Pressure Ulcer AKA Bedsore: A Common Injury in Elder Abuse Cases

After falls, pressure ulcers/bedsores/wounds represent the highest number of injuries in lawsuits alleging elder abuse/neglect. A pressure ulcer is a skin wound and is generally caused by unrelieved pressure on a person’s bony prominences, such as the tailbone, hip, ankle, or knee. Pressure ulcers can be caused by constant pressure on one part of the skin, from chairs, wheelchairs, or beds.

The current consensus in the medical community is that most pressure ulcers are preventable, through proper nutrition, proper hygiene care, and turning and repositioning/routinely relieving pressure. There are, however, some instances where pressure injuries are unpreventable. This depends on the co-morbidities or other diagnoses a person is suffering from. The elderly are more susceptible to pressure ulcers due to their co-morbidities, including heightened fragility of the skin. Severe pressure ulcers may take a long time to heal. When dealing with a pressure ulcer case, it is important to have an integral understanding of pressure ulcers, including the four stages of pressure ulcers.

A Stage 1 pressure ulcer is generally seen as a persistent area of skin redness; the skin has not yet broken open at this stage. While patients with darker skin tone may not turn red, the area will be a noticeably different color than the surrounding skin.

A Stage 2 pressure ulcer involves a partial loss of thickness of skin layers and can look like an abrasion, blister or a shallow crater in the skin – the skin has broken open at this stage.

A stage 3 pressure ulcer involves a full thickness of skin loss which exposes the subcutaneous tissues. This wound can look like a deep crater in the skin. While this stage pressure injury is significant, it does not yet show the muscle, tendon or bone.

A stage 4 pressure ulcer is a deep wound with full thickness loss of skin and subcutaneous tissue exposing the muscle, tendon and or bone. This stage pressure injury can lead to significant complications including infection of the bone or infection in the blood.

Experienced elder abuse & neglect attorneys understand when pressure ulcers are preventable and when they are not which is critical when evaluating a lawsuit involving these injuries.