Woman eaten alive by mites in Georgia nursing home

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
In a dog they call it sarcoptic mange.

Its against T&C for me to volunteer to be the blunt end of justice in this case....but right now my heart is in a fire of rage reading this

Im absolutely sickened.

Isn't that very contagious? If they didn't treat her would they not be getting it or spreading it?

a reply to: SeaWorthy

well...you'd have to get close enough to her to contract it. i'd question if they'd even done that, honestly.

How about we take away cell phones from workers in care facilities when they're on the clock? This is pure negligence for long periods of time and possible incompetence if a registered nurse even saw the poor woman. When common ailments kill someone should be losing their job if not more.

Eta: After reading the article it appears the Nursing Home and the State Health department bear some blame. 35 patients had scabies yet no one came to check if they had addressed the problem? Scabies spread through soiled bedding, clothes and obviously their laundry service was a complete failure if indeed they changed their clothes and sheets. Such an easily remedied situation points to multiple levels of negligence, ignorance and sheer laziness. People blaming the woman's family aren't thinking her daughter is probably in her 70's, may not even live near enough to visit and may not even be able to travel. Nursing homes are paid to care for the physical needs of the patients at a minimum. Utter failure and State incompetence in the follow up. How can anyone believe more government will solve these issues?

originally posted by: Ksihkehe

originally posted by: rickymouse
Seems to me that a doctor would have been able to distinguish the scabies from regular rash some bedridden people get. If someone was paying attention, this would not happen. I think this kind of thing happens a lot in nursing homes. I know they have problems with stuff like that here too. I do not think our people are well enough trained in these places.

You actually use a magic marker on the skin and then wipe it off with alcohol. It exposes the places they bore into the skin.

ETA: The treament is simple too. It's hard to imagine how scabies could get to this state.

It seems to be that the staff and doctors were ignoring the symptoms. We have had our share of problems with nursing homes up here over the years, this does not surprise me at all. The patients are usually doped up so they cannot get into trouble or escape around here. I had relatives who went to nursing homes and I had friends and relatives who worked in them. I never want to have to go into one permanently, that is for sure. I would rather take a walk into the woods with a lunch sack and some toilet paper and never come back. I suppose I would get hungry and have to walk back a couple hundred feet to the house to make supper every night.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: SeaWorthy

well...you'd have to get close enough to her to contract it. i'd question if they'd even done that, honestly.

Someone must have changed a bedpan or something I would think.


Maybe they wear gloves.

Back when i was working as a EMT i transported from hospitals to nursing homes or from nursing homes to hospitals.

If we saw ANYTHING out of the normal we were REQUIRED BY LAW to report it to the county authorities.

It boggles the mind how this could have gone so far without anyone raising the alarm. Scabies infestations don't happen overnight.

The evil in this world is spreading and growing.

My mother passed away 4 months ago form a 30-year-long fight with scleroderma. The last year of her life, my wife and I took care of her money, made sure she had her medication, bought groceries for her husband (she was on a feeding tube because she lost the ability to swallow) and took her back and forth from the bed to the living room in the morning, to the potty when she needed to go, and back to bed at night. My wife fed her three times a day, every day, rain, shine, sick, well, regardless. I maintained her place and did her business, so she could be comfortable.

When she passed, she went out with people she loved around her in the hospital, at peace and with dignity. She simply couldn't fight any longer; the damage was too great. My last words to her, standing at her bedside holding her hand, were, "Mom, it would be my honor and privilege to care for you another 20 years. I want you back home. But I also know that you're tired. So know that if you feel it's time to move on, I understand." She couldn't talk... she could look at people, but her eyes barely showed any emotion... she had been lying there listless and unresponsive. Her hands were cold and limp. But as soon as I finished speaking, she squeezed my hand. I looked into her eyes, which were fixed right at me, and said, "I understand." She relaxed her grip.

I don't tell that often, but it has merit here in this discussion. In contrast, her husband has three kids who live nearby, whereas Mom only had me... my only sister lives two hours away. Between all three, they only showed up when they had to, usually when he or Mom called and asked if they were going to bring him food. When they did show up, they stayed only as long as they had to. My wife offered to clean their house several times, but Mom always insisted that his daughter do it... he was jealous of the idea of us doing everything and felt we were somehow leaving his kids out. When we moved in here after she passed and his kids finally let him come live with them, and we found piles of rotten food hidden back in corners out of her sight, and had a mouse infestation that was absolutely sickening. I have no idea how he is doing now. I am amazed they left him alone here for as long as they did, all by himself, barely able to use the phone even, almost blind, barely able to hear, suffering from Type I diabetes and advanced dementia literally sitting in his own waste while grieving for a lost wife. As one might imagine, there is a lot of bad blood between myself and his kids, who I refer to collectively as "the hoodlums." Some are even banned from my property for actions taken after her passing.

