Your loved one was placed in a nursing home because you wanted them cared for. Safe. Looked after by people whose entire job is to make sure they’re okay.
So when you visit and notice a wound that wasn’t there before, or when a nurse mentions something called a “pressure ulcer” almost in passing, the questions start flooding in.
How did this happen? Could it have been prevented? And what do you do now?
If someone you love has developed bedsores in a Las Vegas nursing home, you may be able to take legal action. Here’s what you need to know.
What Are Bedsores, and Why Do Nursing Homes Have to Watch for Them?
Bedsores, also called pressure sores or pressure ulcers, form when sustained pressure cuts off blood flow to the skin. The tissue starts to break down. Left unaddressed, what begins as a patch of reddened skin can deteriorate into an open wound that reaches muscle or bone.
Nursing home residents are particularly vulnerable because many of them can’t reposition themselves. They rely entirely on staff to help them shift, move, and change positions throughout the day and night.
Bedsores most commonly develop on bony areas of the body where pressure accumulates: the heels, tailbone, hips, shoulder blades, and back of the head. They’re classified by severity:
- Stage 1: The skin is intact but noticeably red or discolored, and the color doesn’t fade when you press on it. At this stage, the wound hasn’t broken through the skin yet. Caught here, bedsores can typically be reversed with attentive care and repositioning.
- Stage 2: The outer layer of skin has broken down, and there may be a shallow open sore, a blister, or a raw, tender area. This stage still responds well to treatment, but it indicates that prevention protocols were not followed in a timely manner.
- Stage 3: The wound has reached the tissue beneath the skin. You may be able to see fat in the wound bed. This is a serious injury requiring aggressive medical management, and its presence in a nursing home setting raises hard questions about the quality of care a resident has been receiving.
- Stage 4: The deepest and most dangerous stage. Tissue loss is extensive, and bone, tendon, or muscle may be exposed or visible. Stage 4 bedsores carry a high risk of life-threatening infection and often require surgical intervention. When a nursing home resident reaches this point, neglect is almost always part of the picture.
The key thing to understand: in most cases, bedsores in nursing homes are preventable. When they appear, it often signals that something went wrong with the care your loved one was receiving.
How Bedsores Develop in Nursing Homes
Several factors increase the risk of bedsores, and nursing home staff are trained to monitor and manage all of them. When facilities fall short, bedsores can develop quickly.
Contributing factors may include:
- Immobility. Residents who can’t turn themselves need to be repositioned several times a day.
- Poor nutrition and hydration. Skin integrity depends on proper nourishment. Malnutrition weakens the body’s ability to repair itself.
- Moisture. Prolonged exposure to urine or feces, which sometimes happens when incontinence care is neglected, softens skin and accelerates breakdown.
- Friction and shearing. Improper transfer techniques or leaving someone in one position too long creates friction that damages delicate skin.
- Inadequate monitoring. Bedsores caught early are far easier to treat. When nursing home staff fail to conduct proper skin assessments, wounds progress before anyone addresses them.
None of these is a mystery to nursing home administrators. They’re known risks, and facilities are legally and ethically required to have protocols in place to prevent them.
Signs and Symptoms of Bedsores Families Should Watch For in Their Loved Ones
Sometimes, a nursing home staff member will tell you about a wound. Sometimes they won’t, or they’ll minimize it. That’s why knowing what to look for during visits matters.
Watch for:
- Any area of reddened, discolored, or darkened skin that doesn’t return to normal after pressure is relieved
- Open sores, blisters, or wounds, particularly on the heels, tailbone, hips, or lower back
- Foul odors near a wound site, which can indicate infection
- Signs of pain or discomfort when your loved one is repositioned or touched in certain areas
- Unexplained fever or confusion, which can signal an infection spreading from an untreated wound
- Bandaging that doesn’t seem to be changed regularly
If you notice any of these, ask to speak with the charge nurse and request documentation of when the wound was first identified and what treatment plan is in place. Get it in writing if possible.
Additionally, if you suspect elder abuse is occurring in the nursing home, you can report an incident of abuse to the Nevada Aging and Disability Services Division at 888-729-0571.
How Nursing Homes Should Be Preventing Bedsores
Prevention is the standard of care, and any reputable nursing facility should have active protocols to keep pressure wounds from forming in the first place. When those protocols are missing or ignored, residents pay the price.
