A 100 year old woman was found strangled at Brandon Woods nursing home in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. This woman was in good health and had been out shopping with her son earlier in the day. This disturbs me even more than it normally would because my mother and step-father were residents of this facility for some time in their later life.
Was this a case of euthenasia by some nurse who believes that a 100 year old person has lived long enough? Was it the act of some nutcase elderly patient? Brandon Woods had a number of nutcase patients, if I recall correctly. Thank God that my sister was able to keep tabs on the situation of our mother and at one time found a fellow patient striking her.
Yes, fellow patients as well as care-givers can sometimes be a problem for incapacitated seniors.
During my TRIAD Conference on October 29th of this year at Carroll Lutheran Village in Westminster, Maryland, Ms. Toni Katz will be telling us about drug abuse at nursing homes and hospice locations. I've heard this lecture and seen the secretly filmed activity of some care-givers. Some nurses have even taken pain patches off the bodies of terminally ill patients and sucked the drugs out of the bandages! Toni also can tell lots of stories about the physical abuse of patients.
There is an ombudsman program in Maryland where nursing homes are visited by caring persons who listen to the complaints of residents and take measures to have abusive situations corrected. I hope that the program is being used in other States as well.
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