Nationwide Nursing Home & Abuse Lawyers
Dedicated legal advocates protecting your loved ones nationwide. When nursing homes break their promise of care, our experienced attorneys fight for the justice your family deserves.
Last updated: May 2026 Bedsores — also called pressure ulcers or pressure injuries — are wounds that develop when a person stays in one position too long without being repositioned. In a properly staffed nursing home, they are almost entirely preventable. When a resident develops a serious bedsore, it is usually not an accident. It is a sign that the facility failed to provide basic care: regular repositioning, proper nutrition and hydration, skin monitoring, and wound management. Nursing homes know how to prevent pressure ulcers. When they fail to do so, families have the right to ask why. Request a Free Case Review
Bedsores are classified by severity:
Stage 3 and Stage 4 bedsores are considered serious medical conditions. They can take months to heal — if they heal at all. They frequently lead to infection, sepsis, and in elderly patients, death. If your loved one developed a Stage 3 or Stage 4 wound in a nursing home, that is not a minor oversight. It warrants a serious legal review.
Pressure ulcers typically form over bony prominences — areas where bone is close to the surface of the skin:
When a resident is bedridden or uses a wheelchair and is not repositioned regularly, these areas bear prolonged pressure that cuts off circulation and causes tissue to die.
Families should be concerned when:
Many of these failures trace back to chronic understaffing. We have written about how understaffing leads to bedsores and why it so often goes unaddressed.
These are signs of a facility that was not providing the standard of care required under federal and state law.
A pressure ulcer does not have to be large to become dangerous. Infected wounds can progress rapidly in elderly residents, particularly those with diabetes, vascular disease, or weakened immune systems. The most serious complication is sepsis — a life-threatening systemic infection that can develop when bacteria from an infected bedsore enters the bloodstream. Sepsis can cause organ failure and death within hours or days. Other serious complications include:
In some cases, the paperwork hides the harm. We investigated a case where falsified records concealed bedsore neglect, where charting did not match the resident’s actual condition.
When a nursing home resident dies after developing a serious pressure ulcer, the family may have a claim for wrongful death in addition to the underlying negligence.
Federal law — specifically the Nursing Home Reform Act and CMS regulations — requires facilities to:
When a facility fails to meet these requirements and a resident is harmed, the failure becomes evidence of negligence.
Not every bedsore is the basis for a legal claim. What matters is whether the facility failed to meet the standard of care — and whether that failure caused serious harm. Cases that are most likely to warrant legal action involve:
If your loved one experienced any of these, the situation warrants a conversation with a lawyer who handles Tennessee nursing home abuse and Kentucky nursing home abuse cases. We also represent families across Georgia — see our Georgia nursing home abuse lawyers. Request a Free Case Review
We are a litigation-focused nursing home neglect law firm handling serious injury and wrongful death cases in Tennessee and Kentucky. We do not handle every case that comes to us — we focus on cases involving significant harm and clear evidence of facility failure. Bedsore cases require careful review of medical records, wound care documentation, staffing records, and regulatory inspection history. We know what to look for, and we know how nursing homes and their insurers defend these claims. There is no fee unless we recover for you. The initial consultation is free. Request a Free Case Review
Most nursing home bedsore cases involve Stage 3 or Stage 4 wounds, or wounds that led to serious complications like sepsis or required hospitalization. Stage 1 and Stage 2 wounds can sometimes support a claim if the facility’s failure was egregious or part of a broader pattern of neglect, but serious cases typically involve more advanced wounds.
You can submit a written request directly to the nursing home’s medical records department. If you are the resident’s legal guardian or hold durable power of attorney, you have the right to access these records. An attorney can also request records on your behalf.
Possibly. Facilities are required to assess skin condition on admission and implement a care plan to prevent existing wounds from worsening. If a Stage 1 wound progressed to Stage 3 or 4 under the facility’s care, that may be grounds for a claim.
In Tennessee, the statute of limitations for personal injury and medical malpractice claims is generally one year from the date of injury or discovery. Kentucky has a one-year statute of limitations as well. Do not wait — important evidence can be lost over time.
We handle these cases on a contingency fee basis. There is no upfront cost, and no fee unless we recover compensation for you.
Yes. If a resident died as a result of neglect — including from a bedsore-related infection — the family may have a claim for wrongful death. These cases can involve compensation for pain and suffering, medical expenses, and the loss of the resident’s life.
Medical records documenting wound assessments, nursing notes, care plans, and treatment history are critical. Photographs of the wound, incident reports, and facility inspection records can also be significant. The sooner evidence is preserved, the stronger the case. For more information, see our nursing home neglect FAQ or learn about nursing home inspections and ratings.
Dedicated legal advocates protecting your loved ones nationwide. When nursing homes break their promise of care, our experienced attorneys fight for the justice your family deserves.