Elderly woman dies of senior abuse on her 81st birthday

[pam]

This just made me absolutely furious. No senior should have to put up with this kind of abuse.

ksl.com - Mass. woman left in recliner dies on 81st birthday

[Roseslipper]

its horrible. the things that happen ...mans inhumanity to man gone on through the ages

[UrbanFool]

I'm not even going to click the link. I'm furious just thinking about it.

[pam]

Seriously, this women had bedsores so bad that you could see tendons. Just so sick and wrong. I think of my own parents (well my mom since my dad passed away last year) and just can't imagine doing this to her.

[Truegrits]

It is sad enough when health care workers neglect the sick/elderly, but when it is family...well, you just have to wonder what is wrong with people??? I could not treat my animals/pets like that, much less a human being...

[SMG]

Stuff like this makes me, as a nurse, see red. If they can't be bothered to take care of her themselves, why couldn't they at least have hired someone to take care of her or have her placed in a care center/nursing home?? That would have been far more humane than leaving her to lay in her own filth, become ill and die!

Taking care of those who aren't able to do it for themselves is one of the reasons I became a nurse in the first place!! >

[NeuroTypical]

So, I hate to burst everyone's bubble here, but this woman's situation is reality for thousands of elderly across the nation, and has been for at least the two decades I've been paying attention. People dump their elderly somewhere and forget about them. The places they dump them, see the government as their customer, not the elderly patient. It happens everywhere.

Take a look at the data the government gathers. Do a search on homes within 25 miles of your zip code. Look at the "Health Inspections" star rating. Quite a bit of one and two stars, right? Those are the places where elderly sit in their own urine and feces for hours upon end, bedsores are left untreated, etc.

Expressions of anger are understandable, but don't accomplish much. What are you going to do about it?

[Gwen]

the 5 closest to me all have 4 and 5 stars on most everything, a few 3 stars but no lower.

[SMG]

My workplace rated 5/5 on that gov't rating. All the care centers within a 50 mile distance of my home are 4/5 and 5/5. I can't say it for other places, but where I work, we take the well-being of our residents very seriously. There nurses who are not happy here are more than free to transfer to the hospital we're connected to. Perhaps this is why I consider a care center a more humane option. :)

[Truegrits]

Expressions of anger are understandable, but don't accomplish much. What are you going to do about it?

Personally, this is what I did...

I quit my career and moved back home to take care of my parents. Mom was end-stage Parkinson's and Daddy had survived, barely, quadruple by-pass surgery. It was not easy to care for Mom. Parkinson's is a terrible disease. But I was able to give back, in some measure, all they had ever done for me. I had four years with them that I would not trade for anything. They both died, the same year, in their home with loved ones surrounding them.

Sadly, as a health care provider, I have seen some of the very worst of what people are capable of doing/or not doing...I have no answer as to how to change/fix it.

[pam]

Interesting website LM provided. I checked out a facility that I am extremely familiar with and noticed they got an overral rating of one out of 5 stars. I am not surprised at all.

[crazypotato]

It just happened up here too. A woman's two sons were feeding their mom dog food, not changing her and she had bedsores all over too. The sons are both going to jail.

Who knows what is going on in people's heads? I have seen many horrendously filthy homes in my career and often it is because of mental illness or drug abuse, rather than laziness or cruelty.

[Truegrits]

I think we are a disposable/throw-away society, and when our elderly have out-lived their usefulness, have become a hindrance without value...what to do with them? As little as possible, and hopefully they will go quickly and quietly.

[Wingnut]

I think we are a disposable/throw-away society, and when our elderly have out-lived their usefulness, have become a hindrance without value...what to do with them? As little as possible, and hopefully they will go quickly and quietly.

What happened to the days when the elders of society were the most venerated group?

[HoosierGuy]

So, I hate to burst everyone's bubble here, but this woman's situation is reality for thousands of elderly across the nation, and has been for at least the two decades I've been paying attention. People dump their elderly somewhere and forget about them. The places they dump them, see the government as their customer, not the elderly patient. It happens everywhere.

True. Thankfully nursing homes are monitored. Sadly they are not monitored enough. So many of them just want to collect the check from the Government. When my mom was alive and in the nursing home her last few years she was checked on by her sons and daughters every day, every day and often times in the morning, evening and night. It helped a relative was a nurse who worked there too. But those nurses new we checked in on her constantly.

Of course we could check on her. I know there are people who live in other states, have to work seven days a week, etc... who can't check.

[Wingnut]

True. Thankfully nursing homes are monitored. Sadly they are not monitored enough. So many of them just want to collect the check from the Government. When my mom was alive and in the nursing home her last few years she was checked on by her sons and daughters every day, every day and often times in the morning, evening and night. It helped a relative was a nurse who worked there too. But those nurses new we checked in on her constantly.

Of course we could check on her. I know there are people who live in other states, have to work seven days a week, etc... who can't check.

That's the thing, too. Nursing home residents who get more visitors get better care because the employees know that someone is checking in on the patient, and by extension the facility itself.

[Mahone]

My family used to own a "residential care home" for a long time. It was sad and disappointing at the sheer number of elderly residents there who never received a single visit from relatives throughout the entire time they were there.

[NeuroTypical]

I think Mahone as figured out the problem, and TrueGrits and HoosierGuy have the only effective solution.

Yeah, I basically shared primary caregiver duties with my dad, as my mom took her decade-long trip through the valley of Multiple Sclerosis. I didn't bother to date until after her death. After looking at the 1988 version of the information available in that link, there just wasn't any other feasable option.

[ADoyle90815]

It just happened up here too. A woman's two sons were feeding their mom dog food, not changing her and she had bedsores all over too. The sons are both going to jail.

Who knows what is going on in people's heads? I have seen many horrendously filthy homes in my career and often it is because of mental illness or drug abuse, rather than laziness or cruelty.

Compulsive hoarding, to the point where a home becomes unsanitary is seen as a mental illness, a form of OCD. My ex-husband was a compulsive hoarder, but he never used drugs or even drank alcohol because he didn't want to become an alcoholic like his dad.

Back to the original topic, it's sad that in Western culture, the elderly is seen as a burden and simply dumped into nursing homes and neglected, while in other cultures, the elderly is still revered and cared for as a source of wisdom.