Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

An investigation into the death of Sarah Wentworth has taken an even more tragic turn. The 89-year-old woman was found dead outside in her Itasca, Illinois nursing home’s courtyard earlier this month wearing nothing but a hospital gown. Since she suffered from dementia, which can make its victims prone to wandering, she wore an ankle bracelet that would trigger an alarm if she crossed the threshold to the outdoors. So why didn’t anyone seem to know how Wentworth wandered out in the first place?

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Here’s a terrifying story that goes beyond comprehension. KGET-TV reports that three employees of a nursing home in Kern County, California were arrested this week for forcibly administrating psychotropic drugs to patients to make them easier to control.

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The family of Sarah Wentworth can’t imagine how the 89-year-old woman could have wandered outside the Itasca, Illinois nursing home where she lived for more than two years. Wentworth was so frail that she needed assistance just to get out of bed or change her clothes. And since she suffered from dementia, which can make those who suffer from the disease prone to wander, she also wore an ankle bracelet that sounded an alarm if she crossed through the nursing home’s doors to the outside.

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Brianna Marie Broitzman and Ashton Michelle Larson, the two nursing home aides facing misdemeanor charges in the Albert Lea “abuse-for-thrills” case that has garnered national media attention in recent months, will face a judge for the first time this week, according to the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota Star Tribune/Associated Press. The women are not expected to enter pleas until a pretrial hearing scheduled for March 23.

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Connie Gay Cole was her grandparents’ favorite granddaughter. They took care of her most of her life, as she slipped in and out of employment. In return, Cole repaid them by squandering their life savings, according to The Oregonian.

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The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services has issued its most serious citation against a Winchester nursing home and as a result it will lose its Medicare and Medicaid funding, according to the Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader. The citation is based on claims of abuse and neglect at Winchester Centre for Health and Rehabilitation that Health and Family Services officials would not detail. However Nursing Home Ombudsman Agency executive director Kathy Gannoe says her agency has received 31 complaints about the nursing home. Almost all were resolved satisfactorily, she says. However, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plans to move forward on its plans to terminate its contract with the home by February 7.

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Nora Bekis trusted her son Larry to handle her matters. The 83-year-old woman had chronic lung disease and dementia and had moved into a Minnesota nursing home. She gave her son power of attorney to pay her bills and care for her home. Larry took out a $100,000 reverse mortgage on his mother’s home, but somehow Nora’s nursing home bill went unpaid to the point where she owed a whopping $49,000, according to the Twin Cities Pioneer Press.

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Dean Cole’s dementia was getting unmanageable for his wife, Virginia, so on Dec. 8, 2006, his family moved him into Golden Living Center Greeley nursing home in Oakdale, Minn. Within 20 days he had lost 20 pounds and had slipped into a coma. A month later, the 71-year-old man was dead, according to the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn. Star Tribune. The cause? Severe dehydration, renal failure, pneumonia and colitis.

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A Portland, Ore., nursing home faces a $2 million lawsuit after a sexual encounter between two residents, according to The Oregonian. According to the report, staff members at Healthcare at Foster Creek saw a 61-year-old woman with dementia standing half-naked in a room with Marko Chandler, a 68-year-old resident who suffered from a lesser case of dementia. The two were not touching, but staff dressed the woman and separated the two. Nursing home staff did not call police or the woman’s family, even though they knew the woman’s cognitive disorder left her unable to consent to such activities.

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Most people don’t want to even think that their parents have having sex – much less their grandparents. However, researchers from Kansas State say that physical and sexual intimacy is alive and well in many nursing homes and caregivers should be trained on how to handle situations that arise, according to The Hays Daily News.

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