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| September 12, 2009 |
Well, I guess this blog thing can be more complicated to do than I thought. I committed to make you smile, but I am too angry and hurt to make anyone smile today. But... maybe I can make you think of something for a bit... something that effects us all... Elder neglect/abuse.
The following is an article I posted on line with Associated Content.com. It contains a letter I wrote to my district state representative.
This has been one sad week, my friends, as you will see if you choose to read on.
Let's hope next week is better, or tomorrow is a better day. Let's hope that we can make a difference in the lives of others, as I am trying to do.
love,
karen
I live in Illinois, where there are laws against elder abuse / neglect. This week I have seen a scenario few can imagine. I am enlcosing a letter I wrote to my district's representative, for it seems the police, the medical community and people like you and myself, look the other way when cases of elder neglect and abuse cross our paths.
What I don't understand is why a person, say an alcoholic, with no insurance, can come in to a hospital ( I work for one) get detoxified, and be admitted to behavioral health departments with ease, while a young woman who my son dates has tried repeatedly to get help for her mentally ill mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, only to be released back into the community, and unfortunately back into taking care of her elderly mother.
My tears are not only for Mary, who this is about, but for Nancy, who suffers from a cancer of the mind. My tears are for those turned away from homeless shelters. My tears are for a young woman struggling to get through college and having to deal with a very ill mother, who does not feel she is ill, as schizophrenia is like that... the rest of the world is out to get you, watch you, spy on you. They are the problem, not you.
I present to you a letter I wrote seeking help. I will submit more news as to answers ( I hope) that I receive. I have eliminated last names for privacy reasons.
Dear Representative Franks:
I am a very, very concerned citizen of McHenry County. My main concern right now is placement for a very mentally ill woman who was taking care of her mother, who died in a manner no human being should die in this past Tuesday, September 8th, 2009.
The woman of whom I speak, a Mary ___, aged 80s and her daughter, were living in a car, homeless since June 2008, and unfortunately, Mary, I understand, passed on during the night sometime of September 8th, 2009. Her daughter, her main care giver is paranoid and schizophrenic, and has slipped through the cracks of health care in this county at various hospitals. As of yesterday, Good Shepherd Hospital was thinking of releasing her. Update today says she is considering signing herself in. Her moods swing, and Lord knows if she will be able to get the help she needs without insurance.
Getting back to the death of Mary, when Nancy, (Mary's daughter) decided her mother was not breathing correctly, she drove at least 20 miles from Woodstock, Illinois, where they were staying in a 24 hour parking lot, to a walk in clinic in Lake in the Hills or Algonquin. On these details I am not clear. However, upon arrival, the mother was found to be deceased for a number of hours, as rigor mortis had set in. Nancy declared to the police and to myself, she talked to her mother all the way there and that her mother was moving. She said she listened to her chest and her breathing sounded "funny", hence she took her to a walk in clinic (not a hospital right there in Woodstock).
The Lake in the Hills Police Department has a record of this alleged crime, and treated the car as a crime scene. The detective on duty was prepared to release Nancy Jean and her car, even though Nancy is an uninsured driver, and the elements surrounding her mother's death are horrid. Mary (aged 85 I think) was found without panties, sitting in a pile of feces and urine, with maggots living in this mess. The coroner I believe, still has the body, awaiting family's decision on funeral home. The social worker/police officer, Sue, from LITH police dept., refused to let Nancy go back to driving that car, as the driver's seat was also thick with excrement. It is a public health hazard, e-coli and loaded with bacteria. Even the detectives cleaning out the car as they were checking it out like a crime scene had to wear Haz Mat suits. A gun was found under Mary's seat, a family heirloom, in four inches of urine. The detective mentioned no FOID card, and confiscated gun.
Nancy's daughter, April and I talked to police and social worker and had Nancy involuntarily admitted to a hospital. (Good Shepherd) Earlier that day she had been taken to St. Joseph's in Elgin, the police thinking she was freaking out due to her mother's death, only to find her lab results showed a severely dysfunctional thyroid and some other abnormalities in her urine, etc.
Nancy and her mother had not eaten in a week. Nancy told the police she had not bathed or showered in over two months. Nancy also told the people at St. Joseph's the same, and it seems to me, they would have at least let her shower in the hospital setting for personal hygiene.
When Nancy's daughter, April, would try to get her mother and grandmother into a shelter she was always told there was no room. Nancy had to go to the ER a few months back, her daughter begged for a psychiatric evaluation. Nancy was evaluated and told the psychiatrist that she did not like her tone of voice and Nancy was discharged.
Of course these people had no insurance, except Mary would have been on Medicare. Mary's late husband was a state senator I believe, from Pennsylvania. This needs to be looked into as I am sure, as the widow of a senator, she should have been entitled to some pension from his service capacity as senator.
My horror, my sorrow, and my guilt at not reporting elder neglect in May (2009, (the last time I saw them and offered them a place to stay for a few weeks and that was met with rejection by Nancy) haunt me, and I plead with you to help. Mary was sobbing as I offered her a place to live, and told me Nancy would say no. I tried to memorize the license plate number of Nancy's car, walked into the house to write it down, the phone rang and I did NOT jot it down, and by the time I went outside again, Nancy and her mother were gone. So I did not know the license plate number to report this.
If the LITH police have not reported a case of elder neglect, as indicated by Illinois law, 320ILCS20/)Elder Abuse and Neglect Act, they, too, have been negligent. If the coroner has not reported this, he has been negligent. The LITH police have pictures of the car, its contents and state of horrendous health hazards. Sue, (not sure of last name) of the LITH police dept. was very concerned and helpful enough to help us get Nancy into Good Shepherd Hospital involuntarily.
Nancy's daughter is April, a 22 year old college student at MCC. She contacted her grandmother's attorney in Woodstock yesterday, I believe his name is ________ He said there is no estate and was not sure how to help, but maybe contact State's attorney.
My son dates April and asked me to get her Tuesday evening after the Woodstock police came to her apartment to inform her of her grandmother's passing and that her mother was being held at LITH police station. I picked up April and took her to police station where we were informed of these events, and saw the state of the car, and the obvious neglect that Mary suffered.
I will, hopefully, all through my life be alert for senior citizens suffering at the hands of family care takers who are ill themselves, unable to care for themselves, much less an elderly parent.
- At this point in letter, I gave our phone numbers. -
Please, Representative Franks, Picture your mother, or grandmother in a car like that, the back seat loaded with urine soaked clothing, old food, McDonald's wrappers, unable to walk, suffering from congestive heart failure, unable to walk without a walker or wheelchair (which I offered to Nancy in May 2009) and finally dying in a car seat inches thick loaded with her own feces, maggots and urine. The system is not working, caseworkers and the analysts at health care centers are not taking this woman seriously, and that is part of schizophrenia, they really do not feel they are ill, it is the rest of the world who is after them. They are deceitful and able to be very convincing.
I pray for Nancy, who, just like a person with heart disease, lung disease or cancer, needs medical and psychiatric attention, for she has a "cancer of the mind".
I beg of you, please take this matter seriously. Please help.
I offer, in advance, my gratitude. I voted for you because I believed you could make a difference. I am writing this letter to you for I believe I can make a difference. It is too late for Mary, but for all the other "Mary's out there" it may not be too late. I will give every effort I can to be of help to the elderly in this county, or anywhere.
Sincerely,
Karen A. Lech
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Posted by 1Littlewren on 2009-09-12 17:40:33 | Rating: | Views: 7
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