Is Aspiration Pneumonia Nursing Home Neglect?

We put our loved ones in nursing homes expecting that they will be cared for, monitored, and above all, kept safe. Unfortunately, in far too many cases, that’s not what happens. Learning that your loved one was seriously injured or died in a nursing home is heartbreaking, and too often, abuse or neglect is the cause.

When preventable injuries and illnesses occur in nursing homes, the facility is often responsible. One of the most severe preventable illnesses that can happen in nursing homes is aspiration pneumonia.

What is aspiration pneumonia?

Pneumonia, in general, is an infection that inflames the air sacs in the lungs, causing cough, fever, chills, and difficulty breathing. Aspiration pneumonia is a type of lung infection caused by inhaling something other than air into the lungs, including but not limited to food, liquid, saliva, or the contents of the stomach. Essentially, this is what happens when food “goes down the wrong pipe” – that is, the windpipe toward the lungs, instead of the esophagus toward the stomach – and the body fails to react properly and cough it out.

Symptoms of aspiration pneumonia include:

• Fever
• Chills
• Shortness of breath or wheezing
• Coughing up pus or blood
• Chest pain
• Bad breath
• Extreme tiredness

Often, aspiration pneumonia occurs in people who don’t even know that they have aspirated something, and symptoms may not appear for days or weeks after the aspiration. As with other forms of pneumonia, treatment usually involves antibiotics.

Nursing home neglect and aspiration pneumonia

There are two primary ways nursing home neglect is associated with aspiration pneumonia: at the moment of aspiration itself, and in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

Many nursing home residents have difficulty chewing and swallowing their food. They need to be properly monitored during mealtimes to ensure that they do not choke or aspirate anything, and if they have certain physical limitations, they may need to be placed on a soft or modified diet.

However, many nursing homes are understaffed, and mealtimes are perhaps the single biggest test of staffing. In an understaffed facility, residents may be left unmonitored during meals, which can greatly increase the risk of aspiration and make it easier for an aspiration event to fly under the radar.

This leads to the second problem – failure to diagnose and properly treat the pneumonia. Nursing homes are responsible for closely monitoring residents and intervening promptly when they show signs of any disease, especially a potentially fatal disease like pneumonia.

Again, in understaffed facilities, this sort of medical monitoring can be neglected. One of the first warning signs of pneumonia is often fever, and elderly people often have a lower baseline body temperature, so a low-grade fever may be less noticeable than in a younger person. Nursing homes need to take this into account and act promptly when a resident shows any sign of an infection.

An experienced nursing home neglect attorney can help

Aspiration pneumonia is a serious, preventable illness. When nursing homes fail to protect their residents, they need to be held accountable. But getting to the bottom of what happened isn’t easy. Medical records may be unclear or missing. There may be no living witnesses to the aspiration itself, and a surviving resident may have trouble remembering or articulating what happened. The facility will likely not be forthcoming with answers. That’s why your family needs an experienced advocate.

Attorney Perry Shuttlesworth and his team at Shuttlesworth Law Firm, P.C. have extensive experience litigating high-stakes nursing home neglect and abuse cases. Our track record of results includes a $1.2 million verdict for a resident who died due to medical neglect.

If your loved one was injured or died in an Alabama nursing home and you suspect neglect, give us a call or contact us online for a free, confidential consultation.

“I can't say enough kind words about Mr. Shuttlesworth and his law firm staff. From the first day that I got in touch with them regarding my problem, they were on top of things. They kept me informed of every action and how the case was going. Mr. Shuttlesworth is a compassionate man. Very knowledgeable of the law. He will fight for you.” – Debbie C., ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