When elderly residents move into a nursing home, they rely entirely on the staff and administration to provide a safe, sanitary, and attentive environment. Because older adults have weakened immune systems and live in close proximity to others, they are highly susceptible to severe infections.
When a facility fails to recognize and treat common issues like bedsores, urinary tract infections, or pneumonia, these conditions can rapidly escalate into sepsis, a deadly, systemic immune response. Neglecting to prevent, identify, or promptly treat this medical emergency is a severe breach of a facility’s duty of care.
If your loved one died due to untreated sepsis in a long-term care facility, this page explains how neglected infections become fatal, who can be held liable under Arizona law, and how a dedicated Phoenix nursing home abuse lawyer can help your family seek answers and justice for your grievous loss.
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How Does Untreated Sepsis In a Nursing Home Become a Wrongful Death Case?
What Is Sepsis, and Why Are the Elderly Vulnerable?
Sepsis is a life-threatening medical condition triggered by an initial infection. While medical professionals once believed that sepsis was “blood poisoning” resulting from an infection spreading to the bloodstream, it’s now understood that sepsis occurs as the body’s sometimes disproportionate response to an infection. When the human immune system recognizes an infection, it triggers cytokines to attack the dangerous pathogens causing the illness. Unfortunately, and for reasons that aren’t clearly understood, the body sometimes sends out a massive storm of cytokines to attack the pathogens by triggering inflammation. In sepsis cases, this inflammation also begins damaging cells in healthy organs. When left untreated, the organs begin to shut down. Sepsis causes the shutdown of the kidneys, lungs, heart, and brain, resulting in death if not aggressively treated before organ damage. The death rate for severe sepsis is about 50%.
Elderly nursing home residents have weakened immune systems, often due to multiple comorbidities. They also have older organs that are more likely to experience rapid cell death and shut down. For these reasons, sepsis is a serious risk to the elderly. Nursing homes must have protocols in place to monitor residents for sepsis and respond appropriately to this life-threatening condition.
What Are the Symptoms of Sepsis In Elderly Nursing Home Residents?
The best treatment for sepsis cases in nursing homes is prevention, but nursing home residents are susceptible to respiratory infections, infected bedsores, urinary tract and bladder infections, and fungal infections. Sepsis can develop very quickly during an infection, especially in the elderly. When caring for an elderly nursing home resident with an infection, it’s crucial to immediately identify signs of sepsis, including the following:
- Fever
- Delirium, sudden confusion, or an altered mental state
- Lethargy or weakness
- Extreme fatigue
- Loss of appetite
- Low urine output
- Clammy skin
- Rapid breathing
- Accelerated heart rate
- Sudden drop in blood pressure
Sepsis is a life-threatening medical emergency. Unfortunately, sepsis sometimes occurs before nursing home caregivers are aware that the resident is suffering from an infection, especially when caregivers provide negligent care, including a lack of adequate monitoring and failure to acquire medical care for a resident with a change in physical or mental status.
Liability In Nursing Home Sepsis Wrongful Death Cases
Under Arizona 46-455, the law requires caregivers to uphold their legal duty of care to vulnerable adults, including elderly nursing home residents. When a nursing home’s staff fails to promptly identify infections and obtain medical care to prevent sepsis, or fails to identify a case of life-threatening sepsis already in progress, they violate their legal duty of care.
In most cases, the nursing home administrator is legally liable for wrongful death damages, rather than individual caregivers. It’s the nursing home administration’s duty to hire qualified caregivers, provide adequate training, and perform sufficient monitoring. When the violation of this duty results in a resident’s wrongful death, a close surviving family member has the right to seek compensation and a sense of justice for their grievous loss.
Who Can File for Wrongful Death In Arizona Nursing Home Sepsis Death Cases?
Like other states, Arizona law under 12-612 limits those who may file a wrongful death claim to immediate family members. This prevents distant relatives who don’t suffer the financial effects of the death from exploiting the case for financial gain. Instead, only a spouse, adult child, or parent may file an Arizona wrongful death claim. If none of those family members file a wrongful death claim after a nursing home sepsis death, the representative of the decedent’s estate may file on behalf of the estate. Then, any compensation recovered is distributed according to the terms of the decedent’s will or Arizona’s intestacy laws for those who don’t have a will.
What Damages Can My Family Recover after a Sepsis Nursing Home Wrongful Death?
No legal process erases the anguish of a preventable loss, especially when it’s a beloved elderly nursing home resident who was placed by their family into the hands of those who promised skilled, attentive care. Although a successful claim doesn’t bring back a lost loved one, it does provide a voice for justice through financial accountability. Common damages recovered in nursing home sepsis wrongful death claims include the following:
- Reimbursement for medical costs
- Funeral costs and burial expenses
- Out-of-pocket costs
- A family member’s lost wages
- Compensation for the elderly decedent’s pain and suffering
- Compensation for the family’s emotional grief and anguish
- Punitive damages may be available for cases of egregious negligence with wanton disregard for safety, or for maliciousness or a fraudulent attempt to cover up the cause of the death
It takes a full investigation and substantial evidence of the nursing home’s negligence to obtain a settlement for the family’s damages. If the nursing home’s liability insurance company fails to offer an acceptable settlement, the claimant and their attorney may choose to take the claim to court within the state’s statute of limitations.
How Long Do I Have to File a Wrongful Death Claim In an Arizona Nursing Home Sepsis Case?
A claimant in an Arizona wrongful death case has up to two years from the date of the death to file a claim. If the cause of death was discovered later and found to be caused by nursing home negligence, the two-year statute of limitations begins on the date the determination was made under the discovery rule.
An experienced Arizona nursing home wrongful death lawyer can explain how the state’s statute of limitations affects your claim under the unique circumstances of your loved one’s case.