Photo: A hospital photograph shows gangrene on the heel of Zdenek Selir's foot. (Supplied)
According to Ms Selir, the relative took their own steps and called for alternative help.
Mr Selir was taken to the emergency department at the Gold Coast University Hospital, where doctors took photographs of his wounds and forwarded them to his family.
Hospital photographs show pressure wounds, gangrene
The images, some of which are too graphic to be published, reveal an enormous pressure wound, measuring 15 centimetres, on his buttocks.
They also show the full extent of the gangrene on one of his heels, which had turned black.
Ms Selir said her father-in-law was placed in a "fallout chair" for several hours at a time without being rotated and more should have been done to improve blood circulation.
But by the time Mr Selir reached the hospital, it was too late.
"There was nothing they could do because the infection had taken over and it was shutting his organs down," she said.
"It was devastating to see him just laying there. It should never have happened."
Unsatisfied with the initial response from the nursing home's operator, Opal Aged Care, Ms Selir referred the matter to the Aged Care Complaints Commissioner.
It found in her favour, noting there was "insufficient recording of wound care" and that nursing staff were not "monitoring the wounds consistently" or keeping Mr Selir's GP up-to-date on his condition.
New staff, systems and processes introduced at nursing home
Gary Barnier, managing director of Opal Aged Care, acknowledges mistakes were made, adding that Mr Selir should have been referred to a specialist.
"Not only should the registered nurses have paid a bit more attention to the dressing and so forth of the wound, I think, really, it should have been escalated in a more effective way," he said.
"All I can say is how sorry I am that the family feels the way they do."
Since taking over the nursing home a short time before this incident, Mr Barnier said Opal Aged Care had introduced new staff, systems, and processes to improve the quality of care provided to residents.
Staff have also undergone mandatory wound management training in response to the Aged Care Complaints Commissioner's findings and recommendations.
"I think, again, training is important but staff need to make sure and management of homes need to make sure that we communicate effectively we families and we escalate appropriately," Mr Barnier said.
When asked whether the failure to properly monitor and treat Mr Selir's wounds hastened his death, Mr Barnier said: "I don't know enough detail to comment."
But Ms Selir said she believed her father-in-law died "because they weren't providing him the care that he needed".
Elder abuse 'includes neglect and failure to provide care'
Ms Selir has made a submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission's inquiry into elder abuse, calling for higher standards of care in nursing homes.
However, Mr Barnier says Mr Selir's case is not relevant to that inquiry.
"I absolutely reject the assertion there was any sort of elder abuse here," he said.
"Elder abuse is a deliberate act, in my view, of mistreating a resident either physically, mentally, financially, or the like."
Financial elder abuse
The support group Aged And Disability Advocacy Australia (ADA Australia) disagreed.
"The definition of elder abuse that's being adopted by the Law Reform Commission includes neglect and failure to provide the necessary care," said chief executive Geoff Rowe.
"We need to think outside the traditional stereotype that it's about someone being hit. Elder abuse is a very broad platform," he said.
"Families should be able to expect that when they put their loved one in an aged care facility that they receive the appropriate health care that they need in that facility and it certainly appears that, in this situation, that wasn't the case."
Mr Rowe said anyone with concerns about the treatment of an elderly person in aged care should contact organisations like ADA Australia by ringing a national hotline on 1800 700 600.
