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Choking in Long Island nursing homes is one of the most common causes of preventable death among residents. Even if the piece of food is dislodged, choking can be a traumatic experience. If you or a loved one suffers a choking incident due to neglect in a nursing home, you may have grounds to pursue legal action. A nursing home injury attorney can help you assess the strength of your case and guide you through the legal process should you choose to move forward.
Older adults are already at a higher risk of choking for health reasons, and facility conditions can increase the risk. Seniors tend to lose muscle strength and mass, and this includes the muscles used for swallowing. Losing teeth and cognitive decline can also make eating and swallowing more difficult, which increases the risk of choking.
Ideally, a nursing home should screen residents for these problems and adjust their dietary plans accordingly. For example, a resident who cannot chew well should only be served soft foods. Residents who have trouble swallowing should be supervised during meals. This allows nursing home staff to react quickly if the Long Island resident does start to choke.
If the nursing home or an individual employee caused the choking incident by being negligent, the resident or their immediate family members may be able to sue. If the nursing home resident dies, New York Estates, Powers & Trusts Law § 5-4.1 allows a personal representative, often the executor of their estate, to file a wrongful death lawsuit. If the person survives but still suffers medical complications after choking, they can file a personal injury lawsuit. There needs to be some sort of injury for a lawsuit, so the nursing home resident would not be able to sue if they had a near miss or started to choke on a piece of food that was dislodged quickly before it could do any damage.
Both personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits are based on negligence. The circumstances and evidence will be fairly similar for each. To be negligent, the nursing home needs to cause an injury by failing to provide the proper standard of care. For example, if a resident has trouble swallowing and the facility knows that they should be supervised during meals, the nursing home would be considered negligent if it was understaffed and did not provide supervision. If this led to the resident choking, the resident or their family would probably have grounds for a lawsuit. The nursing home would also be liable if it was not aware that the resident was at risk of choking, but reasonably should have been. For example, this would apply if the facility’s healthcare providers did not check medical records carefully or did not offer appropriate screening.
Choking in Long Island nursing homes is a serious risk for many seniors. If your loved one died or was injured from choking, a lawyer could help. Filing a lawsuit can hold the nursing home accountable and provide compensation that covers costs like future medical care. Schedule a free consultation with Duffy & Duffy to discuss your case today.
After years of serving New York–including the Bronx, Queens and Nassau, Suffolk and Kings Counties–, we are confident our injury lawyers can assist you with your claim. We are well respected by our clients, who appreciate not only the outcomes we’ve provided but also the care in which we resolved their cases. As you can see from our successful settlements, we offer excellent results, though the outcome varies depending on the case. Regardless of your case details, you can rest assured our Long Island car accident attorneys will always fight for you as you seek compensation to pay for medical bills, vehicle repairs and more. You deserve to be made whole again after your accident, and Duffy & Duffy is here to help.
No. Our injury cases are handled on a contingent retainer. You pay nothing upfront, and we recover attorney’s fees only if your litigation is successful. We don’t bill by the hour. You don’t need to worry about running up a large attorney’s bill before you see any recovery for your injuries.
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Each case we encounter is carefully screened and evidence scrutinized to make sure the claim is meritorious and may be successful at trial. We will perform an investigation, and then our partners make a final decision on whether to take on a case.
