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Common Ailments for Nursing Homes

What Are Common Ailments in Nursing Homes?

Everybody suffers from common ailments, including young and old alike. Wikipedia describes ailments or sickness as any broad condition that causes “pain, dysfunction, distress, social problems and or death to the person afflicted.” Anything can fall under the category of ailments, from physical injuries to disabilities to disorders or infections. Nursing home abuse and nursing home neglect can also be responsible for such ailments.

Common ailments are usually thought as a natural process, something reserved for elderly individuals, when in actuality, everybody gets sick. The problem is, whereas young people have strong immune systems to protect them from ailments most of the time, senior citizens’ immune systems gradually degenerate as aging continues, and these ailments strike harder.

Merck states that a senior’s immune system becomes less effective in the following ways:

• The immune system becomes less able to distinguish self from nonself or antigens.
• Macrophages destroy bacteria, cancer cells, and other antigens more slowly.
• T cells respond less quickly to the antigens.
• There are fewer white blood cells capable of responding to new antigens.
• Older people have smaller amounts of complement proteins.

All of these issues, in simple English, mean that seniors are more susceptible to common ailments in nursing homes like pneumonia, influenza, infectious endocarditis and tetanus. However, the idea that older people are “sick” because of their age is actually a misconception. Many of the ailments seniors face are preventable and can be successfully treated with a little medical care.

When aging individuals are moved to a nursing home, where nursing home abuse and nursing home neglect are often a problem, their conditions can worsen. Why? Because not every nursing home gives their residents prompt medical attention. Not every resident is given the proper amount of nutrition. Furthermore, not every nursing home is a fun place to be around, especially if they provide substandard care.

ElderlyNursing.com lists some of the most common ailments in nursing homes:

• Alzheimer's Disease: The degeneration of the brain, usually diagnosed around the age of 75. Users will start to lose their perceptions of reality until they become incoherent.
• Angina: This is a type of chest pain that results from a reduced blood supply to the heart muscles. Even individuals with normal arteries can suffer from angina.
• Bed Sores: These sores result from a resident lying or sitting in one position for too long. Rubbing or massaging the affected areas can damage underlying tissues beneath the skin. This is also a symptom of nursing home neglect.
• Contractures: These are disfiguring deformities of the joints and are often very painful. Like bed sores, these ailments in nursing homes can be caused by immobility.
• Constipation: Inability to defecate and considered problematic when less than 3 times a week or straining on defecation at least a 25 percent of the time.
• Dehydration: The patient doesn’t have enough fluid in his body to perform normal bodily functions. Starving a resident of food or water is another symptom of nursing home neglect.
• Gastro-Intestinal Disorders: The stomach's contents flow up through the esophagus due to a relaxation of the lower esophagus.
• Hypertension: The affectation of circulation in the brain, heart and kidneys because of too much pressure on the heart.
• Osteoporosis: The severe loss of bone mass density.
• Pneumonia: A disease of the lungs in which whole segments of the lungs become inflamed and can no longer perform their job of taking in oxygen.
• Incontinence: Urinary incontinence refers to inability to hold one’s bladder. Fecal incontinence involves the involuntary passing of stool.

Remember why the nursing home is called such: because it is a site where residence should be able to receive prompt and professional nursing care. A doctor is usually on call at these facilities, so there should be no reason for the patient to suffer. Common ailments in nursing homes can be treated and your aging relative should be entitled to a comfortable life.

If this is not the case and you believe nursing home abuse is taking place then contact a lawyer immediately! The Rasansky Law Firm can help you build a case, and more importantly, fight for the rights of your injured parent! Call 1-877-405-4313 if you need elder abuse help and share your experience.

RASANSKY LAW FIRM
2525 McKinnon Street
Dallas, Texas 75201
CALL US AT
1-877-405-4313

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