Resident on Resident Assault
I recently read an article about a disagreement between two residents at a local nursing home in Scioto County. During the argument, a female resident pushed her walker into a male resident. She threw a cup of ice in his face. He pushed her walker back, and the argument escalated. Unfortunately, we frequently see cases involving resident on resident assaults. We also see cases where members of the staff of the nursing home assault the residents.
How Can I Keep My Loved One Safe From Resident on Resident Assault?
What can you do if you are concerned that someone who you love who is in a nursing home is at risk because there is another resident in that nursing home who you are worried might be violent?
Nursing homes in Ohio have a duty to keep their residents safe. There is a body of law known as the Ohio Nursing Home Resident Bill of Rights. This is a state law in Ohio, and it guarantees specific rights to each and every nursing home resident in the State of Ohio. One of those rights is the right to a safe environment. The nursing home must hire a sufficient number of qualified, properly trained staff to keep their residents safe and to address their needs. One of the things that nursing homes are required to do is to monitor their residents and keep them safe, including keeping them safe from other residents.
If the nursing home has a resident who demonstrates violent tendencies, that nursing home has a duty to perform a comprehensive assessment of that resident and then come up with a comprehensive care plan that not only keeps that resident safe but keeps the other residents safe. If they can't come up with a comprehensive care plan to keep everyone at the nursing home safe, then they need to send that resident out of the nursing home to a facility where they can be kept safe. A nursing home cannot legally keep a resident in the nursing home who they cannot control, and who assaults other residents. That's a violation of the Ohio Nursing Home Resident Bill of Rights.
Steps to Take if You or Your Loved One Has Been a Victim of Resident on Resident Assault
If someone you love is in a nursing home, and they have any kind of altercation whatsoever with another resident, you need to talk with the Administrator at the nursing home and/or the Director of Nursing at the nursing home immediately to find out what the plan is to keep your loved one safe in the future. Even if the initial altercation is not particularly violent or does not lead to any injury of your loved one, that situation may change.
Very often, the residents who are being aggressive are doing so because they are suffering from some kind of mental challenge. Many nursing home residents suffer from dementia. Many nursing home residents suffer from Alzheimer's disease. Oftentimes, these residents can be treated properly with therapy and/or medication. There are a number of medications that can help a resident alleviate their aggressive tendencies.
Recognizing the Signs of Assault
If your loved one has any unexplained bruising, you need to talk with the staff at the nursing home and find out how that bruising occurred. Nursing homes have a duty to contact the family of each and every resident, if that resident is not mentally competent, and report to them any significant change in that resident's condition, including any incident resulting in injury. Therefore, if your loved one is involved in an altercation that leads to an injury, the nursing home has a duty to contact you immediately and inform you of that incident. If you discover that your loved one was involved in an altercation with another resident and the nursing home did not reach out and contact you about that incident, you should think very seriously about moving your loved one to another nursing home.
To the extent that the nursing home is covering up a situation, that can be very dangerous for your loved one. Unfortunately, here at The Dickson Firm, we have handled numerous cases where nursing homes have covered up injuries suffered by their residents. They have covered up falls. We are even handling a current case where the Administrator and the Director of Nursing and the Assistant Director of Nursing covered up the fact that the Director of Nursing and the Assistant Director of Nursing claimed that they tested all of the residents on a certain wing of the nursing home for COVID when in fact they did not perform any of those tests. They submitted false samples to the hospital for testing. Those false samples all came back negative. Unfortunately, many residents in that wing actually had COVID and had they been tested properly it would have been revealed that they had COVID and the nursing home could have taken precautions to protect their residents and their staff. Multiple other residents contracted COVID and at least one resident died of COVID.
If you are concerned that the nursing home where your loved one is a resident has not contacted you any time your loved one has had a significant change in their condition and/or is not being honest with you about their care, then you should think very seriously about moving them to another nursing home. There's no excuse for failing to keep you informed about the condition of your loved one in a nursing home.
Contact an Experienced Nursing Home Abuse Attorney
If someone you love has been neglected or abused in a nursing home, please call us at The Dickson Firm at 1-800-OHIO LAW as we would be happy to talk with you at any time and help you in any way that we can.