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You walk into your loved one’s nursing home room and notice something that makes your stomach drop. Bed sores. These pressure ulcers don’t just appear out of nowhere. They develop over time when staff fail to reposition immobile residents the way they’re supposed to. If you’ve just made this discovery, what you do in the next 72 hours matters for both medical and legal reasons.
Document Everything Immediately
Pull out your phone and start taking pictures. You’ll want clear, dated photographs from multiple angles showing the wound’s size, depth, and exact location on the body. Most smartphones automatically timestamp photos, which helps later, but don’t stop at photos. Write down everything you’re seeing right now:
- Where exactly each pressure ulcer is located
- How big the wounds appear and what they look like
- Whether there’s any odor, drainage, or obvious infection
- What your loved one is saying about pain or discomfort
- Which staff members are present during your visit
Keep a detailed journal of every conversation you have with nursing home staff and administrators. Names, titles, dates, times, and what was actually said. This isn’t being paranoid. It’s protecting your family member, and this documentation becomes incredibly valuable if you need to pursue legal action down the road.
Request Immediate Medical Evaluation
Don’t wait. Ask the facility to get a physician in to examine your loved one immediately. Bed sores can go from bad to catastrophic fast. Stage 3 and Stage 4 pressure ulcers expose muscle or even bone, and the infection risk is serious. What if the nursing home stalls or outright refuses to provide immediate medical care? You’ve got the right to take your loved one to an emergency room yourself. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, pressure ulcers affect roughly 1 in 10 nursing home residents, but here’s what matters: they’re largely preventable with proper care. Don’t accept vague reassurances from staff. Insist on seeing the medical assessment and treatment plan in writing. Kelso Law understands the urgency of these situations and can help you figure out the right steps forward.
Get Legal Guidance Quickly
Reach out to a Dallas nursing home bed sore lawyer within these first 72 hours. Texas law protects nursing home residents from neglect, and bed sores often signal a much bigger pattern of inadequate care. An attorney can walk you through reporting requirements and help preserve evidence before it mysteriously disappears. Talking to a lawyer doesn’t mean you’re filing a lawsuit tomorrow. It means you’re getting professional advice about your options while everything is still fresh in your mind. I can’t tell you how many families have told me they wish they’d contacted an attorney sooner, before memories got fuzzy and documentation went missing.
Report To Texas Health And Human Services
File a formal complaint with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. You can do this online or by phone through their complaint hotline. State inspectors have real authority to investigate neglect claims and dig into facility records. Your complaint sets off an official investigation. Inspectors will review your loved one’s care plan, check repositioning schedules, and go through medical records with a fine-tooth comb. They can spot whether the facility violated state regulations designed specifically to prevent pressure ulcers.
Review The Care Plan And Medical Records
Request copies of your loved one’s complete medical records and care plan. Federal law gives you this right under HIPAA, so the facility can’t legally refuse. The care plan should spell out exactly how often staff must reposition your loved one and what preventive measures are supposed to be in place. Look for gaps in the documentation. Missing entries in repositioning logs? That often reveals neglect. If staff claims they turned your loved one every two hours like clockwork, the records better reflect that consistently.
Consider Transfer Or Discharge
You need to ask yourself a hard question: Is your loved one actually safe staying at this facility? Bed sores don’t develop in a vacuum. They indicate systemic problems with staffing, training, or supervision. The same facility that allowed these wounds to develop in the first place might not be equipped to provide the intensive care needed for proper healing. Start researching alternative facilities with better inspection records. Contact a Dallas nursing home bed sore lawyer to understand your rights regarding transfer and whether the facility can legally prevent discharge. The first 72 hours after discovering bed sores set the foundation for your loved one’s recovery and any future legal claims. Taking swift, organized action protects both their health and their legal rights under Texas law. Don’t wait to act.
