The hardest nursing home cases are the ones where the resident does not come home. When neglect takes a life, Florida law gives the family a way to hold the facility accountable, and in painful truth a death is often what finally brings a long pattern of neglect into the light.
Who brings the claim, and how it works
A nursing home wrongful death claim is brought by the personal representative of the deceased resident’s estate, on behalf of the survivors and the estate. Florida’s nursing home statute lets the personal representative bring the action regardless of the cause of death, which matters because facilities so often blame natural causes. If the neglect or a rights violation caused the death, Florida law has the claimant elect, after the verdict but before judgment, between survival damages and wrongful death damages.
A nursing home death case is built from the same records as any neglect case, read backward from the end, and because I have worked the defense side of these cases I know how the chart should document a decline and how it reads when a facility was failing. I know how the facility and its insurer will defend the death and where their story comes apart. I represent families, not facilities, and I am a trial lawyer who came up as a public defender, tried numerous cases, and cross-examined witnesses constantly. I am willing to put this in front of a jury, which is often what moves a facility’s insurer to pay fair value, and I handle your case personally from the first call through trial. Learn more about my background.
Survival damages and wrongful death damages
The two paths cover different losses. Survival damages compensate what the resident endured before death, the pain, the suffering, and the medical expenses of the final decline. Wrongful death damages compensate the survivors for their own losses, which for close family can include the lost companionship, guidance, and support of the person they lost, along with funeral and burial costs. The election lets the claim capture whichever set of losses the facts make larger.
How neglect becomes fatal
Most nursing home deaths that belong in court share a small set of causes: a pressure wound that was allowed to deepen and become infected until it turned to sepsis, a fall that broke a hip or bled on the brain, malnutrition and dehydration that wore the body down, a medication error, choking, or an infection no one treated in time. What ties them together is that each was the end of a decline the facility had the chance to stop. That is the line these cases turn on, between a death that was coming no matter what and a death the facility could have prevented and did not.
When the facility blames age
Nursing home residents are frail by definition, and facilities almost always point to underlying medical conditions and say the death was natural. The law does not ask whether the resident was healthy; it asks whether neglect was a cause of the death. The records, the timeline of decline, and the opinion of a qualified expert frequently show that a specific, preventable failure, not simply old age, is what ended the life. That is the work this firm does, and you can read more about our broader wrongful death practice as well.
Common Questions
Who can bring a wrongful death claim against a nursing home?
The personal representative of the deceased resident's estate brings the claim on behalf of the survivors and the estate. Florida's nursing home statute specifically allows the personal representative to bring the action regardless of the cause of death, so the door is open even where the facility blames natural causes.
How is a nursing home death different from an ordinary wrongful death?
It runs through the nursing home statute, which lets the personal representative pursue both the resident's rights and the negligence. If the neglect caused the death, Florida law has the claimant elect, after the verdict, between survival damages, which cover the harm to the resident before death, and wrongful death damages for the survivors.
What kinds of neglect lead to a resident's death?
Infected pressure wounds that turn into sepsis, fatal falls, malnutrition and dehydration, medication errors, choking, and untreated infections are the common threads. In many of these cases the death was the end of a long, documented decline that the facility could have stopped.
What can survivors recover?
Depending on the election made, recovery can include the resident's pain and suffering and medical costs before death, and the survivors' losses, which for close family can include lost companionship, guidance, and support, along with funeral expenses. Where the conduct was egregious, punitive damages may be available under section 400.0237.
The facility says my parent died of natural causes. Does that end it?
No. Elderly nursing home residents are often medically fragile, and facilities frequently point to underlying conditions. But the question is whether neglect was a cause of the death, and the records, the timeline, and medical opinion often show that a preventable failure, not just age, is what killed.
Related: Nursing home abuse and neglect, Wrongful death, Bedsores and pressure injuries, How these cases are proven, What affects the value of a case, and Medication errors.
This page is general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. The Florida nursing home cause of action and the election between survival and wrongful death damages appear in section 400.023 of the Florida Statutes; wrongful death damages are governed by sections 768.16 through 768.26. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.
