Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect Cases are Often Overlooked by Doctors and Medical Examiners

Many people assume that when a nursing home resident dies under suspicious circumstances, the body undergoes an examination or autopsy. Nearly everyone assumes that doctors see the body before listing a cause of death. However – shockingly – this simply isn’t the case today. All too often, seniors who die as a result of Texas nursing home abuse or nursing home negligence never see justice because medical examiners assume elderly people die of natural causes.

One example of a common problem

When 76-year-old nursing home resident Joseph Shepter died in 2007, a doctor listed the cause of death as heart failure. His family had no reason to doubt it, and the man was buried. However, a staff member from the man’s nursing home revealed that Shepter’s death was probably the result of nursing home neglect, an autopsy found that the man had suffered from infected bedsores, dehydration, over-medication, pneumonia, and sepsis.

Why hadn’t the negligence of the nursing home ever been detected? Because a medical examiner assumed that someone in their seventies likely died of a heart attack.

Not enough nursing home deaths are investigated

Several investigations have recently uncovered an extremely troubling trend: dozens of cases of abuse, neglect, and murder have been initially missed by coroners and medical examiners who are overwhelmed with cases, underfunded, and under trained. The rate of autopsies among the elderly has dropped considerably in recent years, and one study found that doctors often incorrectly list the cause of death in their patients. While almost sixty percent of people who die between the ages of 15 and 34 undergo autopsies, only two percent of seniors undergo autopsies.

Get answers about how and why your elder loved one passed

Do you understand how and why your loved one died while in the care of a nursing home? Did you trust that the doctors and medical examiners came to accurate conclusions about the cause of death? Do you think that Texas nursing home neglect or abuse could have been a factor? Get answers. Speak with a Dallas nursing home abuse attorney today about your possible case.