same care they would living with you. And in most cases they do but if you suspect nursing home negligence you need to confide in a good attorney who is familiar with this type of legislation. Jed Dietrich is familiar with nursing home negligence cases and he's here to answer your questions now as we open the phones at 644-9840. Good morning Jed. Good morning Linda. Congratulations to the American team and Canadian team. They did a good job. Ryan Miller especially. Jed this is something that you always hope you never need to face in your own personal family because it's a wrenching decision, as it is, to be able to say honestly I can't take care of my loved one at home.

My loved one is going to go to a nursing home and you hope that they're getting that same care. When you're in the cases where you're disappointed because they're not, these are the people who call you and say I think there's something up, what do I do? Yeah, it's an important area of the law. You see a lot of folks advertising to try to capture the nursing home cases and what we're trying to do is we're trying to protect the people who can't protect themselves in the nursing homes. It's important because there's a pattern of the nursing homes not having proper staffing and everybody's cutting back, we’re in a tough economy Medicare reimbursement rates, whatever.

I mean, these nursing homes, many of them are for-profit institutions which means that they're trying to make as much money as they can and obviously if you staff less you pay less out in payroll you put a little bit more on your shareholders pockets or whoever owns the nursing home. So it's my job, and the job of the lawyers in our community to try to hold these folks accountable, the nursing homes, and to provide a proper level of care. I've had cases where some people may say, well my mother or my father has Alzheimer’s. They can't communicate but they were dropped or they have a bedsore and some people may think they can't bring a claim under those circumstances because the person who's injured can't talk, can't communicate. I've had cases where I had someone who had Alzheimer’s, she could not communicate, and there was a pattern, a history, of problems.

They dropped her, the nursing home broke her shoulder, there were claims of sexual abuse against her, an elderly patient. I brought a claim without the ability to have her testify and it was a substantial settlement on behalf of the family. They felt good, not only because there was a retribution there, but it was going to change the pattern of behavior at the nursing home. At that particular nursing home they absolutely changed the way they handled things. That particular case, the person who was injured, she actually worked at that particular nursing home. You would think that she would get a higher level of care and it just didn't pan out that way, so we're here to help folks and we do it through the legal system in an appropriate fashion. There's absolutely no shame whatsoever in bringing a claim on behalf of your loved ones and as I said last week I got a substantial response from our conversation last week about contingency fee arrangements.

It doesn't cost anything whatsoever to contact my office and if I choose to take the case, or another lawyer does in the personal injury realm, doesn't cost anything. We will work for free and will even front the disbursements to hire the experts to bring the case along. So a lot of people say I don't have any money to pay a lawyer to try to bring a claim for a bedsore claim or something like that. You don't need money, what you need to do is reach out. You need to do it fairly quickly after you know there's an incident because you want to get an investigation going. We want to get involved to try to preserve the evidence to make the best case we can. Jed, what should a loved one do to make sure that their loved one, who was in a nursing home, is getting the best care? What should you be aware of? What should you be looking for? Well, first of all, they need to get there. I mean, you have to have a pattern of visits and some contact with that nursing home. We love the folks that we put in nursing homes.

We do that, that's natural, but there's a certain level of follow-up that has to take place. Then there are abilities to contact and speak with the doctors and the folks who are treating the person through power of attorney forms and other types of things like that. I mean, obviously, you jump through the legal hoops to to make contact with the doctors and get over the privacy issues and to maintain a level of communication, and that's absolutely crucial. Because in so many of the cases there's a communication breakdown. I had a case where a gentleman was at a nursing home and he tripped and fell on a long standing problem that was in his area of the nursing home and his family complained about this problem many times over and it went for about six months. Finally, this gentleman tripped over this this area in his room and broke his hip and it turned out to be something that absolutely should have been fixed and and we're going to prove it and it's it's going to change things there. So if you're noticing that there's something out of order, document it. Absolutely.

And document when you've gone to complain about it so, like you say, there's a track record there. Yes, and you got to make some notes. The bedsore cases are very important. I mean you really shouldn't have a bedsore. And I get so many folks who come to me. If you've got a bedsore problem you got to take pictures. It's unsavory, but you have to do it, so we can have evidence to prove the matter. In fact a lot of people may not know their loved one even has a bedsore. If they're coming in and they're not communicable and they have a blanket up to here, you know what I mean, you would never know. You're not going to complain so you have to be very proactive. Yeah, the family has to work in conjunction with the person who's in the nursing home, to try to make sure the proper procedures are followed and that person is getting the right care. Right, absolutely. We have a phone call for you Jed. Good morning you're on with Jed Dietrich. Yes, good morning. My question is how long after a person’s death in a nursing home, that when our family went to the undertaker, the undertaker asked us if we wanted our grandmother buried with the cast on her leg. We didn’t know that her leg had been broken.

What I want to know is how long after could you have legal issues with the nursing home? That's a great question. It is a good question. It depends on the specific facts. I can't give you the exact answer to that with the information you just provided to me, but I'd suggest you contact my office at 716-839-3939. I’d be happy to talk to you about it. There are certain tolls associated with when someone passes away or when someone's young. A case may be held in a band so you have more time but I don't know if that's the case in this particular circumstance. The general rule in New York is to bring a claim for negligence within three years but again when there's a death or there's an infant involved that particular rule does not apply. So I'd be happy to talk to you, or you could contact another attorney, but that requires some factual information and we have to sit down and make a timeline and put it together.

But when you hear about something like that from a funeral director, or you hear about something like that from a family physician, in terms of a red flag going up, a light going off, you have to take action. Yeah absolutely, And when it doesn't cost anything to hire someone like me, and to get us involved, we're happy to do it. I mean there's no reason not to. What a shock to find out that you didn't even know. Unbelievable. That's why Jed's here and it's great to be able to get this legal information out to you this morning. Now, as we close this segment let's give you that information so you can contact Jed and you can get some help. The Dietrich Law Firm’s number is (716) 839-3939. That's (716) 839-3939 or you can go right to the website calljed.com. Alright, calljed.com easily located on John James Audubon Pkwy in Amherst.

---