Two residents of the Sunny Hill Nursing Home in Joliet, Illinois developed multiple bed sores while residents of the facility. The bed sores, also known as pressure ulcers, were deemed preventable by the Illinois Department of Public Health nursing home inspectors.
One of the residents, an 81-year-old resident of Sunny Hill, was under orders to wear a padded ankle brace 23 out of 24 hours. Each shift, the brace was supposed to be removed and the leg washed and dried.
When the pressure ulcer was discovered, it was determined to be a stage III ulcer. Pressure ulcers are diagnosed as stage I to stage IV. Stage I bed sores are generally identified as red marks on the skin. Stage IV bed sores, conversely, are open wounds that often extend through the tissue to the bone. They are some of the worst injuries that can happen to a person.
Obviously, a stage III bed sore doesn’t develop overnight. As an Illinois bed sores lawyer, I don’t see how it’s possible that the care ordered by the Sunny Hill resident’s physician was being followed.
The second resident’s bed sore was also “found” after it had already progressed to a stage III infection. Within a week, it had devolved into an unstageable wound. An “unstageable” bed sore is a bed sore that has has dead tissue in the wound bed but is at least at Stage 3 or Stage 4 wound.
Bed sores are one of the key indicators of nursing home neglect because they generally only develop in conditions where nursing home neglect is present. Damp conditions, poor nutrition and hydration, and a failure to regularly adjust high risk residents are the three conditions of nursing home neglect that almost always accompany any bed sore or pressure ulcer.
If you have a loved one who has developed pressure ulcers in an Illinois nursing home, contact my law firm immediately. Our team of Illinois bed sores lawyers has experience successfully litigating pressure sore lawsuits, and we would welcome the opportunity to speak to you.
Other blog posts of interest:
Three residents develop bed sores at Helia of Greenville