After visiting your father in the nursing home, you noticed a skin injury. Could this be a bedsore? If so, should you hold the nursing home responsible?
MayoClinic explains how bedsores form and what they look like. Help protect your father while getting to the bottom of the situation.
Indications
Common symptoms of bedsores include tenderness, odd shifts in skin tone, draining pus and inflammation. When touching the injury, it may feel warmer or cooler than other areas of the skin.
Causes
Bedsores happen for several reasons. Depending on your father’s bed and how he sleeps, sliding down a bed angled at the head may cause the tailbone and the skin over it to slide in different directions, causing shear. If nursing home staff do not adjust residents in the bed, the constant pressure may reduce blood flow, which restricts nutrients and oxygen from reaching certain parts of the body. If a person has thin, moist skin, it may cause friction when bedding and clothing rub against each other.
Sites
You may indicate a bedsore by its location on the body. Common sites of the skin injury for those who spend a lot of time in bed include the shoulder blades, skin behind the knee, the heels, the sides and back of the head and the lower back and tailbone. Those who use wheelchairs may suffer sores on their spine, shoulder blades, buttocks and the back of their limbs where they press against the chair.
Did the above information help you confirm your father’s injury? Depending on the circumstances, you may have a nursing home negligence case.