Spinal injuries are far too common among elderly nursing home residents and may often become life-threatening. If your loved one’s spinal injury was the result of a fall, improper transfer, or some other type of nursing home negligence, you may be eligible to seek compensation for medical costs and other damages.
Our experienced nursing home injury lawyers in Albuquerque know a lot about the extensive medical costs and other damages resulting from fatal spinal injuries in long-term care facilities.
At PKSD, we are fierce advocates for victims of nursing home negligence and are ready to help you take legal steps on behalf of your loved one.
Can I Seek Compensation If My Loved One Died Shortly After a Nursing Home Spinal Injury in Albuquerque?
Yes, you can still pursue compensation for your loved one’s spinal injury, even if they only survived for a couple of days afterward. Death does not take away your legal rights or close the door on holding the responsible facility or caregivers accountable.
When seeking compensation through a personal injury lawsuit, however, you will need to prove that nursing home negligence caused or contributed to your loved one’s spinal injury.
Negligence that can lead to a spinal injury may include:
- Inadequate supervision during transfers
- Failure to use proper equipment
- Understaffing that led to rushed care
- Ignoring fall risk protocols
- Negligent training of staff
- Improper transfers
When facilities fail to meet acceptable care standards and residents suffer fatal spinal injuries as a result, you may have legal options for recovering compensation. But the reason these claims are so complex is that you must be able to prove it. Simply having a spinal injury in a nursing home is not enough—the injury must result from the facility’s breach of their duty to provide safe, appropriate care.
What Damages Can I Recover for a Fatal Spinal Injury in a New Mexico Nursing Home?
When nursing home negligence causes a spinal injury that leads to death, New Mexico law allows families to recover various types of damages. The specific damages available in your situation depend on the circumstances of your case and the type of legal claim you file.
Generally, the losses you may be able to recover damages fall into two main categories: Economic losses that can be calculated with specific dollar amounts, and non-economic losses that compensate for pain, suffering, and emotional harm.
- Medical Expenses: All costs related to treating the spinal injury, including emergency care, surgery, hospitalization, rehabilitation, and any ongoing medical treatment your loved one received.
- Funeral and Burial Costs: Expenses for funeral services, burial or cremation, cemetery plots, headstones, and other end-of-life arrangements directly resulting from the fatal injury.
- Lost Income and Support: Financial contributions your loved one would have provided to family members, including pension benefits, Social Security, or part-time work income they were earning.
- Pain and Suffering: Compensation for the physical pain, emotional distress, and mental anguish your loved one experienced from the time of injury until death.
- Loss of Companionship: The emotional and relational losses family members suffer due to losing their loved one’s guidance, care, and presence in their lives.
- Loss of Inheritance: The reduction in the estate value due to medical expenses and lost earning capacity that would have otherwise been passed to beneficiaries.
Are There Limits on How Much We Can Recover for a Nursing Home Injury Claim in New Mexico?
Unlike many other states, New Mexico does not impose statutory caps on damages in nursing home injury cases. This means that your family may be able to recover the full amount of both economic and non-economic damages. New Mexico courts allow juries to determine appropriate compensation based on the severity of the injuries and other specific facts.
New Mexico Allows Full Recovery for Pain and Suffering
New Mexico does not cap non-economic damages, like pain and suffering and emotional distress, in nursing home negligence cases. This differs from other states that place specific dollar limits on these damages.
Wrongful Death Claims Have No Statutory Limits
New Mexico’s Wrongful Death Act does not set caps on damages for loss of companionship, consortium, or financial support. The emotional and relational losses family members experience due to their loved one’s death can be fully compensated based on the jury’s assessment of your specific situation and relationship.
Economic Damages Have No Caps
In New Mexico, there are no caps on economic damages, such as medical costs and burial or funeral expenses. This means it is possible for your family to fully recover the full amount of damages resulting from nursing home negligence.
What If My Loved One Only Survived Days or Weeks After Their Nursing Home Spinal Injury?
Many families worry that a short survival period could weaken or fully eliminate their legal options. This concern is understandable but unfounded under New Mexico law. The length of time your loved one survived does not determine whether you have a valid claim for compensation.
Short Survival Periods Don’t Eliminate Your Legal Rights
Even if your loved one survived only days or weeks after their spinal injury, you may still have strong legal options. New Mexico law does not require a minimum survival period to file a claim. Brief survival time can actually strengthen your case by showing how severe the negligence was.
Every Day of Suffering Matters Legally
During those days or weeks, your loved one likely experienced significant pain and required extensive medical treatment. In Albuquerque and throughout the state, you are allowed to seek compensation for all the suffering your loved one experienced, no matter how brief. The medical expenses and intensive treatment costs during even a brief time can reach substantial amounts.
Short Survival Creates Strong Evidence
Hospital records, nursing notes, and physician reports from this period become crucial evidence. This documentation shows how the spinal injury directly led to your loved one’s decline and death. Short survival periods often make it easier to prove the connection between the nursing home’s negligence and the fatal outcome.
