Fort Myers Hospital Bed Sores Attorney
Workers are individually responsible for hospital injuries. A Fort Myers hospital bed sore attorney can hold the hospital financially responsible for such injuries.
Recovery injuries, like infections and bed sores, are very common at Florida hospitals. When the medical procedure, be it a birth or a surgery, ends, many medical teams think they are out of the woods. Therefore, their guard drops slightly. They keep one eye on the patient and one eye on the clock. That slight lapse, since the patient is in such a vulnerable condition, often makes a big difference.
People in poor physical condition are especially susceptible to bed sores. Weak bodies cannot fight infectious wounds as effectively as healthy bodies. Healthy people may develop early-stage bedsores, which are basically red spots. However, the infection soon passes. If the victim is in poor health, these early-stage bed sores soon become late-stage bed sores. These open wounds are usually life threatening.
The experienced Fort Myers hospital bed sore attorneys at Kohn Law routinely handle these matters in Lee County and nearby jurisdictions. Since we are fully familiar with all procedural rules, including the unwritten and informal ones, we focus all our energy on obtaining maximum compensation for bed sore and other serious injury victims.
First Party Liability
Open sores, like bed sores, usually don’t appear accidentally. Negligence, which in this case is usually a failure to prevent or property respond to early-stage bed sores, usually causes these injuries.
As long as people change positions as they sleep, pressure ulcers don’t appear. Extended pressure on bony parts of the body, like the knees and ankles, usually causes bed sores. That’s especially true if the victim is recovering from a medical procedure or otherwise not in top health.
A single employee, often a licensed vocational nurse, often does routine rounds on nights and weekends. Individuals might not have enough strength, or enough desire, to turn patients over in bed. As a result, bed sores develop and fester.
Moreover, less-qualified professionals often cannot spot early stage bed sores, especially in low-light conditions. Furthermore, these professionals might not know how serious a pressure ulcer can be, and how quickly mild sores become serious injuries.
If hospital employee negligence causes a bed sore, a Fort Myers hospital bed sore attorney can obtain compensation for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. Additional punitive damages may be available as well, in some extreme cases.
Third Party Liability
Hospital employees often have little or no insurance. That’s especially true of non-doctor employees. Largely for this reason, respondeat superior (let the master answer) is one of the most important legal doctrines in a hospital injury claim.
This legal doctrine, which holds employers liable for the negligence of their employees, applies if:
- Employee: Many people who work at hospitals aren’t employees for tax purposes. Instead, they are independent contractors or perhaps unpaid volunteers. All these individuals are employees for negligence purposes, since the hospital controls their actions while they’re at work.
- Scope of Employment: These acts aren’t limited to the to-do list on a daily work chart. Any act which benefits the employer in any way is within the scope of employment. That includes negligence which happens while one employee is illegally covering for another employee.
Respondeat superior is also important for deterrence purposes. Companies can fire or discipline negligent employees and then move on. But if they must pay damages, they usually change the way they do business and make patient health and safety a higher priority.
Contact an Experienced Lee County Lawyer
Injury victims are usually entitled to substantial compensation. For a free consultation with an experienced Fort Myers hospital bed sore attorney, contact Kohn Law. Virtual, home, and hospital visits are available.
