Copyright © 2010 Consumer Voice, All Rights Reserved. Privacy Statement / Terms of Use
1828 L Street, NW • Suite 801 • Washington DC • 20036
(P) 202.332.2275 • (F) 202.332.2949
Faces: Real People, Real StoriesThe following contributions are from real residents, families and friends. In most cases, the Consumer Voice has removed any identifying information to protect consumers' identities. Featured Stories:
My name is Martha Deaver. I would like to tell you about some of the abuses that occurred in 1999 to my mother, mother-in-law, and other residents in a Beverly Nursing Home, Riverview Manor, in Morrilton, AR. In March of 2000 I had my mother and mother-in-law moved to St. Andrew's Place, a one-owner nursing facility located in Conway, Arkansas. This was an attempt to find better care for my loved ones. The Arkansas State Office of Long Term Care has investigated all of the abuses that I am going to tell you about. The background evidence, which are hundreds of documents, were obtained through the Freedom of Information (FOI) department, in order to prove this story. Read more >> Resuming an Active Life Resuming an Active Life E. became disabled in middle age and thought he would have to live in a nursing home for the rest of his life. At a Consumer Voice Annual Meeting several years ago, he heard a speaker say he had a right to live in a less restrictive setting, and with the help of G., he moved into an apartment and resumed an active life in the big city he loves. Thank you for inquiring about E. He is fine. He even got married and I was his best man; at my age! If I had not taken him out of the nursing home, he would probably be dead today. They used to give me such a hard time just taking him to see a doctor in the hospital. Once he was out, it became so easy to just make appointments and make sure he was ok. He has been using his electric chair all the time. We have had so many fights about that issue that I gave up. I decided it is his life and not mine. He is a good soul and I love him a lot. - G. Bed Rails Daddy suffered in silence — Are you next? - A true story by B. Lou Guckian From its place on the nightstand, my cell phone rang at 2 a.m. I knew who was calling before I answered. It came from the nursing home and made the scared six-year-old in me shudder. "Hi, Daddy. Are you OK?" This time, he told me he had been lying for an hour in cold sheets wet with urine. He told how he had repeatedly pressed the red button clipped to his bed sheet to alert the nurses' station but no one had come to help him use the bedside urinal. Full of zip and lighthearted mischief before he got cancer, Daddy still suffered from incontinence caused by chemotherapy and radiation that had ended two months earlier. Thin as a skeleton and helpless as a newborn, he could barely raise his head off the pillow or punch numbers into the telephone—which he had quickly learned to cling to and sleep with. I swallowed hard pushing down the sick swell in my throat and then asked him to hang up so I could call for help. I promised to phone him right back and did. Then I lingered on the line until someone arrived to help him. In a few minutes Daddy said, "They're here now. Thank ya, Sugah. G'night." Read more >> Elder Neglect We met with the staff and reviewed and signed her care plan/contract. We specifically requested night time checks. This was a standard practice in their information packet. The night shift was to check in on her every two hours. Read more >> A Helpless Person's Plea for Empathy - A Poem Fragrance of Love - A Poem A View From the Inside: Residents Talk About Life in a Nursing Home the Government Accused of “Compromised Care”
|