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Fatal Shooting Occurs Near the Georgia Dome

The AJC.com is reporting that 32-year-old Kenneth Davis was shot in the head and killed at a Chevron gas station near the Georgia Dome at the corner of Northside Drive and Markham Street in Atlanta.

According to the police, this homicide was not initially considered to have been a random act, but the investigation is still underway, as the motive has yet to be determined. Also, no description was given of the shooter.

Our Atlanta personal injury lawyers know that many serious injuries and deaths have occurred due to shootings at places of business. Shooting deaths that are caused due to property owner negligence, either inside or outside a building, are typically referred to as premises liability cases in the legal world.  Premises liability can occur at residences, commercial buildings or on public property.

In instances where many shootings have occurred in a specific area near a business in the past, the business owner may be responsible for not taking action and providing a security presence when someone is shot and seriously injured or killed.

If you were the victim of a serious crime, such as a shooting or sexual assault, or if you have lost a loved one on the premises of a business, you may be entitled to compensation. Contact the Atlanta premises liability attorneys at the Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates by emailing us or calling right now - 1-800-898-HAYS.

Assisted Living Facilities May be Responsible for Injuring Residents

Recently, PBS Frontline released a three-part series on problems within assisted-living facilities. The PBS series focused on Emeritus, a nationwide corporation with assisted-living facilities in as many as 47 states throughout the United States. Emeritus is a for-profit corporation and the PBS series highlighted some ways in which for-profit assisted-living centers may be putting the lives and health of patients at risk.

Our Atlanta nursing home abuse lawyers believe that senior citizens have the right to live with dignity through their last years. When an assisted-living facility opens its doors to a resident and offers healthcare, life-care or other essential services, the assisted-living facility has certain obligations to ensure that nothing is done to harm the patient. Unfortunately, the PBS Frontline special on Life and Death in Assisted Living shows that patients very often are seriously harmed by care facilities that focus on profits over the needs of patients.

Assisted Living Abuses and Injuries

Assisted-living facilities are supposed to provide a less institutional alternative to nursing homes. These facilities allow a senior to get some basic help with life tasks but do not provide intensive or round-the-clock medical care. The idea is that when a resident becomes too ill or the demands of the resident's care exceed what the assisted-living facility can provide, the resident will leave to go to a nursing home.

When the assisted-living facility is for-profit, however, someone leaving to go to a nursing home means that a bed is left unfilled and there is no rent or fees to be collected. As such, employees of assisted-living facilities were being instructed to keep people from going "out the back door." The assisted-living facilities were trying to keep residents living there even when the residents should move on because they couldn't get needed medical help.

Unfortunately, the actions of the assisted-living facility came at a serious cost.  One former pro-football player living in a facility, for example, died after ingesting industrial strength dishwashing chemicals that had not been secured. Another resident with dementia left the assisted-living facility and froze to death. Still another had serious and potentially life-threatening bedsores. The assisted-living facility not only failed to get any medical help for the patient beyond with bedsores having an unqualified employee rub cream into the sores, but the facility actually went so far as to hide the patient's condition from a nurse who was visiting to treat an open ulcer on the patient's foot. The woman who had the bedsores died as a result of the care that she didn't receive and her family took action against the facility and was awarded millions in damages.

When assisted-living facilities fail to provide reasonable care and services to patients and/or put patients' lives at risk to keep beds filled, the facilities must be held accountable. Only when it becomes unprofitable to act this way because of abuse and neglect lawsuits will these care facilities change the way in which they operate.

If you or a loved one has been harmed by nursing home abuse or neglect, contact Gary Martin Hays & Associates at 1-800-898-HAYS.