Nursing Home Falls & Fractures Lawyers in New York

An elderly resident who breaks a hip often never fully recovers. The surgery, the loss of mobility, the pneumonia that follows bed rest, the sharp decline that comes after. Falls are the leading cause of injury deaths among older adults, and inside a nursing home most of them are preventable.

Facilities know which residents are at risk. They screen for it on admission and are supposed to screen again after every change in condition. When a resident with a documented fall history hits the floor because no one answered the call bell, that is not bad luck.

What a facility is required to do

Every resident gets a fall-risk assessment. Based on that assessment, the home builds safeguards into the care plan: bed and chair alarms, non-slip footwear, scheduled toileting, low beds, adequate lighting, and enough staff to answer calls and assist with transfers. The plan has to be followed and updated. A home that assesses a resident as high-risk and then leaves her to transfer alone has set the injury in motion.

Common preventable falls

• Unassisted transfers from bed to wheelchair or on and off the toilet.
• Ignored call bells that leave a resident to get up alone.
• Missing or disabled alarms that should have alerted staff.
• Wet floors, clutter, and poor lighting in rooms and hallways.
• Medication side effects that cause dizziness without added supervision.

The law and what we prove

Public Health Law §2801-d protects a resident’s right to a safe environment and adequate supervision, and it allows recovery of attorneys’ fees on top of damages. We pair it with a negligence claim. To win, we show the fall was foreseeable, the home failed to implement or follow reasonable safeguards, and that failure caused the injury. The facility’s assessments, care plan, incident reports, and staffing records are where the case is made. New York’s three-year injury deadline applies, with shorter windows when a fall contributes to death.

What drives value

Hip fractures, subdural hematomas and other brain bleeds, and repeat falls that show a pattern of ignored risk carry the most weight. So does evidence the family or a prior fall put the home on notice. Post-fall decline, additional surgery, and loss of independence all factor in.

Falls rarely happen in isolation from other neglect. We often see them alongside malnutrition and dehydration that leaves a resident weak, or bedsores from the immobility that follows. Everything ties back to our nursing home abuse and neglect practice. If a loved one was hurt in a fall at a New York facility, contact us for a free review. There is no fee unless we recover.