Mom was always clean and cheerful... but only because we cared. At least a dozen nurses have told us that Mom would have died years earlier if not for us and our sacrifices.

As some have said, hospice was excellent and a great help. Toward the end, Mom could not even stand up by herself, and having a nurse come by three times a week (and as needed, including late at night on several occasions) made a huge difference.

I could never understand the contrast between us and his kids. They always seemed to look down on us and resent us caring for Mom. In my mind, one is supposed to care for the elderly. They cared for us, after all, when we were helpless. A society can be judged by how it treats the weakest and most vulnerable in it, and by that standard we are failing miserably. I can't even get angry enough to scream for prosecution against these supposed nurses... all I can do is hang my head and grieve at the loss of our own humanity. We live in a world where children are seen as political pawns or annoyances, where elderly are shipped off to nursing homes and abandoned, where atrocities like the one in the OP happen way too often with impunity because it was just a patient and not a person.

I have two wonderful kids, don't get me wrong... but they have moved off to make a life for themselves. I know that when I get to the point where I need help, there will be none; I long ago resigned myself to that. After all, our attempts to care for Mom were quite often met with scorn instead of acceptance. I should quit caring for her and go get a full time job; we were making others look bad by comparison; we were just doing it for the inheritance (which we already had), etc. I don't want my kids to go through that stigma. I am a hardened old redneck, though... those of us who live this long are pretty much indestructible. My concern is for the rest of society. They are not so tough and not so indestructible. How much pain will we continue to heap upon those who need us before we realize we have lost our way as a society?



a reply to: kaylaluv

You are already advocating. It's nice to just hear a friendly, understanding voice when those voices become mechanized medical speak and few and far between.

Bless you for what you do for the unfortunate.

TheRedneck

originally posted by: SeaWorthy

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
In a dog they call it sarcoptic mange.

Its against T&C for me to volunteer to be the blunt end of justice in this case....but right now my heart is in a fire of rage reading this

Im absolutely sickened.

Isn't that very contagious? If they didn't treat her would they not be getting it or spreading it?

Scabies.

Very contagious.

They are little critters.

infest hair. They like the pubic hair. lol.

i've dealt with them. Caught them trying on jeans in the 70's.

Easily taken care of tho. Shave and Quell lotion once ya know what you're dealing with.

Burn the clothes. (just kidding) Wash in hot water.

ETA; it sucks when they are on your hands and u watch them turn over your skin.

Skin eruption. www.medicinenet.com...

Not good.

It is outrageous how some of our elderly are treated in nursing homes. It infuriates me and breaks my heart. These places need to be monitored. Something has to be done. GRRRRRR!

There are many natural remedies for this condition.
Easy to find online.
It is a crime of negligent homicide to allow this to happen.
I have caught a case of these nasty bugs.
My scrotum smelled like cloves for a few days, but all was well within a week.

a reply to: trollz

Rebecca Zeni. An angel, then and now. If we send our love back in time to her (love transcends time), it'll make a huge difference in her life as it was, near the end, there.

I lived for a couple years in a poor folk's old age home (55+; subsidized) in Thunder Bay, Ontario. When you have no money anymore, you have no life anymore. The ones who were left all alone died fast. Too many by their own hand, but that was never reported in any media.

I got out of there, I was losing empathy, they were so miserable. Losing empathy. We have to watch out for that. The only thing that made a difference with me is when I pictured them young and vibrant, again - I could see them still 'in there', smiling out and through at me, strong and fearless, every bit as beautiful and magical and alive as Rebecca was, all those years ago...though cloaked outwardly in zombie costumes, now.

But - how many 'others' are in this world, these days? Come to grotesquely display these horrors to us? through the media. There's nothing and no one inside of the 'others'. This gone-so-astray world. Has our world been plunged into times of The Night of the Living Dead?

Ill take my answer from the eternal heroes smiling out and through at me, strong and fearless, every bit as beautiful and magical and alive as Rebecca...still is.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: SeaWorthy

well...you'd have to get close enough to her to contract it. i'd question if they'd even done that, honestly.

The news story said that they were told not to touch her hand for fear that it would fall off! So, yeah...

“There was a conversation at this nursing home with a health care provider about being careful about touching Ms. Zeni’s hand for fear that it might fall off her body,” Chance told 11Alive.

a reply to: trollz

This is absolutely sickening to me. I have a good friend in the Philippines who is always the first one to care for his elder relatives or the relatives who are sick. Bathing, washing, feeding, caring, spending time etc. I contrast this to how it seems we do things here in the USA. Our culture doesn't seem to revere the elderly like other cultures. It's quite disappointing.

