Dehydration & Malnutrition

The Los Angeles dehydration and malnutrition lawyers at the Law Offices of Ben Yeroushalmi are dedicated to fighting nursing home and assisted living neglect and are equipped to handle your loved one’s case. Contact us today if you or your loved one has suffered harm as a result of a nursing home or care facility’s failure to provide adequate nutrition or hydration.

We understand that the elderly are at a higher risk of dehydration for a host of reasons. They usually experience a deterioration of their thirst mechanisms, and their bodily fluid is lower. Cognitive impairments and deficits can also lead to dehydration because the elderly can forget to take care of themselves and drink when needed. Dehydration can result in many adverse events, including lethargy, falls, renal dysfunction, stroke, and even death. Operators of skilled nursing and assisted living facilities are aware of these facts that make the elderly especially vulnerable to dehydration and are therefore on notice of their obligations.

Malnutrition and weight loss are also significant problems for patients and residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities and can lead to multiple complications, including pressure ulcers and infections. As with most other injuries, including dehydration, malnutrition can often be traced to low staffing. An appealing eating environment and one-on-one staffing to assist residents who are unable to feed themselves may help residents regain or maintain weight.

In order to ensure that its residents are receiving proper nutrition and fluid intake, facilities must be adequately staffed with trained professionals. Because understaffing is usually the root cause of most nursing home and assisted living neglect, our team of dehydration and malnutrition lawyers in Los Angeles would like to emphasize the importance of choosing a facility for your loved one based on the quality of care provided by its staff. We recommend that you visit at different times of the day. Although a facility may appear to be fully staffed during certain shifts, it often becomes clear that the facility is chronically understaffed during mealtimes, which are arguably one of the most hectic times of the day.

Unfortunately, this shortage of staff during mealtimes often leaves many residents starving or thirsty. Sometimes staff will carelessly leave a plate of food in front of a patient or resident who cannot eat independently. Instead of receiving the assistance with feeding that he or she needs, the elder’s food plate will be taken away, untouched, when mealtime is over. Similarly, lack of training or understaffing often lead to careless staffing errors, such as failing to follow physician’s orders and feeding elders food that is not recommended or even dangerous enough to cause death. Other instances that we see occurring much too often include caregivers neglecting to feed residents who are on feeding tubes or forgetting to give residents sufficient amounts of water. If understaffing has caused injury to you or your loved one, you may want to contact a dehydration and malnutrition lawyer in Los Angeles.

Even more egregiously, facilities will subsequently try to claim that the resident was uncooperative and refused to eat or drink. The attorneys at the Law Offices of Ben Yeroushalmi know that is not the truth. There is absolutely no excuse for allowing any human being to starve or dehydrate to death. We firmly believe that every individual deserves to be treated with dignity and respect up through their last moments. Do not allow such egregious neglect to continue to occur in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities. We must fight against elder abuse by holding the responsible parties accountable for their actions.

Our team of experts has litigated numerous elder abuse and neglect cases resulting in favorable outcomes for our clients. We work on a contingency basis, which means that there is no cost to you unless a favorable settlement or jury verdict is achieved. If you believe your loved one is suffering from dehydration or malnutrition, don’t hesitate, contact us immediately for a free case evaluation.

If you believe that your loved one has suffered abuse or neglect at a nursing home or assisted living facility, it is imperative that you act immediately. Put an end to such abuse by calling the Los Angeles dehydration and malnutrition attorneys of the Law Offices of Ben Yeroushalmi. We have litigated nursing home and assisted living cases for over 10 years and have achieved maximum results for our clients. Contact us online or at (310) 623-1926 for an immediate free consultation.