Here’s what proper bedsore prevention looks like:
- Regular repositioning. For residents who can’t move on their own, staff should be turning or shifting them regularly, typically at least every two hours, though the appropriate frequency varies based on each resident’s individualized care plan, mobility level, and clinical condition.
- Pressure-relieving equipment. Specialized mattresses, cushions, and heel protectors distribute body weight more evenly and reduce the sustained pressure on vulnerable areas.
- Consistent skin assessments. Staff should be inspecting residents’ skin regularly, especially at high-risk spots like the tailbone, heels, and hips. Catching early redness before it becomes an open wound is the whole game.
- Adequate nutrition and hydration. A care plan that doesn’t address a resident’s nutritional needs is incomplete. Healthy skin requires protein, vitamins, and fluids; residents who aren’t eating or drinking enough are at higher risk.
- Proper hygiene and incontinence care. Skin exposed to moisture for extended periods breaks down faster. Attentive incontinence care, regular cleaning, and barrier creams are all standard preventive measures.
- Individualized care planning. Not every resident has the same risk level. Facilities are supposed to assess each person’s vulnerability and adjust their care plan accordingly.
When a nursing home skips these steps, whether because of understaffing, inadequate training, or simple neglect, the harm that follows is foreseeable. And foreseeable harm that goes unaddressed is the foundation of a negligence claim.
The Health Consequences Can Be Serious
Stage 1 and Stage 2 bedsores, caught early and treated properly, can heal. But when wounds progress or become infected, the stakes go up considerably.
Advanced bedsores can lead to:
- Cellulitis, a bacterial skin infection that spreads rapidly
- Osteomyelitis, a bone infection that is difficult to treat and can be permanently debilitating
- Sepsis, a life-threatening systemic infection
- Hospitalization, surgery, or in the most serious cases, death
These are not rare outcomes. Nearly 60,000 patients die as a direct result of pressure ulcers every year.
When Should You Talk to a Nursing Home Bedsores Attorney in Las Vegas?
This is where a lot of families get stuck. They’re not sure if what happened was negligence or an unavoidable medical complication. They don’t want to assume the worst. They’re still processing everything.
Those are completely understandable feelings. But here’s what the law recognizes: nursing homes have a duty of care. When they breach that duty and someone is harmed, the facility can be held accountable.
You should speak with a Las Vegas nursing home bedsores attorney if:
- Your loved one developed a bedsore while in a nursing home’s care, particularly at Stage 3 or Stage 4
- The facility failed to notify you when the wound first appeared or was discovered
- Treatment was delayed, inconsistent, or inadequate
- Your loved one required hospitalization, surgery, or additional treatment because of the wound or a related infection
- A loved one died and you believe bedsores or a related infection contributed to their passing
You don’t need to know for certain that negligence occurred before calling. That’s what an attorney is for.
Talk to one of our personal injury attorneys now.
How Do You Know If a Bedsore Was Caused by Nursing Home Neglect?
This is the question families wrestle with most. Nursing homes sometimes frame bedsores as an unfortunate but unavoidable part of caring for elderly or medically complex residents. And in some cases, that can be true.
But more often than not, a bedsore is a symptom of something that should have been caught, managed, or stopped.
A few indicators that a wound likely crossed the line from complication into neglect:
- The wound reached Stage 3 or Stage 4. Pressure injuries at this depth don’t happen overnight. They develop over days or weeks of inadequate repositioning, missed skin checks, or untreated earlier-stage wounds. A facility paying proper attention catches problems long before they get here.
- The wound appeared quickly after admission. New residents are supposed to receive a thorough skin assessment on arrival and a care plan that addresses any risk factors. A bedsore developing within days of admission often means that assessment was skipped or ignored.
- Staff couldn’t explain how the wound developed. Vague answers, conflicting accounts, or an inability to produce documentation about when the wound was first identified are red flags.
- Your loved one showed signs of general neglect. Bedsores rarely exist in isolation. If you’ve also noticed unwashed clothing, significant weight loss, unmet hygiene needs, or a general decline that wasn’t discussed with the family, the wound may be part of a bigger pattern.
