Fact-Checked: Why Trust Rittgers Rittgers & Nakajima When you visit a loved one in a nursing home, everything can look fine on the surface. The staff is friendly. The place is clean. But then you notice something — a new bruise, unexpected weight loss, frequent falls, infections that keep coming back, or a change in behavior that nobody can explain. Don’t ignore that feeling. Nursing home abuse and neglect are more common than most families realize, and they rarely look obvious. Here’s what to watch for.
Bedsores and Pressure Ulcers
A bedsore does not just appear. It forms over days and weeks when staff fail to reposition an immobile resident — something they are required to do every two hours. A Stage I ulcer is redness that won’t go away. A Stage IV ulcer is an open wound reaching muscle, tendon, or bone. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services classifies Stage III and Stage IV pressure ulcers as “never events” — meaning they should not happen in a facility providing proper care.1 If your loved one has a serious bedsore, the facility knew the risk existed. It is written in their own intake paperwork. The question — the one we will help you answer — is why nobody acted on it.
Falls, Head Injuries, and Brain Bleeds
About half of all nursing home residents fall at least once a year, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.2 Nursing home falls kill approximately 1,800 residents annually.3 And a 2025 report by the U.S. Office of Inspector General found that nursing homes failed to report 43% of falls that caused major injury and required hospitalization.4 That means facilities knew — and stayed quiet. If your loved one suffered a traumatic brain injury, a brain bleed, or broken bones after a fall, we want to know whether the facility had a prevention or care plan and whether they followed it. In our experience, most of the time they did not.
Urinary Tract Infections and Sepsis
A UTI in an elderly nursing home resident is not a minor inconvenience. Left unaddressed, it becomes sepsis — a life-threatening, whole-body infection that can kill within days. When staff fail to maintain basic hygiene or catch early symptoms, a treatable condition becomes fatal. Infection prevention and control is one of the most commonly cited deficiency categories in Ohio nursing home inspections.5 If your loved one has had repeated UTIs during their stay, that is not bad luck. That is a pattern — and patterns are evidence.
Elopement — When a Resident Walks Out and Nobody Notices
If your loved one has dementia or any cognitive impairment and they walked off facility grounds — what the industry calls elopement — the facility failed them. Federal regulations under 42 CFR Part 483 require nursing homes to provide a safe environment and adequate supervision for every resident at risk of wandering.6 Secured exits, monitoring systems, and written protocols exist for exactly this reason. When a memory-care resident ends up outside and alone, someone was not doing their job. We have handled these cases, and the records almost always tell the story.
Unexplained Weight Loss, Malnutrition, and Dehydration
Residents who cannot feed or hydrate themselves depend entirely on the people around them. When a facility is understaffed — and understaffing is one of the primary drivers of poor nursing home outcomes, according to the AHRQ7 — meals get skipped and hydration goes unmonitored. Weight loss, dry skin, confusion, and fatigue are not normal parts of nursing home life. They are signs that someone is not getting what they need. If you are seeing these signs, do not wait for them to get worse.
Unexplained Bruising, Injuries, and Fear
Bruising on the torso, upper arms, or face — places where people do not typically injure themselves by accident — is a red flag. So is a loved one who has stopped talking, who flinches when certain staff enter the room, or who seems frightened in a place that is supposed to feel safe. The U.S. Department of Justice has identified caregiver neglect as the most underreported form of elder abuse, with only 1 in 57 cases ever formally reported.8 Your loved one may not be able to tell you what is happening. You have to look — and then you have to act.
Any of These Can Lead to Wrongful Death
An infected bedsore that becomes sepsis. A fall that causes a brain bleed. A UTI that goes untreated until it kills. A memory-care resident found outside in dangerous conditions. Malnutrition that shuts down organs. Physical abuse that accelerates a decline. Every one of these is a pathway to wrongful death, and every one of them happens in Ohio nursing homes. Research shows that older adults who experience abuse are 300% more likely to die than those who receive proper care.9 When a facility’s failure causes or contributes to a resident’s death, Ohio law gives the family the right to hold that facility accountable. The death does not have to be sudden. Neglect that slowly ends a life is still wrongful death.
At Rittgers Rittgers & Nakajima, we have built nursing home neglect and wrongful death cases from the ground up — from the records the facility did not want us to see, to the experts who explain what the standard of care required, to the verdicts and settlements that hold facilities accountable. If something does not feel right, we want to hear from you.
If you have seen any of these signs — or if you have lost a loved one in a nursing home under circumstances that were never fully explained — call us. Contact Rittgers Rittgers & Nakajima today for a free consultation. There is no cost, no obligation, and no pressure. Just answers.