How Giroux & Associates Can Help Victims of Dehydration in Nursing Homes
Nursing home abuse is unfortunately very common. Part of the reason for this is that families and outside visitors often don’t know how to see the signs that the home is being negligent in its care. A Tampa nursing home abuse attorney can help you find out if your suspicions that a nursing home is engaging in abuse are valid.
Dehydration
One common symptom of negligent or abusive care practices is dehydration. Water is absolutely necessary for a person to survive; if a person is dehydrated, they may lose five percent of their body weight. Senior citizens who are often in ill health will be affected even more severely by dehydration as a Tampa nursing home abuse lawyer can explain.
Increased Fluid Loss
One way dehydration occurs is when a person is not consuming enough water to replace what their body expels through urination or sweating. Senior citizens are likely to have decreased kidney function, and those with health problems are likely to exhibit diarrhea, vomiting or incontinence, which means rapid loss of water from the body that needs to be replaced. Additionally, certain medications act as diuretics. It is even more vital that an aging or ill person keep up their fluid intake.
Decreased Fluid Intake
Even without any of the above problems, seniors are less likely to drink as much water as they did when they were healthy due to mobility problems. Nursing homes are supposed to keep track of residents’ fluid intake and output and keep water readily available for each resident, but they may be negligent in this duty. A Tampa nursing home abuse attorney may be able to help you investigate whether a home is keeping up with this standard of care.
For more information about how to find out if a nursing home is being abusive in its care, talk to a Tampa nursing home abuse attorney. Call Peter Giroux at (727) 895-5399.