I value responses from this site. My dad passed in May 2020. He had 8 falls at the facility and was dehydrated when hospitalized. Advice?

Lawsuits are brutal to go through. Unless you really have actual proof of wrong doing they are very difficult to prove.

We spent 9 years and 600k suing a company that sold us a machine that had a 100% failure rate, but that never surfaced until we ended up with some boxes, by mistake, during discovery, this idiot company tried getting their own records thrown out of court. But my point is that large corporations have attorney's on retainer and they spend thousands and thousands of dollars trying to run the little guy out of money, they succeed a great percentage of the time. We were blessed that we were able to afford the fight. But it would have been easy to quit many times.

I never recommend a lawsuit, unless there truly is no other route, because only the attorneys win in the long run. We did win our suit, but it cost us more than I could ever explain.

File complaints with every governing agency involved with the nursing home, from the health department to Medicare, this makes them have to prove that they are doing what they are required to do. I did this and the facility that my dad was in got shut down, didn't cost me anything but some time for a letter and phone calls. Write the complaint out and send a written copy to all agencies with a follow up phone call, ask everyone that you speak with who they would recommend reporting this situation to so that others are protected. Getting the authorities involved will not bring your dad back, but it may save another family from having to deal with the same situation.

I am so sorry for your loss. May God bless you and give you wisdom and strength to deal with this situation.

Arcmiddle, I'm so sorry for the loss of your father, especially during a time when life is stressful enough.

I wrote this response last year, and copy most of it here b/c it addresses medical malpractice lawsuits from more of  a legal than family member standpoint. 

Caveats are that (a)  these were standards when I was working in law, over a few decades ago, (b) case law may have reinterpreted standards, however, given the number of medmal suits and insurance costs for the medical profession, I rather doubt that, and (c)  there may also be new standards being set for Covid 19 lawsuits, but I doubt if they've worked their way through the court system yet.

This is the general course of action for a medmal suit:

1.  Find a medical malpractice attorney (or better yet, a firm) that's interested.  Post again if you need assistance with this.  

2.   The attorney chosen will order medical records from the nursing home, probably hospitals and treating doctors, and have them reviewed by either a nurse (sometimes on staff), PA or NP, or physician, in the field related to the medical issue in question.   In this case, dehydration would be one issue, CV 19 would be another, and your father's overall health as well as specific DXes would be another.

3.   If a med pro confirms that the "standard of care" for that geographic area was not met, he/she may recommend litigation.

4.  However, and this is important, other contributory factors, other co-morbidities, will be reviewed and evaluated.  If any or more of these factors were present, and were life threatening, the reviewer would evaluate and opine on whether or not the factors you've cited may or may not have contributed to, or were sufficient to accelerate, your father's death.

5.  A GOOD and competent med-mal attorney generally would not institute litigation w/o corroborating medical opinions, as this med pro would likely be asked to testify if the case went to trial.   This was critical when I worked in this field.   Good attorneys never planned to go to trial w/o corroborating evidence from a medical pro.

6.  Standards for what constitutes med mal gradually became tighter over the years.  A friend's daughter lost a lung to the incompetent misdiagnosis of a doctor who concluded the lung was diseased.  After removal, and left with one lung, for some reason she saw another doctor who reviewed the records and x-rays and concluded the lung was not defective.

I recommended a few med mal law firms I thought were good, and at the top of the field. Neither would take the case, as she still had one lung left and could live off that. I was stunned.  When I worked in that field years ago, that case would have been litigated.  But standards changed.

7. If you do need to do something, find a med-mal attorney and have him/her order the records and have them reviewed. If there are divergences from standard of care in your area, contact the Ombudsperson, Medicare, state registry of physicians or nursing homes, or other governing bodies.   They might be able to accomplish more than a lawsuit could do.

8.   Another factor to consider is whether any of the records would reflect that your father was approaching or in his last stages of life before he entered this last facility.

Again, I'm sorry for your loss.   It's unfortunate that this happened, but I fear that you could trouble yourself unnecessarily if you pursued litigation that lacked the factors mentioned above.

