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Families place a level of trust in nursing homes that few other institutions receive. When that trust is violated, and a loved one dies because a facility failed to provide basic care, the law provides a path toward accountability. At The Elder Justice Firm, we investigate nursing home deaths across Los Angeles County and pursue wrongful death and elder abuse claims when facility failures are responsible. Understanding the most common causes of preventable nursing home deaths is the first step toward understanding whether your family has a legal claim.
Not every death that occurs in a nursing home is a wrongful death. Many residents are elderly and seriously ill, and some deaths are the natural result of advancing disease. A wrongful death occurs when the death is caused by the negligence, recklessness, or intentional misconduct of the facility or its staff. Under California Code of Civil Procedure Section 377.60, surviving spouses, domestic partners, children, and other eligible heirs can file a wrongful death claim when a loved one dies as a result of another party's wrongful act or neglect. The key question in any nursing home wrongful death case is whether the death was preventable, given the standard of care the facility was required to provide.
Untreated pressure ulcers are one of the most common pathways from nursing home neglect to death. When a Stage 3 or Stage 4 bedsore develops in a nursing home, it creates an open wound with a direct pathway for bacteria to reach the bloodstream. Sepsis, the body's systemic inflammatory response to infection, is frequently fatal in elderly patients, particularly those already weakened by other conditions. According to the CDC National Center for Health Statistics, approximately 11 percent of nursing home residents have pressure ulcers at any given time, and the medical community classifies Stage 3 and Stage 4 ulcers as "never events," meaning they should not develop when proper care is provided. When an autopsy or death certificate lists sepsis as a cause of death in a resident who had advanced bedsores, a preventable failure is the likely explanation.
Medication management in nursing homes is complex. Residents frequently take 10 or more medications simultaneously, and the AHRQ Patient Safety Network has documented that nearly 41 percent of newly admitted or re-admitted nursing home residents had at least one medication discrepancy identified at intake. In understaffed facilities, medication errors, including wrong doses, missed doses, wrong medications, and dangerous drug interactions, are significantly more likely. Fatal outcomes from medication errors can include cardiac events from missed heart medications, hypoglycemic emergencies from missed or doubled insulin doses, respiratory depression from improperly managed sedatives, and dangerous drug interactions that go unmonitored.
Falls are the leading cause of injury-related death among adults age 65 and older, according to the CDC. In a single year from July 2022 to June 2023, the HHS Office of Inspector General documented 42,864 falls among Medicare-enrolled nursing home residents that resulted in major injury and hospitalization, with 1,911 of those residents dying while hospitalized. The OIG also found that nursing homes with lower nurse staffing levels had significantly higher fall rates. When a resident with a documented fall risk falls and sustains a fatal head injury or hip fracture that triggers a fatal cascade of complications, and the facility failed to implement or follow its own fall prevention plan, the family may have a wrongful death claim.
Nursing home residents are vulnerable to infections that healthy adults would fight off without hospitalization. Urinary tract infections that go unrecognized or untreated can progress to kidney infection and then to sepsis. Aspiration pneumonia can develop when residents are not properly assisted during meals or are left lying flat when they should be elevated. Skin infections from unmanaged incontinence or poorly dressed wounds can spread quickly in elderly patients with compromised immune systems. When a nursing home fails to monitor residents for early signs of infection, fails to call a physician when symptoms appear, or delays transferring a deteriorating resident to a hospital, the resulting death may be legally actionable.
Nursing home residents who require assistance with eating and drinking are entirely dependent on staff to meet those basic needs. When staffing is inadequate, meal assistance is skipped, fluid intake goes unmonitored, and residents deteriorate quietly. Malnutrition and dehydration weaken immune function, impair wound healing, accelerate cognitive decline, and can cause death directly through electrolyte imbalances and organ failure. Weight loss documented in a resident's medical records over weeks or months, without any documented intervention, is a powerful indicator of neglect.
Residents with dementia require close supervision to prevent wandering outside the facility. When a nursing home fails to maintain secure exits, implement individualized monitoring plans for cognitively impaired residents, or respond promptly when a resident is missing, the consequences can be fatal. Deaths from elopement often involve exposure, traffic accidents, or drowning. These are not random tragedies; they are the foreseeable result of failing to protect a vulnerable population that the facility has accepted responsibility for.
Physical abuse by staff members or other residents can cause fatal injuries, including blunt force trauma, internal bleeding, and fatal falls triggered by violent encounters. The HHS Office of Inspector General has documented that a significant percentage of potential abuse and neglect incidents in skilled nursing facilities are never reported to law enforcement as required. When physical abuse causes or contributes to a resident's death, families may pursue both wrongful death claims and, separately, criminal referrals through the California Attorney General's Division of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse at (800) 722-0432.
California's Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act, Welfare and Institutions Code Section 15600, provides remedies specifically designed for nursing home deaths caused by neglect or abuse. When a family demonstrates that the facility's conduct was reckless, oppressive, or malicious, the Act allows recovery of attorney's fees and enhanced damages in addition to standard wrongful death compensation. This law was enacted because ordinary negligence remedies were insufficient to deter the systemic failures that repeatedly kill nursing home residents.
Wrongful death liability in a nursing home case can extend beyond the individual staff members who were on duty. The facility itself is liable when its policies, staffing decisions, or training failures create the conditions for preventable deaths. Corporate ownership entities that control staffing levels and operational spending across multiple facilities can also be named defendants when their decisions drive the systemic conditions that led to the death. Medical providers, including physicians of record who failed to respond to documented clinical deterioration, may share liability.
The distinction is not always obvious from a medical chart alone. What matters legally is whether the facility's actions or failures materially caused or accelerated the death. A resident whose chart shows worsening bedsores over two months with no documented treatment changes, or whose weight dropped 20 pounds without any nutritional intervention, has records that speak to systemic neglect regardless of what the death certificate lists as the cause of death. An attorney working with a medical expert can review those records and give your family an honest assessment.
Yes. "Natural causes" on a death certificate reflects what the attending physician listed, not a legal finding. Nursing homes and their staff have every incentive to document deaths as arising from natural causes rather than from facility failures. An independent clinical review of the medical records, combined with a forensic analysis of the care provided in the weeks before death, can establish that the cause of death was causally connected to the facility's neglect, even when the death certificate says otherwise.
Yes. Under Code of Civil Procedure Section 335.1, wrongful death claims in California must generally be filed within two years of the date of death. Elder abuse claims under the EADACPA may carry different provisions depending on the circumstances. Missing this deadline permanently bars the claim regardless of the strength of the evidence, which is why consulting an attorney as soon as possible after a loved one's death is critical.
If you believe your loved one's death in a Los Angeles nursing home was caused or contributed to by neglect or abuse, you may have strong legal options. At The Elder Justice Firm, we review medical records, investigate facility histories, and work with experts to establish the connection between facility failures and the death. We handle all wrongful death and elder abuse cases on contingency, meaning no fees unless we recover for you. Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation.
We have won multi-million-dollar cases against public and private facilities on behalf of our clients. As a result, many institutions and their insurance companies opt to settle with us, based on our attorneys’ reputations.
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