NJ Lawyer Helps When Nursing Negligence Causes Improper Transferring and Lifting of Patients in Hospitals

Common sense dictates that it’s unreasonable to think that a 120 pound person can safely lift someone twice their size. However, in hospitals throughout New Jersey and the entire country, healthcare workers are being asked to do just that every day. Patients are seriously hurt during lifting and transferring mishaps. In fact, according to several nursing associations, “the healthcare industry acknowledges that manual patient handling isn’t safe.”

Still, nurses and other hospital employees are forced to move patients from bed to chair, in and out of wheelchairs and constantly reposition immobile individuals. These actions often cause serious patient injuries include hip, femur and other fractures. When patients are dropped they can suffer serious “brain bleeds” called subdural hematoma. This can permanently injure them or even lead to wrongful death. These accidents regularly happen in New Jersey hospitals – from Somerset County to Camden County and every town in between.

If you or someone you care for has been injured because of a mistake made or accident that occurred during a lift or transfer in a hospital, contact Barry Sugarman for help with your case. Barry knows that your pain and suffering were caused by someone else’s mistake. He represents families like yours in Somerville, Marlton and surrounding communities, good people who relied on the expertise of nurses, nurse’s aides and other workers who failed to do their jobs properly. He’ll fight for maximum compensation in your personal injury case.

Patient Lifting and Transferring Mistakes Cause Painful Injuries in NJ Hospitals

You’ve likely witnessed this scene on one of the many popular medical TV shows. A patient is on a gurney, ready for transfer to another bed. The healthcare workers gather around and, on someone’s count, the patient is lifted and successfully transferred without harm. It happens easily without any problem. Many times, however, this in to the way it goes in a hospital or nursing home setting.

Problems with poorly executed patient lifts and transfers are so common, the American Nurses Association instituted a campaign, “Handle with Care,” to promote both practitioner and patient safety. In most New Jersey hospitals, patients are moved manually. If the caregiver is not strong enough or isn’t properly positioned, patients suffer severe injuries including fractures, lacerations or worse.

Most injuries of this type are caused during the following types of activities: 

• Lifting a patient in and out of a wheelchair, on or off a toilet or shower chair
• Transferring a patient from bed to bed, onto a diagnostic machine such as an x-ray table or MRI or into chair during meals, etc.
• Repositioning patients to, for example, avoid common injuries such as bedsores

The average adult patient weighs about 169 pounds, according to the peer-reviewed publication American Nursing Today. Further, patients come in all shapes and sizes; some are more immobile than others and can not even assist with a transfer. This is particularly true of older patients or those who are heavily medicated. The patient’s body parts can be maneuvered improperly, causing injury.

When a healthcare worker doesn’t recognize the potential for danger or causes a patient harm while lifting or transferring them in the hospital, lawyer Barry Sugarman will work hard to hold the negligent parties responsible for the injuries they caused to you or your loved one. Sugarman fights for the rights of his clients throughout New Jersey, from his offices in Somerville in Somerset County and Marlton in Camden County and everywhere in between.

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