Dealing with Nursing Home Wrongful Death Claims

 Posted on November 14, 2022 in Nursing Home Abuse

There was a disturbing series of new stories published recently, with WTTW-TV reporting on October 12 that one Chicago hospital has seen at least seven resident deaths and at least 72 citations since January 1, 2017, more than any other Illinois hospital monitored by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Chicago Sun-Times reported on October 17 that an 87-year-old woman was found beaten to death Saturday in a senior home on the South Side.

People are always shocked to learn they are dealing with nursing home abuse, but abuse can be a much more complicated area to handle in wrongful death cases. It is important for families who have questions about the death of one of their loved ones in a nursing home to immediately contact a skilled Chicago nursing home abuse attorney.

How Nursing Home Wrongful Death Claims Work

When you believe that a nursing home was responsible for your loved one’s death, you will need to keep in mind what you are going to have to prove. Namely, you will have to prove that a nursing home had a legal obligation to ensure the safety of the deceased, the nursing home did not take the necessary safety precautions to safeguard the deceased, and the failure was the actual and legal cause of the wrongful death.

The reason it is so important to get a lawyer involved in your case as soon as possible is that they will know what steps to take to secure all of the most important evidence. Delaying too long gives a nursing home more time to cover its tracks and dispose of any evidence that might demonstrate its negligence.

An attorney is going to be able to secure medical records, photos of a victim’s wounds, photos or videos of conditions at the nursing home, accounts from other residents about possible abuse, all documentation of the nursing home’s correspondence with the family, and a timeline of events. Another important factor to keep in mind is that the nursing home itself may not be the negligent party in your case, as an investigation could reveal that a third party bears more liability for a death than the nursing home.

In Illinois, a wrongful death claim has to be filed by a personal representative (also known as the executor) of a deceased person's estate, but if a deceased person died without appointing a personal representative, a court can appoint one. You need to remember that your civil wrongful death claim is much different from a criminal wrongful death case, as a prosecutor needs to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt while you only have to prove your case by a preponderance of the evidence, essentially meaning “more likely than not.”

Contact a Chicago Nursing Home Abuse Attorney 

If you believe that your loved one died in a nursing home in Cook County because of another party’s negligence, you deserve answers. Do not wait to contact the nursing home abuse lawyers at Schwartz Injury Law so you can immediately commence a rigorous investigation into what happened.

Our firm understands how challenging these cases can be for families and we will be by your side the entire time so there is nothing you have to deal with on your own. Call 312-535-4625 or contact us online to take advantage of your own free consultation.

Sources: 

https://news.wttw.com/2022/10/11/roseland-hospital-cited-putting-patients-risk

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/10/16/23408062/death-of-woman-at-senior-living-facility-ruled-a-homicide