Maison Law can help you and your family through the claims process if you’ve lost a loved one because of negligent supervision at a California memory care facility. Placing your loved one in a memory care facility is hard enough on its own without thinking about them losing their life. Unfortunately, patients in these facilities are incredibly fragile and just one instance of negligent supervision can lead to a fatal accident. To talk through your family’s options, reach out today for a free consultation.
Why a Lawyer Makes Sense
It’s hard to think about a situation where you lose a loved one—let alone when they were being cared for in a memory care unit. Yet, when it happens, it always brings up questions. And if you suspect that it was due to a lack of supervision or some other issue, it makes things even harder.
On top of everything else you’re dealing with, you don’t have time to chase down records and deal with the back-and-forth with the memory care facility and their insurance companies. That’s when working with our team makes the most sense, where we can:
- Explain your family’s options and whether a wrongful death claim makes sense based on what happened.
- Investigate how the incident unfolded, including whether the facility provided the supervision your loved one needed.
- Gather records that help tell the full story, like care plans, staffing schedules, medical records, incident reports, and surveillance footage.
- Deal directly with the facility and its insurance company, so your family doesn’t have to.
- Build your claim from the ground up and take it to court if necessary.
The reality is that memory care facilities rarely come out and admit they made a mistake when it comes to their supervision of your loved one. But it’s often what went on behind the scenes leading up to the incident that’s the real story. That makes information very important.
Information That Can Help Uncover Negligent Supervision in a Memory Care Facility
When you get the news that your loved one has passed away in their memory care unit, your first instinct isn’t going to be gathering documentation and evidence. You’re rightly focused on telling your other family members and getting your affairs in order. But soon, information is going to be at a premium. And in these types of situations, information can change quickly. That’s why it’s important to try to get a few things early like:
- Pictures or videos of your loved one’s room, the area where the incident happened, or anything that may have led up to what happened.
- Medical records from the memory care facility, paramedics, or hospital that show the care your loved one received up to their death.
- Names and contact information for witnesses, including staff members, residents, visitors, or anyone else who may have information about what happened.
- Emails, letters, text messages, or other communication between your family and the memory care facility discussing your loved one’s care or the incident itself.
With everything else on your plate, you don’t have to try to get all of this yourself. And remember, you’re likely not going to know right away that the fatal accident happened because of a lack of supervision. That’s only going to become apparent later, with things that our team can get like:
- Incident reports laying out what happened, who responded, and what staff did after they discovered your loved one.
- Your loved one’s care plan, which shows the level of supervision they were supposed to have based on their needs.
- Staffing schedules that can show whether there were enough trained employees on duty to properly supervise your loved one and other residents.
- Surveillance footage, if cameras recorded what happened before, during, or after the incident itself.
- Internal records or messages showing whether staff knew about previous falls, wandering attempts, or other issues with supervision.
- Training records that can help figure out whether employees were properly prepared to care for residents with memory loss or dementia.
When you put all of this together, it often becomes much easier to answer the questions that matter most: What happened? Was it preventable? And did the facility provide the level of supervision your loved one needed? Those answers can go a long way toward building a wrongful death claim and holding the right people accountable.
How Negligent Supervision Leads to Fatal Accidents in Memory Care Units
Memory care units exist because people living with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and other cognitive issues need much more supervision than they would in a traditional hospital or nursing home.
That’s the main reason why families choose these facilities—they’re designed with your loved one’s specific care requirements in mind. That includes monitoring them to make sure they’re safe. And supervision isn’t just a selling point for these facilities, it’s an actual requirement. However, in the day-to-day grind of care, negligent supervision can crop up in a wide variety of ways, mostly through:
- Not keeping a close enough eye on residents who are known to wander, fall, or need regular supervision, which can quickly turn into something serious or even fatal in a memory care setting.
- Leaving residents alone when they really need help with everyday things like walking, eating, or getting to the bathroom, where a simple moment without monitoring can lead to a fall, choking incident, or other life-threatening situation.
- Missing the early warning signs that a resident is getting worse, like increased confusion, weakness, illness, or sudden changes in behavior that should’ve triggered immediate attention.
- Not responding quickly enough when something goes wrong, whether it’s a fall, a resident wandering out of the unit, or a medical emergency where every minute matters.
- Not following the resident’s care plan, even though it spells out the level of supervision and support needed to keep them safe.
- Not having enough trained staff on hand to properly supervise everyone in the memory care unit, which often means residents aren’t getting the attention they need when it matters most.
- Not properly training or supervising staff, which leads to avoidable mistakes, delayed responses, and situations that could have been prevented with the right level of care.
Every situation is different, but they all come back to the same core problem of there not being the level of supervision needed to prevent your loved one from suffering a fatal injury. And that brings up the next logical question: who’s responsible?
Legal Responsibility for Negligent Supervision Leading to a Fatality in a Memory Care Unit
When your loved one dies because they weren’t properly supervised in their memory care unit, it usually means something went wrong long before the fatal incident itself. But whatever the ultimate reason is, the next step is figuring out who had the responsibility to monitor your loved one—and how they failed to do it.
With that, legal responsibility could fall on:
- The memory care facility if it failed to provide the supervision residents reasonably needed.
- The company that owns or manages the facility if decisions about staffing, training, or safety policies contributed to the incident.
- Administrators or supervisors who were responsible for making sure residents received appropriate care.
- Nurses, caregivers, or other employees who failed to properly monitor or assist your loved one.
- Doctors or outside medical providers if their actions contributed to what happened.
- Other companies working inside the facility, if a third party played a role in the fatal incident.
As you can probably tell, there are a lot of moving pieces in these cases. That’s why it’s important to look beyond the explanation the facility gives your family. It takes a close look at the details and evidence left behind.
Damages You Can Get in a Wrongful Death Claim
Even though it’s still technically an injury claim, a wrongful death claim is one of the strongest ways your family can get help with the practical losses you’re now facing. And it’s also a way to address the emotional and mental toll this is taking—and will take—on your family as you move forward.
That’s what makes up the core of your family’s damages when the wrongful death claim is filed. But before you all reach that point, it has to be sorted out as to who can actually file the claim. Under current law in California, only the following people can file a wrongful death claim:
- A surviving spouse or registered domestic partner
- Children
- Other close family members if there are no spouses or children
- A representative named in a will.
However, once that’s sorted out, wrongful death claims can be filed through an insurance claim out of court or a wrongful death lawsuit in court. And at that point, it’s about your family’s damages that can include:
- Medical expenses related to the care your loved one received before they passed away.
- Funeral and burial costs your family had to cover.
- The financial support your loved one would have continued providing.
- The loss of companionship, guidance, care, and emotional support they brought to your family.
- The loss of household services they would have continued providing.
The other thing to keep in mind is timing. In most situations, California gives your family two years to file a wrongful death claim. That might seem like a long time, but evidence has a way of disappearing. Staffing records, surveillance footage, internal reports, and other important documentation can become much harder to get the longer you wait.
Let Maison Law Help Your Family Move Forward
Choosing a memory care facility means placing a tremendous amount of trust in the people caring for your loved one. When negligent supervision leads to a preventable death, that trust is broken in the worst possible way.
At Maison Law, we recognize how tough of a time this is for you and your family. That’s why we can help, while also giving you and your family the space to grieve and heal. Set up a free consultation today to start the process of moving forward.
