Lisa B's Story

My dad was in three different memory care facilities in a mere 9 months. The first one was terrible, with staff and a director who clearly knew little about dealing with late-moderate stage Alzheimer's. My dad soon developed agitation (which he hadn't had previously) and their response was to send him to a geri-psych unit to dope him up. That's when we moved him to the second place. Staff was kinder, but the hygiene was severely lacking. A fall that broke 9 ribs sent him to the hospital and rehab, and during those 4 weeks, a room opened up at the facility that had been our #1 choice all along. We excitedly moved him there, thinking he'd live out the rest of his days with compassionate care. By the second day, a nurse was already responding to him with negative tones. On his sixth night there, our video camera captured him falling out of bed around 3 am. He lay on the cold, hard floor for a half-hour before a CNA discovered. Without attending to see if he was hurt (he was still nursing 9 broken ribs!), she summoned the nurse -- that same one who clearly didn't like him. My dad continued to lie on that floor for about 20 minutes -- no pillow or blanket offered -- while the nurse and CNA mocked him and spoke harshly to and about him! A third staff member finally came and they placed my dad awkwardly on the bed at a diagonal angle, legs dangling off the side of the bed; and he lay that way alone until the EMTs came 20 minutes later! When we confronted the facility director about this abuse, we were assured that the nurse would be reprimanded. My dad went from there to the hospital and then a SNF, where he died within a week. I contacted the board in charge of the abusive facility, and one of the board members facilitated a call between that horrible nurse (who was still working there) and me. Not only did that nurse not offer condolences for my father's passing, but her "apology" was followed by her justification, saying "He had slapped his pills out of my hand earlier that day."