What’s the Difference Between a Wrongful Death Claim and a Survival Action and Which Type Should I File?
In New Mexico, you have two distinct legal pathways when nursing home negligence leads to a fatal spinal injury. Each legal pathway serves a different purpose and compensates you for different losses. Many families benefit from filing both types of claims simultaneously to maximize their recovery.
Wrongful Death Claims Compensate Your Family’s Losses
A wrongful death claim seeks compensation for the losses your family suffers because of your loved one’s death. This includes lost financial support, funeral expenses, and loss of companionship. Only specific family members can file wrongful death claims in New Mexico: surviving spouses, children, parents, or siblings in that order of priority. You file this claim to recover damages for how the death impacts your family’s future.
Survival Actions Recover What Your Loved One Suffered
A survival action seeks compensation for what your loved one endured from the time of injury until death. This includes their medical bills, pain and suffering, and lost wages during that period. The deceased person’s estate files survival actions through a personal representative or executor. You file this claim to recover damages your loved one would have been entitled to if they had survived their injuries.
How Long Do I Have to File a Nursing Home Spinal Cord Injury Claim in New Mexico?
In New Mexico, you generally have three years from the date of your loved one’s death to file a wrongful death claim or survival action. These deadlines are strict, and if you miss them, you may lose any opportunity to recover damages on behalf of your loved one.
The clock typically starts ticking on the date of death, not the date of the original injury. New Mexico law includes some exceptions to these time limits in certain circumstances. Your attorney can help you understand the deadline that applies to your situation.
Even if you have a full three years, it is important to remember that time moves at lightning speed when you’re grieving and dealing with funeral arrangements. Crucial evidence can disappear, witnesses’ memories fade, and medical records become harder to obtain. Starting the legal process early helps preserve crucial evidence and ensures you don’t risk missing critical deadlines that could bar your claim forever.
How Much Do Spinal Cord Injuries Actually Cost for Nursing Home Residents and Their Families?
Spinal cord injuries in nursing home residents create devastating financial burdens that can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars. Emergency care, surgery, intensive care stays, and specialized rehabilitation quickly accumulate massive bills. For severe spinal injuries, first-year medical costs alone can range from $32,000 to over $1 million depending on the level and completeness of the injury.
Beyond immediate medical expenses, families face ongoing costs that continue until death, which may include:
- Specialized equipment
- Medications
- Additional nursing care
- Potential facility transfers to higher levels of care
- And more
For elderly residents who initially survive their injuries, round-the-clock care costs can exceed $180,000 annually. Even when survival periods are brief, the intensive medical interventions required often result in substantial financial losses that should not fall to families if the injury resulted from nursing home negligence.
Taking a Two-Track Approach: Maximizing Recovery Through Both Claims
It may be possible to file both a wrongful death claim and a survival action. Taking this approach may optimize your ability to recover maximum compensation while addressing different aspects of your losses. There is no overlap in what they recover as a wrongful death claim compensates your family for future losses, while the survival action recovers what your loved one suffered before death.
By pursuing both types of claims simultaneously, you can seek compensation for all damages available to you under New Mexico law.
Your wrongful death claim helps you recover:
- Loss of companionship
- Future financial support
- Funeral and burial expenses
The survival action can pursue compensation for your loved one’s medical bills, pain and suffering, and lost wages during their final days or weeks. Having multiple valid claims may help to strengthen your overall position and demonstrate the full scope of damages caused by the facility’s negligence.
Why Time Is Critical in Albuquerque Nursing Home Spinal Injury Cases
New Mexico’s three-year deadline may seem generous, but building a strong case takes considerable time and starting early provides significant advantages.
Evidence disappears quickly after nursing home incidents, medical records may get lost, staff members leave their jobs, and security footage gets automatically deleted. Gathering this evidence early ensures nothing disappears before you can access it.
Witness memories fade fast, especially among elderly residents who may have seen the incident. Staff members who provided immediate care may transfer to other facilities or retire. Getting statements from these witnesses early preserves their recollections while they remain accurate.
Your attorney needs months to investigate, gather records, consult specialists, and prepare your claim. Starting early also allows time to explore settlements before filing a lawsuit, potentially saving your family stress and uncertainty.
Need Legal Help for a Nursing Home Spinal Injury? Call PKSD Today.
At PKSD, our Albuquerque nursing home injury lawyers have seen the devastating impact fatal spinal injuries have had on families. We have been advocating for injured nursing home victims and their families for decades, helping them secure the compensation they need.
Worried about the cost of hiring a lawyer? Because we manage nursing home injury cases on a contingency fee basis, there are no upfront fees or out-of-pocket costs to pay. We only get paid if you do.
Call our trusted New Mexico law firm with your nursing home spinal injury claim. We have the resources, staff and extensive experience to get you the results you need. Our history of proven results speaks volumes.
Call PKSD today. Let our family help yours. 505-677-7777
