Nursing Home Injuries: Types, Warning Signs, and Your Rights

You trusted a nursing home to keep your loved one safe. Now something has gone wrong — a fall, a wound that will not heal, a burn that should never have happened. More than one in five Medicare nursing home residents experience an adverse event, and half of those injuries are preventable. You are not imagining the problem. It is real, and it is common.

Your Family May Have Legal Options

If your loved one was injured in a nursing home, the facility may have failed to meet the safety standards required by federal law. Every nursing home that accepts Medicare or Medicaid must provide care that protects residents from foreseeable harm. When that duty is broken, families have the right to hold the facility accountable. Request a free case review — the consultation is free, and there is no obligation.

What Are Nursing Home Injuries?

Nursing home injuries are physical harms that happen to residents in long-term care facilities. Some result from accidents that proper care should have prevented. Others result from neglect — the failure to provide basic needs like repositioning, supervision, or safe conditions. In some cases, injuries are caused by abuse — intentional harm by staff or other residents.

The range of injuries is wide, but most fall into several categories.

Falls and fractures are the most common. About half of all 1.6 million nursing home residents fall at least once each year. Falls happen at a rate of 1.5 per bed per year in long-term care, and about 10 percent of all adverse events in nursing facilities involve injurious falls. The consequences are severe. Falls and fractures lead to broken bones, head injuries, and a downward spiral of lost mobility and declining health.

Hip fractures deserve special attention because of their lethality. Nursing home residents break their hips at four times the rate of older adults living at home. The one-year death rate after a hip fracture is 27.3 percent. Learn more in our guide to broken hips in nursing homes.

Broken bones beyond hip fractures are also common. Wrist fractures, rib fractures, and broken bones throughout the body result from falls, rough handling, or restraint use. A broken neck from a fall is rare but can be catastrophic.

Spinal injuries affect older adults at alarming rates. Research shows that 67.9 percent of geriatric spinal cord injuries result from falls, and the complication rate is 64.2 percent. Our guide to spinal injuries in nursing homes covers these risks in detail.

Bedsores — also called pressure injuries or pressure ulcers — develop when a resident is left in one position too long. These wounds are common in long-term care and can progress from surface redness to deep tissue damage exposing bone. We cover bedsores in depth, including bedsore stages, causes, symptoms, and treatment.

Burns are among the deadliest nursing home injuries. Elderly patients face 6.2 times the risk of dying from a burn in the emergency room compared to younger adults. Full-thickness burns occur at nearly double the rate in older patients — 10.4 percent versus 5.5 percent. Most are caused by scalding water, cooking mishaps, and smoking. Read our full guide on burns in nursing homes.

Bedrail injuries are a hidden danger. The FDA documented 413 deaths from bed rail incidents over a 21-year period — approximately 60 percent of all reported entrapment incidents. Federal law classifies bed rails as physical restraints that require medical justification. Our guide on bedrail injuries explains the risks and the rules.

Warning Signs of Nursing Home Injuries

Watch for these signs that your loved one may be injured or at risk of harm:

• Unexplained bruises, cuts, or scrapes — especially on the face, arms, or knees
• A wound or red area that was not there during your last visit
• Swelling, tenderness, or refusal to bear weight on a limb
• A new fear of walking, standing, or being moved
• Changes in how they walk — shuffling, limping, or holding onto furniture
• A foul smell coming from a wound or bandaged area
• Skin that is red, broken, or discolored over bony areas like heels or hips
• Burns, blisters, or scalded skin on hands, arms, or legs
• Marks that suggest contact with a specific object — circular, straight-line, or patterned
• Confusion, drowsiness, or personality changes that were not there before
• Weight loss, dehydration, or signs of poor nutrition
• Your loved one seems afraid or reluctant to speak in front of staff
• Staff explanations that do not match the injuries you see

Trust your instincts. If something looks wrong, it probably is. Ask to see the incident report and your loved one’s medical records. You have a legal right to both.

When the Nursing Home Is Responsible

Every nursing home that accepts Medicare or Medicaid has a legal duty to provide care that keeps residents safe from harm. This is not a suggestion. It is federal law. The facility must:

• Assess each resident’s individual risks — fall risk, skin breakdown risk, nutritional needs
• Create a care plan that addresses every identified risk
• Follow that plan consistently with trained, adequate staff
• Update the plan after any change in condition or any incident
• Maintain a safe environment — proper water temperatures, working equipment, clean conditions

When a nursing home fails these duties and a resident is injured, the facility may be liable for negligence. The key question to ask is this: Did the nursing home know about the risk and fail to act?

