Family secretly video tapes abuse of nursing home resident

December 3rd, 2008 by Jennifer Walker-Journey

Armeda Thomas’ family was desperate to know the origin of Armeda’s mysterious bruises. The 84-year-old woman lived in Madison Manor nursing home in Richmond, Ken., and has Alzheimer’s Disease, which made getting the answers from her simply impossible. Even staff couldn’t tell family members why Armeda was covered in bruises. So the family took matters in their own hands and, last August, without knowledge of the , placed a hidden camera in Armeda’s room and pointed it to her bed.

“We were just so desperate to know the truth and for other people to know the truth,” said Armeda’s granddaughter, Deborah Hamilton in a story in the Lexington Herald-Leader. “Almost everyone has a relative who gets care in a facility. You want to be able to go to sleep at night knowing that your loved one is well cared for and not scared.”

What the video tape revealed was heartbreaking – Armeda was helpless as nursing assistants physically abused and taunted her – pulling her from the bed by her wrists and neck – and even failed to feed and clean her. The tape resulted in an investigation into “injuries of unknown origin” on a total of 17 residents who, like Armeda, were cognitively impaired. That investigation led to a citation by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services against Madison Manor for not adequately investigating the patients’ injuries.

Armeda’s family moved her home. She died on Nov. 7.

The district ombudsman said she has received 17 complaints about Madison Manor this year and as a result has opened 11 cases.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Rhonda Smith
    My experience was very sad. My older brother was placed in a nursing facility that was run by evil people in Chicago and I must say that it is very heartbreaking. I made attempts to notify authorities of the abuse and nothing happen. The nurses and the aid staffs are disgusting and should rot in hell for their behavior and if I had my way I would see to it that it happen quickly.
  • james kipps
    my wife and i could not get the long term care department to do anything about the care my mother-in-law was receiveing in a nursing home in prague, oklahoma. desperate to prove she was not getting the care she deserved we installed a hidden camera. for months we recorded neglect and rough care but could not get the medicare fraud and abuse unit to even veiw the recordings. later we saw two aides committing physical abuse against my wife's mother that was 92 years old, paralyzed on her right side and had dementia. we showed the video to the health department, attorney general, district attorney and others and were unable to get anything done. the two girls are still able to work in nursing homes.
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