When you arrange for a loved one to live in assisted care or a nursing home, you want to know that she will receive the care she needs to remain healthy. Unfortunately, there are some circumstances in which the conditions of a nursing home can cause your loved one to exhibit physical signs of stress or mistreatment.
If you believe that your loved one’s rapid weight loss or hair loss is the result of negligence, abuse, or unhealthy living conditions, then you can take legal action against the party you believe to be liable. Pintas & Mullins Law Firm and a Kansas City rapid weight loss or hair loss lawyer can help.
For a free case consultation, call (800) 842-6336.
Causes of Rapid Weight Loss or Hair Loss
A person can begin to lose weight and hair at a rapid clip if their environment proves stressful or otherwise detrimental to their overall being. Some of the most common causes of these types of loss in a nursing home include but are not limited to:
Poor Diet
Any resident who is denied access to three meals a day can suffer significantly. Weight loss is a natural consequence of food denial, but hair loss can also reflect a resident’s insufficient diet.
Note, of course, that caretakers do not have to actively deny food to a resident for these symptoms to arise. Caretakers who do not encourage residents to eat or who allow residents to wander away from a dining hall without finishing a meal can be charged with neglect if the aforementioned symptoms begin to appear.
Changes in Medication Usage
Caretakers in a nursing home are required to provide residents with the prescriptions and treatments recommended to said residents by attending medical professionals. If those prescriptions are not provided to the resident, or if medications are changed without warning, then a resident’s condition may begin to deteriorate.
Malnutrition
If a nursing home resident does not have access to a full roster of healthy foods, her body will not have the nutrients it requires to maintain her weight or hair growth. While a resident, then, may receive three meals a day, she can still show signs of neglect if those meals do not consist of the foods she needs to remain healthy.
Anxiety
If a nursing home resident develops anxiety after entering the nursing home, or if she goes into the nursing home with a history of severe anxiety, then her anxiety attacks can start to manifest physical symptoms, such as rapid weight loss and hair loss. In much the same way, a sudden onslaught of stress that a resident may not be prepared for can generate the same symptoms.
Trauma
If a resident feels threatened while in a nursing home or believes that a caretaker may cause her harm, she can engage in behaviors that may result in hair loss and weight loss. However, the trauma that comes from incidents of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse can also result in physical evidence of a person’s losses.
Overview of Nursing Home Abuse
Nursing home abuse can take on many forms. Caretakers can abuse a resident by engaging in physical or sexual assault. Similarly, neglect and emotional abuse can contribute to an increasingly toxic environment for the resident in question. Caretakers can also take advantage of a resident’s decreasing awareness of her financial standing and can, consequently, start siphoning money.
All of these categories of nursing home abuse have different symptoms that give them away. Rapid weight loss and hair loss can indicate physical and sexual abuse as well as emotional abuse or neglect. You can work with the other residents or even an attending investigator to determine what other symptoms present in the nursing home or about your loved one that may help you narrow down what kind of abuse a resident suffered.
When Rapid Weight Loss and Hair Loss Constitutes Nursing Home Abuse
Do note, though, that you must go about proving that said abuse took place if you have any interest in bringing your case to court. According to Revised Statutes of Missouri (RSMo) §198.070, your case must meet certain requirements to be presented before a judge and jury, with those requirements ranging from the date the abuse was discovered to the degree to which the involved resident suffered at the hands of attending caretakers.
For a free legal consultation with a City Rapid Weight Loss or Hair Loss Lawyer serving Kansas City, call (800) 794-0444
Your Legal Options When Faced with Nursing Home Abuse
If you believe that your loved one may be suffering significant weight loss or hair loss due to the treatment she receives at the hands of nursing home caretakers, then you can take legal action against those potentially-liable parties. You have several avenues through which to do so, some of which can even have you awarded compensation without judgment from a local justice.
Demand Letters Versus Complaints
On some occasions, a nursing home can reach out to you before you take legal action and offer you a settlement for your losses. Should you not receive such an offer, however, you can either write a demand letter or file a complaint to begin the legal process through which you can fight for compensation.
Demand letters allow you to pursue compensation without going to court. You can use these legal documents to address a potentially-liable party, outlining, as such, your losses as well as what evidence you have on hand that proves said party’s liability.
Complaints, on the other hand, go straight to a Missouri court justice. In such a document, you can again identify your losses as well as the party you believe to have caused such losses. However, it will be up to an attending justice and court to determine whether or not your case should be brought forward.
Note that if you want a court to consider your complaint, you must submit it within Missouri’s statute of limitations.
Kansas City City Rapid Weight Loss or Hair Loss Lawyer Near Me (800) 794-0444
You Can Discuss a Civil Case with a Kansas City Rapid Weight Loss or Hair Loss Lawyer
If you wish to pursue legal action after a loved one shows signs of rapid hair and weight loss, a representative with Pintas & Mullins Law Firm can help. You do not have to worry about legal fees, as the team works on contingency. You will only be billed for the services you benefited from if you receive compensation for the losses you and a loved one endured.
For a case consultation regarding your loved one’s hair loss or rapid weight loss, call us today at (800) 842-6336.
Call or text (800) 794-0444 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form