Posted on April 07, 2025 in Nursing Home Abuse

The degree of care and medical intervention nursing home residents need varies dramatically. Some residents are able to walk, talk, eat, and perform most functions with little assistance from staff. Others are completely immobile and require machines to keep them alive.

Breathing tubes are often used to supply a resident with oxygen. The breathing tube is attached to a ventilator and serves as an artificial airway for people who cannot breathe on their own. Just like an obstruction in a throat, an obstruction in a breathing tube can prevent the resident from getting enough oxygen. Severe and fatal injuries can be caused by breathing tube clogs and other mistakes.

At Schwartz Injury Law, our Chicago, IL nursing home neglect attorneys can investigate the cause behind a breathing tube injury. We will fight to hold the negligent parties accountable, building a case to prove that the nursing home was at fault for your loved one’s injury. Our lawyers can help you pursue compensation for damages related not only to the resident’s medical care but pain and suffering as well.

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 Posted on March 31, 2025 in Bed Sores

Negligence in nursing homes can have serious health consequences. Pressure sores, or bedsores, are one such example, especially when they are neglected and become infected, leaving elderly residents in agonizing pain and at a greater risk of serious complications. However, the most serious kind of pressure sores - Stage 4 pressure sores - do not happen overnight. Oftentimes, these sores are the result of prolonged negligence and a lack of intervention by untrained or understaffed nursing homes.

When these facilities refuse to answer for the harm they cause, an Illinois personal injury attorney can help you take action. At Schwartz Injury Law, our lawyers can identify Stage 4 pressure sores and investigate the cause behind them, pursuing fair compensation for your elderly relative’s injuries. Since our firm was established, we have represented the victims of nursing home injuries and their families in numerous cases, with a long track record of success.

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 Posted on March 14, 2025 in Nursing Home Falls

When nursing homes neglect their duty to their patients, the risk of serious injury increases. In some cases, negligence can lead to permanent damage. In particular, traumatic brain injuries can have a lasting impact on cognition and someone’s ability to perform basic tasks. If your loved one has suffered a traumatic brain injury in the care of a nursing home, an Illinois personal injury attorney can help you file a claim against the facility.

At Schwartz Injury Law, we investigate accidents resulting in traumatic brain injuries at nursing homes. When you work with our firm, we will gather evidence to build a personal injury claim on your loved one’s behalf. Compensation in your loved one’s personal injury claim can include medical expenses, pain and suffering, and more.

What Is a Traumatic Brain Injury?

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a health complication caused by a forceful impact to the head. Short-term symptoms of a TBI may include:

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 Posted on February 28, 2025 in Nursing Home Abuse

Nursing homes are required to provide a certain standard of care for residents under both state and federal law. The law prohibits nursing homes from using unreasonable physical, chemical, or emotional restraint methods simply because it is more convenient than providing real supportive care.

Unfortunately, nursing homes are often understaffed and staff are often poorly trained or even abusive. It is essential to recognize signs of improper nursing home restraint methods so if your loved one is showing indications of improper restraint, you can take action right away.

At Schwartz Injury Law, we represent the rights of the elderly in cases of nursing home neglect and abuse. If your aging loved one has been subject to improper restraints in a nursing home, you deserve justice. When you work with us, our attorneys will thoroughly evaluate the conditions at your loved one’s nursing facility to identify signs of mistreatment.

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 Posted on February 14, 2025 in Neglect

Elderly people tend to be medically fragile, and the most at risk of developing serious conditions like cancer. We trust nursing homes to handle our loved ones at their most vulnerable, making sure any dangerous illnesses are caught early on and treated promptly. When this duty is neglected, nursing home residents can suffer serious health complications, including neoplasms.

An Illinois nursing home neglect lawyer can help you take legal action against nursing facilities that compromise the health of their residents by letting neoplasms fester. At Schwartz Injury Law, our attorneys are dedicated to identifying negligence in nursing homes and building cases for personal injury claims. When you work with us, we will fight for your family’s right to compensation.

What is a Neoplasm?

Neoplasms are better known as tumors, essentially clumps of cells that grow abnormally. Neoplasms often present as lumps on top of the skin and come in various sizes. What makes these growths so dangerous is that they can be cancerous, and, if not swiftly addressed, can spread to other parts of the body.

