Key Takeaways:
- Nursing homes must address known accident hazards and provide residents with adequate supervision and appropriate assistance devices.
- A fall may support a neglect claim when a facility knew about a risk but failed to take reasonable precautions.
- Hip fractures can require surgery, hospitalization, rehabilitation, and may cause lasting loss of mobility.
- South Carolina filing deadlines vary with the type of claim, so families should have the specific deadline evaluated promptly.
Your mother calls to say she's in the hospital. She fell getting out of bed at her nursing home, and doctors have confirmed a broken hip. The facility calls it an accident. You're left wondering whether it was something more.
Not every fall in a nursing home is neglect. Elderly residents fall for all kinds of reasons, and some falls happen even with attentive care. But South Carolina nursing homes carry specific legal duties to prevent foreseeable falls, and South Carolina nursing home neglect and abuse attorneys can help you find out whether this facility met those duties.
Table of Contents
Why Falls Happen So Often in Nursing Homes
Nursing home residents can face an elevated risk of falling because of age-related health conditions, mobility limitations, medications, environmental hazards, and the level of assistance they need. Factors contributing to nursing home falls include:
- Understaffing that leaves too few aides to answer call lights or assist with transfers
- Medication errors that raise a resident's fall risk, including drugs that cause dizziness or low blood pressure
- Untreated vision problems, muscle weakness, or an unstable gait
- Poor lighting, wet floors, loose rugs, or cluttered walkways
- Wheelchairs, walkers, or bed rails that aren't properly maintained
Any one of these can contribute to a fall. When several risk factors were known or should have been known, investigators may examine whether the facility took reasonable steps to address those risks before the fall.
The Facility's Legal Duty to Prevent Falls
Federal law does not require nursing homes to guarantee that residents will never fall. It does require facilities to identify residents’ needs, address avoidable accident hazards, and provide the supervision and assistance necessary to reduce foreseeable risks.
Federal Resident Assessments and Care Plans
Federal regulations require nursing home facilities to conduct comprehensive resident assessments after admission and following qualifying significant changes in condition, and to develop and revise person-centered care plans based on residents’ assessed needs. For a resident with an identified fall risk, appropriate interventions may include additional supervision, transfer assistance, toileting assistance, suitable footwear, or other individualized measures.
When a Fall Crosses the Line Into Neglect
A nursing home fall may support a stronger neglect claim when the facility knew or should have known that the resident faced a significant fall risk and failed to take reasonable steps to address it. Ignored transfer-assistance requirements, an outdated care plan, failure to respond to call lights, unavailable mobility aids, or leaving a resident with known wandering or fall risks without needed supervision can be evidence that the facility did not follow the resident’s assessed care needs.
Hip Fractures and Other Serious Fall Injuries
Hip fractures are among the most severe injuries an older adult can sustain from a fall. According to OrthoInfo, the patient education site of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, most hip fractures result from weakened bone, often associated with osteoporosis, combined with the impact of a fall. Nearly all require surgery, hospitalization, and extended rehabilitation.
Many older adults never fully regain the mobility or independence they had beforehand. Other common fall injuries include spinal fractures, traumatic brain injuries, and lacerations requiring stitches, all of which can extend a resident's recovery and add substantially to medical costs.
What to Do After a Nursing Home Fall
What happens immediately after a fall can affect both your loved one’s health and your ability to understand why the fall occurred. Focus first on medical care, then begin gathering records and information about the resident’s condition, care plan, and circumstances surrounding the incident.
- Get your loved one a full medical evaluation, even if the injury seems minor at first.
- Request a copy of the incident report along with relevant resident assessments, fall-risk documentation, and the resident’s care plan.
- Photograph the area where the fall happened, including anything that may have contributed.
- Ask directly whether the facility had flagged your loved one as a fall risk beforehand.
- Watch for other warning signs of nursing home neglect that may help show whether the fall was part of a broader problem with your loved one's care.
- Talk with a South Carolina nursing home neglect attorney before agreeing to any account of what happened.
When a Fall Leads to a Wrongful Death Claim
Some falls, particularly in residents who are already frail or who suffer a head injury, prove fatal. When negligence contributes to a resident’s death, the executor or administrator of the resident’s estate may be able to bring a wrongful death claim on behalf of the statutory beneficiaries.
South Carolina treats wrongful death differently from a personal injury claim in important respects, including who brings the action, the damages available, and when the limitations period begins.
Many South Carolina injury and wrongful death claims are subject to a three-year statute of limitations, but the date that starts the clock depends on the type of claim. Negligence claims may involve a discovery rule, medical-malpractice claims are subject to their own statutory requirements and outside limits, and a wrongful-death limitations period generally begins on the date of death, so the deadline should be evaluated based on the specific facts of the case.
Because records, surveillance footage, staffing information, witness recollections, and other evidence may become harder to obtain over time, families should consider requesting and preserving relevant information promptly.