Arizona Bedsore Lawyers

A bedsore, also called a pressure injury or pressure ulcer, forms when constant pressure cuts off blood flow to the skin. Residents who can’t move on their own are at the highest risk. With regular turning, clean dry skin and good nutrition, most serious bedsores are preventable.

That’s why a stage 3 or 4 wound in an assisted living or nursing facility is a warning sign. Deep wounds don’t appear overnight. They usually mean days or weeks of missed care.

The Stages of a Bedsore

The National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel stages pressure injuries by depth.

Stage 3 and 4 wounds can take months to heal, and some never do. They often need hospital wound care, surgery to remove dead tissue, or IV antibiotics.

How Facilities Let Bedsores Develop

Preventing pressure injuries is basic care. When a resident develops a deep wound, the cause is usually one of these failures.

• No repositioning. Residents who can’t move need to be turned on a regular schedule, commonly every two hours.
• Wet or soiled skin. Moisture from incontinence breaks skin down quickly when residents aren’t changed.
• Poor nutrition and hydration. Weight loss and dehydration slow healing and make skin fragile.
• No skin checks. Early redness goes unnoticed until it becomes an open wound.
• Missing equipment. No pressure-relieving mattress or cushion for a high-risk resident.
• Late treatment. A wound is found but not reported to a nurse or doctor, or the resident isn’t sent out for care.

Understaffing ties most of these together. When one caregiver covers too many residents, turning schedules and skin checks are the first tasks to slip.

Assisted Living Versus Nursing Homes

Nursing homes are federally regulated, and CMS inspectors cite facilities for failing to prevent or treat pressure ulcers. Those citations are public on Care Compare.

Assisted living facilities are licensed by the state, not by CMS. Arizona’s assisted living rules require a service plan for each resident.

A resident who needs help moving or staying clean should have a plan that covers it. A facility that can’t meet a resident’s medical needs shouldn’t keep that resident without the care those needs require.

Either way, ARS 46-455 lets a vulnerable adult bring a civil claim against a facility that causes injury through neglect.

Residents at Highest Risk

Some residents need closer attention than others, and a facility should be able to name them. The highest-risk residents include people who:

• Can’t change position on their own, including residents in bed or a wheelchair most of the day
• Have dementia and can’t say when something hurts
• Are incontinent, so their skin stays wet without frequent changes
• Have lost weight or aren’t eating and drinking enough
• Have diabetes or poor circulation, which slows healing
• Recently came back from the hospital, often weaker than before

Residents with dementia are especially vulnerable. They may not move, complain or ask for help, so a wound can grow for days before anyone looks. That makes routine skin checks the facility’s job, not the family’s.

Questions to Ask the Facility

If you find a wound, these questions help show whether the facility was doing its job.

1. When was the wound first noticed, and who documented it?
2. What stage was it when first found, and how has it changed?
3. How often was your loved one turned, and is there a log?
4. Was a nurse or doctor told, and when?
5. Did your loved one have a pressure-relieving mattress or cushion?
6. Has their weight or eating changed in the last month?

Ask in writing and keep copies. Vague answers, or records that don’t match what you saw, are worth noting.

Evidence in a Bedsore Case

The facility’s charts usually tell the story. The records that matter most are listed below.

• Skin assessments and when the wound was first documented
• Repositioning or turning logs, including gaps
• Wound care notes and photographs
• Weight and nutrition records in the weeks before the wound
• Staffing schedules for the period the wound developed
• Hospital records describing the wound’s stage when the resident arrived

A wound that was stage 4 on arrival at the hospital, with little or no mention in the facility’s notes, is strong evidence of neglect.

What to Do If You Find a Bedsore

1. Get medical care. Ask that the wound be staged and photographed by the hospital or doctor.
2. Take your own dated photos of the wound and the bed, mattress and cushion.
3. Ask the facility in writing for the resident’s skin assessments, turning logs and wound notes.
4. Write down names of staff on duty and what they told you.
5. Report it to APS and to the Arizona Department of Health Services, or to CMS through ADHS for a nursing home.

Wrongful Death From Bedsores

Deep pressure injuries can become infected and lead to sepsis or bone infection. When a resident dies after a neglected bedsore, Arizona’s wrongful death statute, ARS 12-611, lets the surviving spouse, children or parents bring a claim. See our wrongful death practice page for more.

Damages in Bedsore Cases

A resident or family can recover medical expenses, pain and suffering, and loss of quality of life. Punitive damages are available under Arizona common law when a facility acted with an “evil mind,” such as ignoring a wound it knew was getting worse.

Arizona has no cap on damages in these cases. Every case depends on the injury, the records and the available insurance, and past results don’t predict future outcomes.

Related Pages

For other injuries in care facilities, see our assisted living neglect page, assisted living fall page and nursing home neglect page.