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STEVE WAS RECENTLY HIRED BY THE FAMILY OF A 17 YEAR OLD MALE WHO SUSTAINED INJURIES, INCLUDING A FRACTURED LEFT WRIST, WHILE ALLEGEDLY BEING RESTRAINED BY THREE (3) TEACHERS AT THE NEW VISIONS ACADEMY IN PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY, MARYLAND. WE WILL KEEP YOU UPDATED AS THIS CASE PROGRESSES.
Some mental health conditions require restraint in order to protect the patient or others from violent or aggressive behavior. Unfortunately, restraint is often used improperly and can lead to serious psychiatric hospital injuries and even mental hospital death in some patients. Common within nursing homes, psychiatric facilities and the criminal justice system, restraint injuries and deaths are on the rise.
Who can use restraint? The answer varies depending on the scenario in question. Generally, federal law dictates that a nursing home or mental health facility may only restrain a patient upon doctor’s orders and must do so humanely and only in order to ensure the safety of the patient or others. Unfortunately, these laws are often abused by individuals who wish to avoid liability or restrain a patient in order to punish, seclude or neglect them. Facilities and individuals who allow or order the improper use of restraints can be liable for criminal negligence and face penalties, loss of licensure or significant losses in civil court.
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The effects of improper restraint can be as minor as bruising or as major as internal bleeding, traumatic brain injury, coma, positional asphyxia, strangulation or death. In cases of traumatic brain injury, consulting a Baltimore brain injury attorney is crucial, as each mental hospital injury case is unique and different federal and state laws may apply. Physical restraints can include leather or poly wrist or ankle restraints attached to the bed, posey jackets, restraint belts, mittens, or hobble – otherwise known as hog-tie. In any case, improper restraint constitutes an abuse of a facility’s power over the patient in question and an unacceptable abridgement of the victim’s rights.
If you or a loved one has suffered injury due to improper restraint, you may wonder how you will prove your injuries and seek justice in the form of a lawsuit, settlement or criminal action. The law offices of Steven H. Heisler can help you answer these and many other questions related to restraint injury and death. Committed to the sole representation of injury victims and their families, Steven H. Heisler has devoted his entire practice to investigating and litigating injury cases, including those related to psychiatric hospital restraint injuries and deaths. Heisler will conduct a thorough investigation, help devise a thorough legal strategy, and pursue compensation for your restraint-related injuries.
Tenacious, aggressive, and experienced, Steven H. Heisler is truly “The Injury Lawyer.” Think you may have an improper restraint case? Steven H. Heisler can help. Just contact us today for more information.
Restraint Injury Case Results
Case Type: Juvenile Facility Wrongful Death / Settlement: $1,200,000
Steve and co-counsel represented the family of a teenage boy who died when several school counselors at the Youth facility he attended forcibly restrained him in a prone position for several hours, causing him to suffocate. The case settled in mediation for 1.2 million dollars.
Attorney Steve Heisler
Steve Heisler decided in 1996 that he was going to focus his law practice exclusively on injury cases. Since then, he has been representing injured people against insurance companies, disreputable medical practitioners and Big Pharma, and doing it with compassion, honesty and level-headed rationality. [ Attorney Bio ]
