I read the saddest story over the weekend about an 85-year-old woman who had been taken from her Pennsylvania nursing home by her 50-someting son. He dumped her from his car and ran over her several times, killing her. How sickening and tragic.
As someone who has lived in nursing homes over the last four years, I can't grasp there is any way, rationally-speaking, that a home could not have seen something in the son's behavior toward their patient to prevent them from letting him take her. In fact, in this case, a guardian had been appointed by the court to care for her -- someone saw red flags, but that didn't keep the facility from letting her go out with her diabolical son.
He sits in jail, charged under Pennsylvania law with 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree murder.
But that won't do his Mom any good.
1 comment:
unfortunately I can see this same scenario playing out in my family. Unless I can convince my mother, still living independently, to file charges of abuse against my nephew and his wife, she will likely face escalating abuse which will likely end in her untimely death. There should be a way the children of an abused elder can protect an elderly parent without their cooperation or having them declared incompetent. People abused for years (financially,emotionally and verbally) are not always able to stand up against their abusers. And then there's the classic "you won't ever see your great-granddaughter again" threat. My family situation is making my sister and I physically ill, because we have no recourse on mom's behalf, without her concurring.
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