legal resources necessary to hold negligent facilities accountable.
Nursing Home Smoking Injury Lawyers
Smoking inside a nursing facility or on the grounds is a hot topic that has influenced changes in state laws and filing lawsuits. While smoking patients for their rights to continue smoking, others are fighting to have smoking banned altogether in some.
Whatever side you land on, everyone should agree that patients need to be protected from smoking accidents and injuries while under the care of a skilled nursing facility.
The personal injury attorneys at Nursing Home Law Center, LLC are committed to protecting the legal rights of elderly patients who have been injured or killed in smoking incidents. Contact us today for a free review of your legal options for a nursing home injury or wrongful death claim against a negligent facility.
Nursing Home Smoking Accident Injuries FAQs
Smoking Dangers Posed to Patients & Others in the Nursing Facility
According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), many unique dangers exist for smoking in or around nursing facilities. While smoking has its health risks, the dangers of fires and burns are risks to the smoker and other nursing home patients who live in these healthcare facilities.
Home staff members and the administration are responsible for ensuring that allowing smoking on the premises does not cause harm or injury to the patients in their care. Common smoking dangers that can result in severe burns to residents include:
- Oxygen tanks. Many residents an oxygen tank, creating a high risk for a nursing home fire or explosion if exposed to a flame or burning cigarette.
- Second-hand smoke. Illinois nursing homes and assisted living facilities must protect their patients from second-hand smoke by creating smoke-free areas and providing proper ventilation when smoking is allowed indoors.
- Physical and mental limitations. Nursing home staff need to monitor smoking and fire use, especially with mental and physical limitations. Some might not be able to extinguish their cigarettes to prevent fires or burns, while others might have disabilities such as dementia that might put themselves and others in danger when allowed access to lighters and matches.
Many fire injuries involving older adults result from the Chicago nursing home's failure to maintain adequate sprinklers and other equipment to douse fires immediately.
Smoking Injuries in Elderly Residents
Although every state and nursing facility could have different policies regarding smoking, there is no federal regulation that prohibits smoking in these facilities. When the nursing facility property allows smoking, the company and administration are responsible for preventing patients, employees, and nursing staff from fires and smoke.
The staff must first protect the smoker by maintaining an effective Care Plan on how, where, and when the patient can smoke.
Just like any activity in a long-term care facility, the nursing staff must develop precautions that prevent accidents and injuries that often require constant supervision and monitoring of lighting devices and ashtrays in the smoking area. Any failure to monitor and supervise the smoker could result in nursing home negligence.
Resident death by smoke inhalation and burns continues to be a significant concern in nursing facilities. The U.S. Fire Administration identified smoking as the leading cause of fire-related deaths involving the elderly.
If a patient accidentally starts a fire due to not being carefully monitored by the nursing home staff, it can put all the patients in that home at risk of severe burn injuries and even death.
Due to patients' limited mobility, the close quarters, and the number of flammable materials within a nursing home, once a fire is started, it can put everyone in the facility in mortal danger.
Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers Helping Patients Injured in Smoking Accidents
Nursing homes must establish and enforce stringent rules and regulations regarding a smoking policy to protect all patients from injury and death. The facility must also correctly maintain all smoke detectors and fire extinguishers to ensure that they are regularly tested.
Nursing home staff and management need to do everything in their power to protect those in their care from becoming victims of a smoking accident.
If your family member suffered severe burn injuries or death in a smoking incident at a nursing home, our nursing home attorneys are interested in discussing the situation with you. Our team has prosecuted smoking accidents in skilled nursing facilities and remains committed to securing the best possible outcome for you.
Contact our law firm today at (888) 424-5757 (toll-free phone call) or through the contact form to schedule a free consultation. All discussions with our law firm remain confidential through an attorney-client relationship.
Please do not send sensitive information to our law office through voicemail, email, or text message. Our attorneys follow social distancing guidelines to prevent the spread of Covid-19 (coronavirus).