- The facility was cited for staffing deficiencies or prior care violations. Nevada nursing homes are subject to state inspections, and those records are public. A history of citations around staffing levels or resident care protocols can be meaningful context.
How Do You Prove Nursing Home Neglect?
Building a strong case comes down to documentation, and the sooner you start gathering it, the better.
Photographs are some of the most compelling evidence available. If you can safely photograph the wound, including the surrounding area and any progression over time, do it. Date and timestamp every image.
Medical records tell a detailed story. They should show when the wound was first documented, how it was staged, what treatment was ordered, and whether that treatment was actually carried out. Gaps in those records or notes that seem inconsistent with what you observed matter.
Staffing logs and incident reports can reveal whether the facility had the personnel to meet basic care standards on the days or nights in question. Chronic understaffing is one of the most common drivers of nursing home neglect.
Witness accounts from your loved one, other residents, or family members who visited regularly can fill in details that records don’t capture. Write down what you remember, when you remember it. Specifics like dates, names, and what was said during conversations with staff can be valuable later.
State inspection records and complaint histories provide broader context about how the facility has operated over time. An attorney can pull these and help you understand what they mean for your case.
You don’t need to have all of this in hand before reaching out to a personal injury lawyer in Las Vegas. Gathering and analyzing evidence is part of our job.
Learn more about our Las Vegas nursing home injury attorneys.
What Taking Legal Action Can Do
If a nursing home’s negligence caused or worsened your loved one’s bedsores, a legal claim may recover compensation for:
- Medical expenses related to treatment of the wound and any resulting complications
- Pain and suffering your loved one endured
- Costs of transferring to a different facility or obtaining alternative care
- Wrongful death damages if a loved one passed away
What Is the Statute of Limitations for Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuits in Nevada?
Grief and uncertainty have a way of slowing everything down. Families dealing with a loved one’s injury or death often spend weeks or months just trying to make sense of what happened before they think about legal options. But in Nevada, there are firm deadlines on how long you have to file a claim, and missing them can close the door permanently.
For nursing home neglect and abuse cases in Nevada, the general statute of limitations is two years from the date of the injury, or from the date the injury was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered, but exceptions apply, and an attorney should evaluate your specific timeline.
However, if a bedsore was hidden, misrepresented, or simply not disclosed by the facility, the clock may not start running until the point you became aware of the harm.
Wrongful death cases follow a similar timeline: two years from the date of the resident’s passing.
A few additional factors can affect how these deadlines apply to your specific situation:
- The discovery rule. Nevada law accounts for situations where an injury isn’t immediately apparent. If your loved one’s wound was concealed or mischaracterized by staff, an attorney can help establish when you reasonably could have known about the neglect.
- Claims involving a government-operated facility. If the nursing home is publicly run, such as a county or state-operated facility, different notice requirements and shorter deadlines may apply. This is a critical distinction that an attorney needs to evaluate early.
- The resident’s capacity. In some cases involving residents who lacked the mental capacity to understand or report their injury, additional legal considerations around tolling may come into play.
Two years sounds like plenty of time. It often isn’t, especially when gathering medical records, identifying witnesses, and building a solid case all take time in their own right.
The earlier you speak with a Las Vegas nursing home neglect attorney, the more options your family has.
Contact Henness and Haight today.
Why Families Trust Henness and Haight’s Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawyers in Las Vegas, NV
Henness and Haight has been standing up for personal injury victims in Las Vegas for over 25 years. Mark and Mike both grew up and built their careers here. They know the local medical community, the judges, the defense attorneys, and the tactics insurance companies and large corporate nursing home chains rely on to protect themselves.
That matters, and so does the firm’s track record: a 99.4% success rate and over $500 million recovered for clients across Nevada. (Note: Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.)
When you work with Henness and Haight, you’re not a case number. The firm is large enough to go up against any insurer or corporation, and focused enough that you’ll actually know the people handling your family’s case.
There are no upfront costs. The firm works on contingency, which means you pay nothing unless they win for you.
Talk to a Las Vegas Nursing Home Bedsores Attorney Today to Schedule a Free Consultation
If your loved one has suffered bedsores due to nursing home neglect, our experienced Las Vegas bedsore lawyers are here to help.
Get your free case consultation at Henness and Haight today.
