Mom fell at PT today and broke her arm. The PT people said they lowered her safely to the ground but obviously not. She cannot go home now. It was her good arm, and she needs to be able to have one good arm to use the phone, get her water bottle, and eat! So she'll probably have to heal in the hospital or in a NH.
But jesus how can I hold the PT liable?
It is always something. ALWAYS SOMETHING!
I am sorry this has happened. I’m sure that it is quite frustrating and stressful for you and your mom.
Forget trying to prove a case. It won’t get you anywhere, and she’ll fall again anyway.
It’s frustrating, but that’s what old sick people do. Though at 66, she’s hardly old. Her past bad habits have evidently caught up with her. She’s lucky to have a daughter who cares.
Not all falls just happen. Sometimes there really is a guilty party who caused it.
But, it's really hard to win a court case, even when one is right. No matter what the court case, one has a 50/50 chance of winning/losing. Justice doesn't always prevail. Sometimes, the judge just ate a bad breakfast that morning and you lose. The justice system is very unreliable.
If you don't need that particular PT company's services anymore, then write a bad review, warning future customers. If you really feel you have a very strong case, then speak to a lawyer. But remember, it's 50/50 in court. Try asking the PT company, without mentioning lawyers yet, whether your Mom can get compensated. They'll probably say no, but try. They'll do everything they can, to say they had nothing to do with the fall.
Your mother has osteoporosis. You weren't there at the session and you didn't see what happened, but because your mother now has a broken arm, in addition to whatever she needed the therapy for in the first place, you reason that someone must be to blame and should be made to pay for it.
It ain't necessarily so.
That's what I tried to do, and they are grayed-out. At first I thought it might have been my computer at home, but I am now at our office and it's the same thing.
Then they kept comparing her to a similar patient and how that patient can do transfers. I stopped them in their tracks with that one. It's not fair to my mom and one patients journey doesn't necessarily reflect another's.
I am 100% not surprised she fell. They did an advanced exercise with no build up to it.
They, meaning the referring physician, whoever...
Basically, there was negligence. People cut corners, do sloppy jobs sometimes...
The only thing I warned you about, is that, even when one is right, one can lose in court. And sometimes lawyers, ambulance chasers, are also crooks, taking money and giving false hope that one can win. All that said, sometimes one does win.
but please try to lose the blame.
Your Mom fell. It is not usually possible to stop a falling person once their body is going down. A chair may be near enough to land in, but not always.
Lowering to the floor is the SAFEST thing to do.
Direct your energies into finding the right care environment for your Mom until her arm heals.
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