› $580,975,000 verdict in personal injury case
Family members of victims abused in the highly publicized “abuse-for-thrills” case at an Albert Lea, Minnesota, nursing home have come together to form a support group where they can talk about their painful experience and seek the support of others, according to the Albert Lea Tribune. Called Families Against Nursing Home Abuse, the group has a long-term goal to prevent abuse of vulnerable adults.
Wes Bledsoe, the founder of the watchdog group A Perfect Cause, returns to Albert Lea, Minnesota, this week to meet again with families of victims allegedly abused during the widely publicized “attacks for thrills” incident at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home, according to the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota Star Tribune. While in town, Bledsoe also will attend the arraignments of two of the nurses charged with in the crimes.
Joe Bilgen said the sexual abuse his father endured at the hands of Ohio nursing home night shift nurse John Riems was akin to child abuse because Riems victims had similar states of mind. The fiancé of another victim told the Associated Press that Riems was an, “ancient evil spirit of torment.”
Last week, when a nurse at Southtown Nursing Home in Bixby, Oklahoma, walked in on restorative aide Edward Lee Marshall giving a blind, physically and mentally handicapped patient a bath, she felt sure she had witnessed something inappropriate. It appeared Marshall was not bathing the patient, but masturbating him. She immediately contacted management, who called the police, according to The Tulsa World.
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.
Every now and again the news reports a story of abuse so cruel and inhumane, there is no way to describe it but “evil.”
This weekend, Timothy Patrick White of Philadelphia was charged with a most evil act – raping a dying 70-year-old nursing home resident.
There is a horrifying report out of Minnesota today about nursing home residents abused by their caregivers. The patients, all suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, were teased, spit on, and sexually assaulted. The Associated Press report said four nursing assistants were involved.
Some disturbing allegations of abuse and neglect are aimed at an Oklahoma nursing home, according to a report yesterday by KOTV in Tulsa. The station reports that family members of 41-year-old James Curnutt say the man was raped and abused while living at a nursing home facility in Jones, Okla., near Oklahoma City.
“Every day, American families face difficult decisions about whether to move a loved one into a nursing home. There are nearly 17,000 nursing homes in the United States that currently care for 1.6 million residents — a figure expected to quadruple to 6.6 million residents by 2050. The quality of care provided by these nursing homes has been the subject of much scrutiny in recent years.” – U.S. Congress Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Chairman Henry A. Waxman, 110th Congress
According to the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA), no one knows precisely how many older Americans are being abused, neglected, or exploited. This is because there are no official national statistics.
