One kind of damages in a nursing home neglect case are the medical and doctor bills incurred in trying to treat whatever it is that happened to that elderly
person — for example, emergency room bills and subsequent hospitalization. Sadly, often the damages are for wrongful death where the spouse or children of the individual bring
a claim for the untimely death of their parent or spouse.
In a nursing home neglect lawsuit, what you hear most often from the defense is that they were old, they were already in a nursing home, and they were going to die anyway.
“No harm, no foul.” In my view, this is the wrong way to look elder cases. When mortality is on the doorstep and when we know that the time that we have with
our loved one, who means so much to us, is limited, then those limited days, weeks, months, years become all the more precious. We do not love our parents any less simply
because they are old.
It is a part of our lives to enjoy being with them. To enjoy them whether they have dementia or not, whether they are mobile or not – those precious moments. There can be a temptation to dismiss the importance of these moments with our elderly loved ones, but we need to resist that and fight against others’ attempts to minimize it.