I, too, hope that there are some charges leveled at all of those who knew of her condition and did nothing.

a reply to: Edumakated

It's foreign to me.

My folks re-arranged their lives for my grandmother so she could stay in her home until the day she died.

Husband and I currently re-arrange our lives for my parents' needs as they come up.

It is family. It's what you do. I can't imagine how people forget this.

a reply to: trollz

From decades of observation and experience, I can tell you exactly how such matters get to this point.

Many will not like the solutions I offer, but that is a good thing.

MEDICINE IS NOT SUPPOSE TO TASTE GOOD!!

The primary reasons for such problems are "CELL PHONES and FACEBOOK". You could also throw a little E-BAY into the mix also. These things serve as diversions for so many people the Department of Labor has done surveys on how much production is lost each year from their use in the work place. I do not remember the numbers right off hand but they are tremendous.

This is absolutely horrible but happens more often than you would think. My wife has worked in the home health/nursing home field for almost ten uears now and comes home with horror stories and bouts of depression for seeing some of the crazy stuff she has. This is not an isolated case here folks. We have people dying in nursing homes every day from a rash that was only deadly went not dealt with over the course of months.

Heres why it happens and why it wont change until the laws change:
STNA's (State Tested Nurses Aids) are an underpaid possition to begin with. Their duties include bathing, diaper changing, eating, and basic wound cleaning. They are often asked to do tasked they arent qualified to do because of lack of staffing on the nursing side so they may be asked to change a catheter, start an IV, or a ventilator. These positions, even with year experience only way up to 12$ an hour in most states. The "state tested" part is a short clasd that often falls short of most of the required training and ruahed to produce employees.
Which leads me to my next point: workers today arent what they used to be the the unemployment line has lesser and lesser qualified, motovated people to fill these positions. Nursing homes often hire people without the STNA training then give them a week long crash course in paitent aid to send them to a highly understaffed hall caring for up to 50 people sometimes alone.
Because of the understaffing employeers are letting people who dont actually give a rats ass about the wellbeing of others in the door.


The fact is that the homes and companies are looking out for themselves. Putting underqualified, underpaid bodies to look after their sick and dying to meet patient to staff ratios. These workers are often pressured into extra hours, double shifts, and coming in on their days off. My wife has been personally asked to come in during doctor-ordered bedrest to fill a 12 hour call off position. We have seen woman miscarry their pregnancies for being overworked and patients literally die due to lack of care. That effects a person in the worse way I can assue you.

a reply to: ketsuko
Our "Me" society is what happened.

When I was a child the members of the community took care of the elderly and the sick. I spent a many of hours sitting with an elderly member of the community that was bed-bound or was sick. You were told, "You go and sit with Miss ? until someone comes and relieves you". So you went and sat with Miss or Mr. ? until someone came. Someone always did, and they would tell you, "You can go home now child."

I lived in the country and the houses were not that close together so sometimes it was a bit of a walk, depending on the day of the week and the time of day, my brother would go with me. The women worked together with doing the washing, bringing meals, and bathing of the elderly, but that was what country folks did a long time ago.

I never heard of hospice or a nursing home, and even hospitals were places that people rarely went. The doctor came to the house and the community provided the care. Today, it is rare that people care for their own let alone those in their community.

It is funny that in the new trending of "See something, say something", that doesn't include those requiring humane acts of kindness. The SWAT team will show up if someone calls and says a neighbor has a gun, but if someone calls and says the neighbor is alone and has no family, they will completely ignore the call, or make a bunch of excuses.

Love, caring, compassion, and acts of kindness have become so rare that when they do occur it becomes a big day on social media and the news for "one" day. Then it is back to business as usual. Being greedy, selfish, critical, rude, and nasty. That is now the norm.

First thing everyone needs to know is many nursing homes drug there patients.

Sometimes its just sleeping meds to put them out at night to heavy antidepressants anti psychotics or in nursing homes that do not need antidepressants or other anti psychotics.

Also that the patients can not complain about there treatment.
if they find a way to call out to a government agency and a investigator is sent the nursing homes will tell the investigator the patient has Alzheimer, dementia or other mental health disorder.

I had a friend that was almost killed in a auto accident and spent almost a year in a nursing home.
His lawyer was p##sed after he called the state agency's and being told that his client was delusional. demented or crazy. by the investigators after the investigation of misconduct reported by his client.

Most people would be surprised at what goes on out side visiting hours in nursing homes.