Bed Sores

If your loved one developed bed sores in a nursing home, you're likely feeling a mix of guilt, anger, and heartbreak. You trusted the facility to care for them, and instead they suffered painful, open wounds that should never have happened. At Kenneth D. St. Pé, APLC, we help Louisiana families hold nursing homes accountable when preventable neglect causes this kind of suffering.

Here's the truth: bed sores are considered "never events" in medical care. That means with proper attention and basic nursing care, they should never occur. When they do, it's almost always a sign of serious neglect. Your loved one deserved better, and you have every right to demand justice.

What Are Bed Sores and Why Do They Happen?

Bed sores, also called pressure ulcers or decubitus ulcers, are injuries to the skin and underlying tissue. They develop when someone remains in the same position for too long without being moved or repositioned. Constant pressure on bony areas like the tailbone, hips, heels, and elbows cuts off blood flow to the skin, causing tissue to break down.

In the early stages, a bed sore might look like a red or discolored patch of skin. But without treatment, it quickly becomes an open, painful wound. Advanced bed sores can reach deep into muscle and bone, causing excruciating pain, serious infections, and life-threatening complications like sepsis.

The devastating part is how preventable they are. Nursing home staff are trained to recognize residents at risk and take simple steps to prevent pressure ulcers:

• Turning and repositioning immobile residents every two hours
• Using special mattresses and cushions to relieve pressure
• Keeping skin clean and dry
• Ensuring proper nutrition and hydration to maintain healthy skin
• Conducting regular skin checks to catch early warning signs

When nursing homes fail to do these basic tasks, bed sores develop. And when bed sores develop, it's a clear sign that your loved one was not receiving the care they needed and deserved.

Why Bed Sores Are a Sign of Neglect

Bed sores don't happen overnight. They take time to develop, which means staff had multiple opportunities to prevent them. When a resident develops a pressure ulcer, it tells us the facility failed in multiple ways. Maybe they didn't have enough staff to turn residents regularly. Maybe they ignored complaints of pain or discomfort. Maybe they cut corners to save money.

Whatever the reason, the result is the same: a vulnerable person suffered needlessly.

Federal and Louisiana law require nursing homes to assess each resident's risk for pressure ulcers and implement a care plan to prevent them. When facilities ignore these requirements, they're violating their legal duty. And when that neglect causes harm, families have the right to hold them accountable.

Your loved one couldn't advocate for themselves. They depended on trained professionals to provide basic care. When those professionals failed, the nursing home is responsible for the consequences.

The Real Cost of Bed Sores

Bed sores cause real, lasting harm. The physical pain is severe. Imagine having an open wound that won't heal, that becomes infected, that makes every movement agonizing. Many residents with advanced bed sores require hospitalization, surgery, wound care specialists, and months of treatment.

But the damage goes beyond the physical. There's the emotional toll of feeling abandoned and uncared for. The humiliation of lying in painful, unsanitary conditions. The fear that comes with watching your own body break down because no one is helping you.

And for families, there's the guilt of not knowing sooner, the anger at the facility that failed, and the heartbreak of watching someone you love suffer so needlessly.

Louisiana Attorney Fights for Full Compensation

At Kenneth D. St. Pé, APLC, we've represented Louisiana families in nursing home neglect cases for years. We know how bed sores develop, we know how facilities try to hide their negligence, and we know how to prove what really happened. Our firm has recovered millions of dollars for families across Louisiana, and we bring that same commitment to every case.

When we take on a bed sore case, we pursue compensation for everything your family has endured:

Medical expenses, including hospitalization, surgery, wound care, medications, and any ongoing treatment your loved one needs to heal.

Pain and suffering, recognizing the physical agony and emotional trauma bed sores cause.

Additional care costs if your loved one now requires a higher level of medical attention or had to be moved to a different facility.

Loss of quality of life for the time your loved one spent suffering instead of living with dignity and comfort.

In cases where the neglect was especially egregious, we may also pursue punitive damages to punish the facility and send a message that this kind of cost-cutting and corner-cutting won't be tolerated.

How We Build Your Case

Bed sore cases require thorough investigation and medical expertise. We start by obtaining your loved one's complete medical records, nursing logs, care plans, and facility staffing records. We work with wound care specialists and medical experts who can review the evidence and explain exactly how proper care would have prevented the injury.

We'll document everything: when the bed sore first appeared, how long it took staff to notice or report it, what treatment was provided (or wasn't), and whether the facility followed its own care protocols. Often, we find that facilities knew about the problem and did nothing, or that they were dangerously understaffed.

Then we fight. Whether that means negotiating a settlement that fully compensates your family or taking the case to trial, we don't back down. Nursing homes count on families being too intimidated or too exhausted to hold them accountable. We prove them wrong.

Serving Families Throughout Louisiana

We represent clients across Louisiana, including Lafayette, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport, Lake Charles, and surrounding communities. No matter where your loved one's facility is located, we're ready to investigate and fight for justice.

We offer free consultations because we believe every family deserves answers. And we work on a contingency fee basis, which means you pay nothing unless we win your case. There's no financial risk in calling us, and there's no obligation. We simply want to hear what happened and help you understand your options.

Your Loved One Deserved Better

Bed sores are not a normal part of aging. They're not inevitable. They're not "just one of those things." They are preventable injuries that happen when nursing homes fail to provide basic, competent care.

If your loved one developed bed sores in a Louisiana nursing home, that facility failed them. You have the right to hold them accountable, to demand answers, and to seek justice for the suffering they caused.

Get a free consultation with Kenneth D. St. Pé, APLC today. We'll listen to your story, review the facts, and fight for the compensation and accountability your family deserves. Your loved one couldn't speak up for themselves. But you can. And we'll stand with you every step of the way.