No. There will be no winning a lawsuit. The fact is that no lawyer will take such a suit on contingency. They WILL if you pay, as you can pay any lawyer to sue any one. The fact is that there is no money in suing on behalf of an elder. Money is awarded in terms of loss of years, earnings, and support. Only someone still LIVING with malpractice causing terrible injury, will recover in terms of money in a suit because they need life care. Damages are now limited to 250,000 in most cases. This means no case is worth it for a lawyer. Your elder died of Covid. Can you imagine 175,000 lawsuits in this country? All nursing homes were doing the best they could against covid.
As an aside, as a Nurse who often worked ER I can tell you that dehydration is almost normal for ALL elders who enter the hospital as elders lose the drive to take in fluid. Even a healthy elder will often present as dehydrated.
So a suit is absolutely not going to be won, and if you put your own money into it that will be very sad for you and your Lawyer is a crook. And I guarantee you that no lawyer will even discuss taking such a suit on contingency, which is how almost all suits are taken. Class action suits may come soon, but they will take you tons and tons of time and forms, the lawyer may win a bundle, your share in class action will likely average about 176.00.
Suits are settled for real money on whether you are alive and in need of life care and injured through negligence, how many years of work would you have expected had you not been so injured, how many people were dependent on your monies from working.
If you doubt me do feel free to call injury lawyers. Moreover..............
Do you know what your first question in court would be? Question: "When did your father first fall?" Answer: date given. Question: "And did you then remove your father from care at this facility? Yes or no?" Answer: "No, because....." Question: "We are not interested in your excuse. Yes or no is sufficient. When was your father's SECOND fall?" This line would go on until the lawyer will pause, look at the jury, look you in the face and say "I submit that it was YOU who were responsible for your father's death, because you understood your father was falling. The nursing home was dealing with covid and you knew that, they were terrified for themselves and their patients, and YOU chose to leave your father there. It was YOU who caused your father's death."
I am sorry to be so blunt, but, as Handel on the Law so often says, "You have no case". My career was in nursing and I saw more than one attempted lawsuit.
Grief and pain you DO have, and in that you join 175,000 families (and GROWING) in the dreadful pain and loss of someone you dearly loved. For that I am so very very very sorry. I lost my own brother, the best man I ever knew all my life, in May at Assisted Living Facility. You are not alone.

Ask, but you may need to show proof that STAFF DROPPED HIM..

Don't let them say he fell. That means he got up somehow, from somewhere, lost his balance and fell.

If he was unable to walk on his own 2 feet - that means staff dropped him.

The falls may have caused him brain issues, and a lower immunity. And the place found an outlet - HE DIED OF COVID...Did he really have COVID? Or was that just a convenient excuse? this is like a game of chess in a way. what is the next move...
If you have a lawyer you trust, discuss the situation. May 18, and now it's August... Your timing may be coming up quickly. The facility may just lose his files by now.. Hope you have records and x-rays etc should you decide to move forward.
as I said, I did not have the energy to go to court. my DH and kid have been through enough. It's time for me to forgive, and forgive, and forgive myself and apologize to my mom, my family. I was in mourning and still am.. I miss her. I still need to let go. I am getting there a little at a time.

So, how old was dad? Did he actually fall. Or was he dropped? Why did he fall? Is it reported?Do you have the paper work showing he fell?
Do you have a good attorney whom you trust? It could be a long haul.
You just answered one huge question... He died of COVID.. They may point at this, saying his death was COVID not the falls...
Attorney, if he is truthful may say, heal... celebrate your dad... Let him go, this too is a part of life... If you were going to sue over the "falls" or the DROPSIES, you may have had to start that when they happened. Did you take pictures of his injuries? Do you have proof of these and or statements from staff?
I think you would need to prove that the staff dropped him. I wold have won my lawsuit. Perhaps I should have, but the age factor came up. I think my friend thought mom was in a huge hospital or something. I could have won. My mom could not walk, she was not ambulatory at all.

So, he had 8 falls. Was he able to walk at the time? They told me that my mother fell. I said: NO - SHE CAN'T WALK... Why would you even say that. And the didn't call me that night. I went by the following day to check on her.. I called my hospice team immediately. They chewed them out so bad.
I probably could have taken that person's license away, ruin her life and business. The poor old man made a mistake. I think it got to him. He went back to his family. I think he had passed away. I did forgive him. He felt guilty. My aunt is in the same facility. A week or so later, I see that they are trying to transport her from wheel chair to a chair without the hoyer lift. I grabbed my cell phone and started video taping... Seriously, now you want to drop my aunt? What is wrong the the hoyer lift? I don't know what was going on in their brains.
I did not sue. Perhaps I should have, but it was hard enough to deal with it. friend said it could go on for months, if not years, do I want to do that? He knows me. I don't like court. I don't like lawsuits. Now I cannot buy baby powder from Johnson n Johnson, because some huge law corporation did a huge lawsuit over baby powder. J&J has stopped selling baby powder in the US.