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 Posted on January 30, 2025 in Neglect

Older people are more susceptible to chronic illnesses and debilitating health conditions than most of the population. Nursing homes have a duty to take care of their medically fragile residents, but sometimes, the staff falls short of this responsibility. When serious conditions go untreated by the staff, casualties can occur.

If you have lost a loved one to an improperly treated chronic illness at a nursing home, you may have a strong case for a wrongful death claim. At Schwartz Injury Law, we have the resources to pursue a lawsuit against negligent nursing homes, making sure that the guilty parties are held responsible for their wrongdoing. Our Illinois nursing home death attorneys have secured numerous victories on behalf of elderly residents and their families, including a $400,000 settlement for the wrongful death of an elderly man with dementia in a care facility.

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 Posted on January 15, 2025 in Nursing Home Abuse

Nursing homes serve as essential institutions that care for our elderly population, providing them with the support and assistance they need in their later years. However, it is disheartening to acknowledge that some nursing homes fail to uphold the high standards of care and respect for their residents, leading to emotional abuse. Psychological torment in nursing homes can have lasting consequences for an elderly person’s health, both mentally and physically.

If you believe your loved one is suffering from emotional abuse in a nursing home, contact a Cook County, IL nursing home abuse lawyer to begin the process of ending the mistreatment and seeking justice for your loved one. At Schwartz Injury Law, we have a long history of fighting for nursing home residents, with countless victories to show for it. In our prior case results, we have secured significant compensation for abused and neglected elders, giving our clients closure after harrowing incidents.

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 Posted on December 30, 2024 in Nursing Home Falls

Falls among nursing home residents are the primary cause of injury, hospital admissions, and lawsuits. Falls are also the leading cause of death from injury among those 65 and older, with elderly adults suffering an estimated 29 million falls per year. In fact, about half of all nursing home residents will fall in any given year, leaving some with serious injuries and causing death for others.

Falls often go unreported in nursing homes, which means the elderly person who fell must suffer in silence, while his or her loved ones may not even be told about the fall. Even though falls are common for elderly patients in nursing homes, most falls are preventable. Almost one in three elderly nursing home residents who fall will fall again within a year.

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 Posted on December 06, 2024 in Nursing Home Abuse

Several months ago, a Lincolnshire nursing home was accused of nursing home abuse and neglect by a woman whose husband died from an infection of his leg wounds. The woman claimed that improper care resulted in her husband’s sepsis and subsequent death. The same facility faced unrelated claims regarding a major staffing shortage that left elderly patients with no medical care for hours.

The woman stated her husband’s leg wounds (the result of diabetes) were being properly treated when he was first admitted to the nursing home, but that in May 2023, the nursing home changed owners, and the level of care dropped significantly. The woman said her husband's leg wounds were so bad the bones could be seen and that he was transported from the facility to the hospital for confusion and paranoia related to sepsis infection.

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 Posted on November 25, 2024 in Nursing Home Abuse

Most adults who are relatively healthy rarely think twice about an infectious disease being potentially deadly to them. We may have a bout of the flu from time to time or a cold, but most of us do not spend a lot of time worrying about catching an infectious disease. Nursing homes place a significant number of elderly people with weakened immune systems in close quarters. While not ideal, this, in and of itself, is not usually the cause of infectious outbreaks in a nursing home.

The key to avoiding nursing home infectious outbreaks is relatively simple. Every staff member must wash his or her hands after every interaction with a patient. Antibacterial gel, in addition to vigilant hand washing, can often keep infectious diseases from spreading quickly through a nursing home. Making sure patients’ sheets, pillowcases, and blankets are washed and changed frequently can also help prevent infectious diseases.

Staff members who ignore hygiene and best practices or allow a resident to live in unsanitary conditions are committing a type of nursing home abuse that can cause severe illnesses. If your loved one has become extremely ill – or even died – from an infectious disease that spread because of lax hygiene practices, speaking to a Chicago, IL nursing home attorney from Schwartz Injury Law can be beneficial. The Illinois Nursing Home Care Act entitles residents to live in clean, sanitary conditions, free from abuse and neglect.    

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