A resident who has fallen three times should have a detailed fall prevention plan. A resident who cannot move on their own should be repositioned every two hours. A resident with dementia should not have unsupervised access to hot water or dangerous equipment. When the nursing home knows the risk and does nothing, the resulting injury is not an accident. It is a failure of care.

How Nursing Home Injuries Escalate

Injuries in nursing homes rarely stay small. Without proper care, a minor problem becomes a medical crisis.

A single fall can start a chain reaction. The resident becomes afraid to move, loses muscle strength, and falls again. A broken hip from that fall carries a 27.3 percent chance of death within one year.

A bedsore that starts as a red patch on the heel can progress through four stages to an open wound reaching muscle and bone. Untreated wounds can lead to sepsis — a life-threatening blood infection.

Spinal injuries from falls carry a 64.2 percent complication rate in elderly patients. A broken neck can cause permanent paralysis or death. Broken bones that might heal in a younger person can leave an elderly resident permanently bedridden.

Burns in elderly patients are nearly twice as likely to be full-thickness compared to younger adults. The lethal burn size for elderly patients has not improved in 30 years. And bedrail entrapment is fatal in approximately 60 percent of incidents — often through suffocation that happens in minutes.

The pattern is the same across all injury types. When a nursing home fails to prevent the first injury and fails to respond properly to it, the harm gets worse.

Facing This Is Not Easy — But You Are Not Alone

Learning that your loved one has been hurt in a place that was supposed to protect them is one of the hardest things a family can face. You may feel angry, guilty, confused, or all of these at once. Those feelings are normal. What matters now is that you take the steps to protect your family member and hold the facility accountable if it failed in its duty. Request a free case review. The consultation is free, confidential, and carries no obligation.

What to Do Right Now

If your loved one has been injured in a nursing home, take these steps as soon as possible.

1. Get immediate medical attention. Insist on a full evaluation, including imaging if there is any chance of a fracture or internal injury. Do not accept “they seem fine” as an answer.
2. Document everything. Take photos of injuries, the room, and any hazards. Write down the date, time, and exactly what staff told you. Include the names of anyone you speak with.
3. Request the incident report and medical records. Ask for the care plan, risk assessments, and any documentation of previous injuries or falls. You have a legal right to these records.
4. File a complaint with your state. Every state has an agency that investigates nursing home complaints. Find your state’s reporting information here and file a formal complaint. Also contact your state’s long-term care ombudsman, who can advocate for your loved one inside the facility.
5. Contact a nursing home injury attorney. An attorney can help you understand your legal options and protect your family’s rights. A free consultation is available — there is no obligation.
6. Keep a written log going forward. Note every visit, every conversation with staff, and any new injuries or changes in your loved one’s condition. Dates and details matter.
7. Check the facility’s track record. Visit the CMS Nursing Home Care Compare website to see the facility’s quality ratings, inspection results, staffing levels, and quality measures like falls with major injury.

What Compensation May Cover

If a nursing home failed in its duty to keep your loved one safe, your family may be able to seek compensation. Depending on the facts of the case and your state’s laws, a claim could include:

• Medical expenses — hospital stays, surgery, rehabilitation, wound care, and ongoing treatment that resulted from the injury
• Pain and suffering — the physical pain and emotional distress your loved one endured
• Loss of quality of life — if the injury caused permanent disability, lost mobility, or reduced independence
• Wrongful death damages — if a loved one died as a result of the injury, the family may be able to recover funeral costs and loss of companionship
• Ongoing care costs — additional care needs that would not exist if the injury had not happened

Every case is different. Compensation is never guaranteed. The amount and type of recovery depends on your state’s laws and the specific circumstances.

By the Numbers

• 22% of Medicare nursing home residents experience an adverse event; half are preventable (AHRQ PSNet, current)
• ~800,000 nursing home residents fall at least once each year (AHRQ PSNet, current)
• 319,000 older adults hospitalized for hip fractures each year (CDC, 2026)
• 27.3% one-year death rate after a hip fracture (BMC Musculoskelet Disord, 2011)
• 413 deaths from bed rail entrapment documented by the FDA over 21 years (Cochrane, 2012/2024)
• 4x the rate — nursing home residents break their hips at four times the rate of community-dwelling older adults (J Am Geriatr Soc, 2002)