Saturday, December 27, 2008

Videotape reveals Kentucky Nursing Home abuse

Video footage shot at a Richmond, Kentucky nursing home reveals abuse and neglect of an 84-year-old resident. The camera was hidden in the bedroom of Armeda Thomas, an Alzheimer’s resident at Madison Manor.

When they noticed multiple handprint bruises all over Armeda's body, family members hid a camera in the elderly woman’s room.

The nursing home staff couldn’t properly explain what happened. In fact, the workers claimed the bruises occurred because Thomas was "combative."

The footage shows that staffers were lying: Here we see them taunting and physically abusing Thomas, as well as neglecting to clean and feed her. The video also shows Thomas being pulled out of bed by her neck and wrists.

X-rays taken of Thomas in September 2008 showed lumbar vertebrae fractures.

The nursing home abuse and neglect incidents were captured on videotape between August 17 and September 8, 2008.

Documents were also reportedly falsified to show that Thomas had been fed when in fact, in two instances, it was the nursing home assistant who ate her food. In just a couple of weeks, the elderly resident reportedly lost about 19 pounds.

Now, the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office will be filing criminal charges against the Richmond home for nursing home abuse and neglect.

Since the criminal probe began, evidence began to surface that at least 17 other nursing home residents with cognitive impairments had sustained “injuries of unknown origin” and that Madison Manor failed to properly investigate the causes of their injuries.

Madison Manor has been issued a Type-A citation, which is the most serious citation that the inspector general's office of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services can give a nursing home. Although the issues for which the citation was given were reportedly corrected last month, some deficiencies still exist.

Thomas, who was removed from the home immediately after the abuse was discovered, died from Alzheimer’s-related complications on November 7.

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