Mom's arm broke at physical therapy during a transfer. Can I hold them responsible?

Your mother is 66 years old and suffers from osteoporosis and dementia/cognitive decline. She's had a stroke and was an alcoholic. She is frail. As sad as it is that she fell with PT and broke her good arm, you have to prove negligence. You could always get an ambulance chaser to write a letter and see if it shakes some money loose, but I think the only thing that will achieve is that PT will no longer want to work with her. Pick your battles. Not all falls are preventable. Sometimes they just happen.

Falls happen all the time when someone is standing right next to them. Not all falls are preventable. Freak accidents happen on occasion.

I am sorry this has happened. I’m sure that it is quite frustrating and stressful for you and your mom.

I'm only 61. I fell walking across my bedroom. Nobody was near me. I broke two metatarsals and wrenched my ankle. Reason I'm telling you this is falls happen. To the best of us. Nobody's fault.

My dad could fall with one caregiver supporting him on each side and one person trailing in the back just in case. He’d go limp and down he went while we tried to break the fall. Mom fell many times. If we tried to pick her up, things would happen. For instance, her shoulder would dislocate even though we were most careful. We couldn’t put any pull or pressure on it at all.

Forget trying to prove a case. It won’t get you anywhere, and she’ll fall again anyway.

It’s frustrating, but that’s what old sick people do. Though at 66, she’s hardly old. Her past bad habits have evidently caught up with her. She’s lucky to have a daughter who cares.

Hi AJ, so sorry this happened to your mom. “…a stand pivot transfer on the 2nd day of PT after not walking for over 2 years??? Seems kind of asinine to me.” I agree with you 100 percent. My MIL has been bedbound for 1 1/2 years. I can’t imagine PT trying to get her to do that level of maneuvering on the 2nd day! What were they thinking??

Im deciding not to do anything legally to the PT company at this time. Mom wants to continue there when she gets better, and I gotta respect that.

I wouldn't be surprised if they absolutely were 100% responsible for her fall. They'll invent some story of how it happened, but I bet they were negligent. I see your Mom has dementia. Typical. They can invent whatever story they want about what happened. If there were cameras, they can get rid of the footage.

Not all falls just happen. Sometimes there really is a guilty party who caused it.

But, it's really hard to win a court case, even when one is right. No matter what the court case, one has a 50/50 chance of winning/losing. Justice doesn't always prevail. Sometimes, the judge just ate a bad breakfast that morning and you lose. The justice system is very unreliable.

If you don't need that particular PT company's services anymore, then write a bad review, warning future customers. If you really feel you have a very strong case, then speak to a lawyer. But remember, it's 50/50 in court. Try asking the PT company, without mentioning lawyers yet, whether your Mom can get compensated. They'll probably say no, but try. They'll do everything they can, to say they had nothing to do with the fall.

Well, you *are* holding the PTs responsible, without much apparent interest in whether they were or not.

Your mother has osteoporosis. You weren't there at the session and you didn't see what happened, but because your mother now has a broken arm, in addition to whatever she needed the therapy for in the first place, you reason that someone must be to blame and should be made to pay for it.

It ain't necessarily so.

I believe it is negligent maybe not on PTs part but the referring physician. I told them specifically that she isn't weight bearing and they said it wasn't in the referral... The referring physician knows she can't transfer. We use a lift at his practice to get her on the bed... They tried doing a stand pivot transfer on the 2nd day of PT without doing any strength building knowing my mom hasn't stood on her own in well over 2 years since she became wheelchair bound. I also told them she requires a hoyer.

Then they kept comparing her to a similar patient and how that patient can do transfers. I stopped them in their tracks with that one. It's not fair to my mom and one patients journey doesn't necessarily reflect another's.

I am 100% not surprised she fell. They did an advanced exercise with no build up to it.

I get you are angry.
but please try to lose the blame.

Your Mom fell. It is not usually possible to stop a falling person once their body is going down. A chair may be near enough to land in, but not always.

Lowering to the floor is the SAFEST thing to do.

Direct your energies into finding the right care environment for your Mom until her arm heals.