My mom was dropped. I stildon't know why he tried lifting her out of chair instead of using a hoyer lift. I don't know why I didn't listen to my little voice that said, "don't leave, stick around a lil longer." I don't know why this happened to my dear mother. This lil man is a sweetheart. He wouldn't hurt a fly. He was kind, and loving, and caring. My mom lived in a board n care, private like home = 6 pack.
She died a week later from her injuries. My hospice team was off that weekend. The "new gal" didn't know me. I call my team and told them this was it. New gal didn't believe me, and showed my how to crush morphine. She absently forgot to tell me about the ativan that was supposed to be crushed and slide in the cheeks of her mouth with the morphine. The newbee should not have been sent out to me.
Back to lawsuit. My friend who is a lawyer asked if I wanted to heal from the loss of my mother who was older and grieve her passing, Or, keep this going for who knows for how long, and hopefully get some compensation..I looked at my poor old caretaker who didn't do t his on purpose. Dumb decision. It was an accident. If I had gone for lawsuit, more peple would have been displaced and/or ruined. My friend said it would be hard since she was old. It has taken me over 2 years to get over her death. I still miss her. Nothing will bring her back. She had ALZ. She had not been happy for a very long time. Seh would go in and out of recognizing me. She stopped talking about a year before she died. That life is not what she wanted. Nor seeing her suffer was just awful. Wished I stayed with her at the hospital that whole week.
My other friend's wife was dropped at a hospital. He sued. He won over $500K for neglect. Not sure how long that lawsuit lasted. He got compensation. I met him after all of that happened to him.

Dear "Arcmiddle14,"

First off I want to offer you my sympathy in the loss of your dad in May - it is very heartbreaking to hear.

Boy, for a minute I thought I wrote this.

My mom had just turned 95 on Valentine's Day this year and almost one month to the date her ALF went on lockdown. My first thought was "oh no, I'm not going to have any idea what is going on or not going on with her care." Sure enough I would end up being right. My husband did buy her an iPad so we could keep an "eye" on her. It worked somewhat until she became ill (unbeknownst to us) and wasn't answering her iPad. The Administrator called but only told us she was weak. Five days later, I get a call from a nurse on her mobile doctor's staff telling my husband and I that my mom was severely dehydrated and had COVID - what do you want to do with her - she will die most likely from the dehydration before she would from the COVID. So do you want to keep her at the facility or have her go to ER? I was in shock. I honestly thought she would die while in the hospital and I never would have seen her. My mom was completely mobile and able to dress herself. After leaving the hospital and going to a physical therapy/rehab facility for three weeks she could no longer walk or dress herself.

I can't tell you how livid I was as I felt she had been neglected. The facility was on every local news station because of the number of residents who got COVID and because of over 22 dying (the facility only has an 85-resident capacity).

She is in a new facility in their memory care unit along with hospice care. I could not let it go. I waited until they allowed a moving company into the facility so I could get all her belongings out before saying anything.

I went to the Regional Director in another state via email (I wanted it in writing) and I did cc the Administrator at the facility itself. Five days later I heard back from the Regional Director asking if I would be willing to talk to her over the phone and I agreed however, when she asked if I'd like to have the Administrator in on the call, I declined. I was done talking to her. I also talked to an Ombudsman for her opinion.

I chose not to file a lawsuit and the Ombudsman told be I should at least do what you did - report the neglect to our State Department of Health.
The reasons I chose not to file a lawsuit is my mom is still hanging on and I don't want to spend her last part of life dealing with lawyers, the courts etc. Secondly, I don't have the money. Thirdly, I feel like even though I do have a lot of documentation both in writing and in email form, I still feel like they would have better representation as a company versus just me and it would just turn out to be a "they said, she said" situation. Fourth, I don't have the emotional and physical strength to go through it.

I did feel better after expressing exactly what and how I thought about the whole thing. I felt like I had to at least do that much on my mom's behalf. I asked doesn't anyone know what dehydration looks like knowing that the elderly are especially prone to not wanting to drink water? I didn't get a sufficient answer. I'm sure the five-day period between my original email and their reply was they were probably getting all their ducks in a row with their legal team.

I'm done with them forever and I've moved on now. Just know that I understand your anger - I just didn't feel like the "extra stress" as you put it would serve either my mom, my husband or myself.

Once again, I'm so sorry you had to experience all of this unnecessarily.

May God comfort you and give you wisdom as to how you want to proceed going forward!