And on the note of knowing the environment well ... try not to get yourselves too worked up until you know the facts. The big question I would have is “did he fall?”. If there was a fall involved then the hospital has some serious answering to do. If not - you will never find evidence that your father was “manhandled” unless you are able to produce an eye witness or hospital a document that establishes clearly such an event occurred. A patient with a history of compression fractures is at risk for future fractures simply by being alive. Many elderly people who “fall and break their hip” actually do so in reverse order ... their hip bone shears and then they fall and hit the ground. Some people's bones become so brittle and frail that they can't support their own weight without breaking a bone. Your father may be one of those people. The history of compression fractures is kinda defacto evidence of such.
It's good that you kept a list of “errors” you have seen yourself. Once again, keep a couple things in mind. It has been my personal experience that most, if not all, of the things you perceive as “errors” are not errors at all unless you are a health care professional yourself and you understand what you are looking at. Issues such as replacing an oxygen supply device are not “errors” unless the patients clinical situation demanded oxygen at that moment. Maybe it did - I'm not saying you are wrong - I'm only saying that you should be prepared for many of your concerns to be deemed irrelevant either because a medical professional would not testify in court that it was an error or because it does not pertain directly to the back injury in question.
Get some professional help, be open to what they say, hold those responsible accountable for what was done or not done (did somebody leave him unattended and he fell out of bed??), but also resist the temptation to extort money from the hospital and health care providers if they happened to be unlucky enough to be caring for your father when an inevitable injury occurred.
If you have concerns about ambulance chasing, I strongly suggest that you get a recommendation for an attorney from someone you know and trust. Failing that, you can always contact your local bar association, and ask them for a recommendation.
The important thing to remember about this is that if this turns into a lawsuit down the road, the things you do now that seem to make perfect sense can wreak havoc with your chances in the suit.
Moreover, getting a lawyer gets you actual legal advice, which is what you need here, while a legal nurse consultant is just an expert on what the hospital should be doing.
When you hire a lawyer, he represents you. If you make it clear that your goals are first and foremost taking care of your father, and worry about litigation later, if at all, he will help you work that out. If you want to sue anybody and everybody who can be sued, he’ll help you work that out too.
A good attorney will provide you with solutions to your problems, not just to represent you in court. He’ll have to objectively assess your options for you, and then explain them to you for you to choose from. Then he can represent your interests in any action you choose to take. He is objective for you, and your representative to others. You’re in the driver’s seat.
A bad attorney will not listen to you and try to railroad you into something you don’t want to do.
The short of it is, get the attorney, and a good one should be objective for you, and should be your bulldog to anyone else.