Sick, dying and raped in America’s nursing homes – a CNN Investigation

2-22-17 National:

They go to nursing homes to be cared for. Instead, the unthinkable is happening at facilities across the country: Vulnerable seniors are being raped and sexually abused by the very people paid to care for them.

Senior Writers Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken provide a shocking and detailed account of the rape and sexual abuse occurring in nursing homes across the country — and the systemic failures of nursing homes and state regulators to stop it.

The graphic reports of abuse they uncovered are horrifying.

• 83-year-old Sonja Fischer fled war-time Indonesia as a young girl only to be raped by a nursing assistant during the “final, most vulnerable days of her life."
• An 88-year-old California woman only had sex with one man her entire life - her husband of nearly 70 years — then contracted a sexually transmitted disease from her alleged rapist.
• One elderly man with paralysis was sexually abused and forced to eat feces out of his adult diapers by a group of nursing aides.

As part of the five-month investigation, CNN Correspondent Ana Cabrera confronted multiple nursing homes where caregivers were accused of sexually assaulting multiple residents before eventually being convicted of rape.

Ellis and Hicken also read through thousands of government documents to conduct a detailed analysis of federal data - the first of its kind.

Some of the findings: CNN found that more than 1,000 nursing homes have been cited for mishandling or failing to investigate or prevent alleged cases of rape, sexual assault and abuse at their facilities between 2013 and 2016. Nearly 100 of these facilities have been cited multiple times during the same period. At least a quarter were allegedly perpetrated by aides, nurses and other staff members.

The reporters also traveled to the small town of Waynesville, North Carolina, to tell the story of one certified nursing assistant who worked at multiple facilities in the area and now stands accused of rape. This deeply reported account comes from police reports, court documents, interviews with the alleged victims and even the accused rapist, who denied the charges from jail.

Read the full investigation here. ..Source.. by CNN

Nursing home workers caught sharing nude patient images on Snapchat

1-27-16 Wisconsin:

An employee at a nursing home was arrested earlier this month for filming a mostly nude, 93-year-old Alzheimer’s patient and sharing the video on social media.

The employee, a nursing assistant at the Parkside Manor assisted living facility in Kenosha, Wisconsin, allegedly filmed the elderly woman sitting on a bed “in a bra and no underwear and no pant[s],” and shared the video on Snapchat.

Grace Riedlinger, 21, was charged with taking a nude photo without a consent, a felony that carries a possible sentence of 18 months in prison and two years of supervised release.

Sadly, the victim, who has dementia, was unable to tell police what happened, but someone who saw the video on Snapchat tipped off the nursing home, which reported the alleged crime, according to a local media report.

Usually, Snapchat video messages are supposed to “disappear” after a recipient has viewed them, but there are ways videos can be stored for longer and replayed.

Ex-Clarinda patients sent to range of nursing homes

8-9-15 Iowa:

Karen Wininger keeps raising a fear to the staff at her new nursing home. Several times a day, she asks if she's going to be taken somewhere else.

The 75-year-old woman expresses her anxiety in a voice so soft it's barely audible. Davis Center staff members lean down to her wheelchair, sometimes putting their ears inches from her mouth when she speaks.

They reassure her, time and again, that she can stay.

The patient, who decades ago was a nurse, gives a wan smile to the staff. But her anxiety will bubble back up, and she'll ask again: Am I going to be taken away?

Until this spring, Wininger was one of 18 residents at a state program for elderly people with serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia. The program was housed at the Iowa Mental Health Institute at Clarinda, which Gov. Terry Branstad ordered closed earlier this year, saying it was outdated and inefficient. More than half the residents were sent to private nursing homes.

Supporters of the Clarinda program said it cared for some of the frailest and most complicated psychiatric patients in the state. Wininger was one of two residents who wound up at the Davis Center, a well-rated nursing home that specializes in handling elderly people with mental illness.

Clarinda mental hospital patient dies after transfer

4-14-15 Iowa:

One of the first patients transferred out of the state mental hospital at Clarinda in preparation for its closure died less than three weeks later, his family confirmed Tuesday.

Richard Webb, 87, was a longtime resident of the institution, which is one of two that the state is shuttering. Critics say the swift closures could endanger vulnerable Iowans who have severe mental problems.

Webb had an advanced case of Alzheimer's disease, his family said. He was admitted to the Clarinda facility several years ago after private nursing homes determined he was too agitated to handle.

He was transferred to a Shenandoah nursing home March 25, and he died Sunday.

His daughter-in-law, Paula Webb of Kellerton, said he had suffered repeated bouts of pneumonia, which might have recurred recently. When asked whether she believed his transfer hastened his death, she replied: "It's really hard to say." However, she said that as a retired nurse, she knows firsthand that moving to a new place can be especially stressful for frail, elderly people.

The Register's Editorial: Legislature again fails to protect elderly from violence, sexual abuse

Note mention of 2 incidents involving RSOs (over 4-years) and no mention of other incidents (ex: here) by other patients, offenders, staff or volunteers. Why?

4-14-15 Iowa:

More than four years ago, The Des Moines Register reported that dozens of sex offenders were living in nursing homes alongside elderly, vulnerable Iowans.

The newspaper's February 2011 report detailed 27 sex offenders living in 15 different state-licensed residential care facilities for the elderly and disabled. Several months later, convicted sex offender William Cubbage sexually assaulted 95-year-old Mercedes Gottschalk inside the Pomeroy care center where they lived. The Register then examined skilled-nursing facilities in Iowa and found 42 sex offenders living in 21 such homes.

The following summer, 35-year-old Matthew T. Braun, who had a well-documented history of violence, was admitted to the Prairie View Residential Care Facility in Fayette County.

Family of raped incapacitated woman accuses senior living facility of negligence

2-25-15 Michigan:

The family of a 69-year-old incapacitated woman raped by a male employee at a Sterling Heights assisted living center says its operators knew of one or more other sexual assaults by the man but failed to stop them.

The woman's representative recently filed a negligence lawsuit against Harbor Chase of Sterling Heights Inc., its parent company and Mazen Zuhairi in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens.

The legal action came about two weeks before Zuhairi, 22, was sentenced Feb. 18 in criminal court to two to 30 years in prison by Judge James Biernat Jr.

"If someone sexually molested your mother or grandmother, you would want to kill them," Biernat told Zuhairi. "You're lucky you live here in this time."

The victim's daughter said in court the incident has devastated the family, and physically and mentally damaged her mother "forever." Several family members attended the sentencing.

Man Arrested For Sexually Assaulting Patients At BA Senior Care Facility

9-14-2013 Oklahoma:

BROKEN ARROW, Oklahoma - Editor's note: An earlier version of this story contained an incorrect booking photo. The NewsOn6.com team regrets the error.

Broken Arrow police arrested a man accused of sexually assaulting two nursing home patients.

The women are 93 and 80 years old, and are patients at Franciscan Villa in Broken Arrow. Police say what helped in their investigation is how quickly the staff there contacted police.

Police say Uqbasilassie Zerie admitted to sexually assaulting the two women several times over the past six or seven months. They say the situation came to light when one of his co-workers saw something unusual.

"She goes into the elderly patient's room, turns on the light and sees the suspect pulling up his pants," said Cpl. Leon Calhoun, of the Broken Arrow Police Department.

The staff at Franciscan Villa called police that very day, September 11, 2013.