Violence and pain in American nursing homes

One of the most memorable testimonies of Harvey’s storm was a photograph from a nursing home in the city of Dickinson, near Houston, where older people sit in the middle of a flooded room. The photo scattered on the Internet and gave a reason to think about what is really happening in the walls of the elderly homes, and how it is treated with the elderly.

ForumDaily publishes investigations CNN "Sick, Dying and Raped in America's Nursing Homes" in the translation of the project InoSmi. We kindly ask readers to note that the situations described here are not characteristic of all nursing homes, but only describe specific cases.

Some of the victims cannot speak. To get out of bed and move, they need walkers and wheelchairs. They lost their memory. They move into nursing homes to take care of them.

But instead they are sexually abused.

Unimaginable things are happening in medical institutions of this type all over the country — defenseless elderly people are being raped and sexually assaulted people who are paid to care for the elderly.

It is impossible to establish exactly how many people were victims of violence in these institutions. But by conducting an exclusive analysis of state-of-the-art data across individual states and across the country, and talking to experts, representatives of regulatory agencies and relatives of victims of violence, CNN journalists found out that this problem, which is almost not discussed, is much more widespread than one could imagine.

But it is even more disturbing that in many cases, nursing homes and the government officials in charge of them almost (or completely) do nothing to prevent or stop this.

Sometimes the cause is elementary - and even conscious - negligence. In other cases, employees of nursing homes and administrators are not able to do anything to protect the victims, who cannot remember exactly what happened to them, or even identify their perpetrators.

In cases considered by CNN journalists, the victims and their relatives could not achieve anything during the whole trial. Nursing homes were not in a hurry to investigate the incidents and report them to the police because of their unwillingness to believe the charges - or the desire to hide them. From the very beginning, the police considered these allegations to be dubious, dismissing possible victims, because they suffered memory loss or gave confused testimony. And since in order to recognize the validity of the charges, it is necessary to fulfill a variety of conditions, the state regulatory authorities did not see patterns in the numerous accusations against any one person who was caring for elderly patients.

It is because of these systemic failures that it is especially difficult for the victim to achieve justice - and it is even easier for criminals to avoid punishment.

“In her 83 of the year, unable to speak, unable to resist, she was even more defenseless than when she left her homeland as a little girl, fleeing. In fact, when she was raped, she was defenseless, like a baby. According to her dignity, with which she always kept throughout her life, and which was already mercilessly humiliated as a result of Alzheimer's disease, this man dealt a final crushing blow. I see tragic irony in all this, ... what she was most afraid of when she was a young girl, fleeing and leaving her homeland, happened to her in the last years of her life, when she was most defenseless. ”

Maya Fischer spoke these words in 2015 year, making a statement in court during the pronouncement of the sentence to a medic who was found guilty of raping her mother. Holding back tears, Fisher told in detail the story of her mother's life, remembering how that young girl and her family fled from Indonesia in order not to fall into the hands of Japanese soldiers who raped and killed young girls. And several decades later, to become a victim of a man whose job was to care for her.

18 December 2014 in 4: In the morning, a nurse who worked with George Kpingbah at the Walker Methodist Health Center in Minneapolis saw her in an 30-year-old Sonya Fisher (Sonja Fischer) lying on an elderly woman. In the same place on the bed lay her unbuttoned diaper. When the witness noticed that the 83 summer nurse performs characteristic movements, she realized that sexual abuse was occurring.

As a result, Kpingba pleaded guilty to the crime of violent sexual nature of the third degree against a mentally ill person or person who was in a helpless state, and was sentenced to eight years in prison. During the pronouncement of the sentence, the judge, addressing Kingbe with emotional speech, told him that he had not only destroyed the life of his victim and her relatives. He deceived the trust that people have in order to nurses who have immediate access to the sick and the elderly.

“You have abused your official position, our trust,” Judge Elizabeth Cutter said in passing the verdict. - Your actions have far-reaching consequences ... They adversely affected all people in this institution. On all who are in this institution. For everyone who works in it. They affect the interests of everyone who is forced to send their loved ones to nursing homes. ”

During the trial, Kpingba apologized and said that he was going to take the Bible with him to prison. His lawyer asked for leniency. According to him, Kpingba himself experienced difficulties and trials as a refugee who was forced to leave Liberia after many members of his family were killed. And, as the lawyer said, referring to the judge, the fact that Kpingba committed his only "barbaric crime" is not typical for him.

However, according to court materials found by CNN journalists, the prosecutor's office found that investigations into Kpingba in connection with allegations of sexual assault were conducted more than once. As follows from the personal records of employees received by the prosecutor’s office during the investigation and examined by CNN journalists, Kngingbu was suspended three times when the Walker Methodist management investigated numerous accusations of sexual violence against the center’s patients - including at least two incidents. in which he was the prime suspect.

The first complaint came in 2008, when the police investigated a statement that he had intercourse with an 65-year-old patient who suffered from multiple sclerosis. In another case, a 83-year-old blind and deaf woman who lived in the same part of the building as Maya Fisher's mother said that she was raped several times - and every time it happened at midnight. The police investigated her statement just seven months before Sonya Fisher was abused. Although the woman was not able to identify the abuser, Kwingbu was suspended from work at a medical center - as were several other male employees who were on duty at night shifts, during which alleged incidents of violence occurred.

Evidence confirming the validity of these charges was not found either by the leadership of the center or by the state authorities. For many years, Kpingba continued to work in the center of the Walker Methodist on the night shift. Until that early morning in December 2014, he was caught at the scene of the crime.

In this case, the Minnesota Department of Health found that the leadership of the medical institution Walker Methodist immediately took steps to ensure the safety of patients, and immediately dismissed Kngingbou. State authorities also noted that Kingba previously underwent the necessary training in the institution to prevent and detect signs of violence. As a result, the Walker Methodist was not brought to justice for bad faith and causing harm, and only Kpingba was found guilty of committing the violence.

Maya Fisher could not have known about the previous charges against Kngingba, which were learned by CNN journalists. But she filed a lawsuit against Kingurbu, and he agreed to an unusual deal in which he had to pay a huge amount of 15 million dollars in punishment - if he again committed violence.

The leadership of the Walker Methodist center declined to comment on previous accusations against Kngingba, who had worked there for about eight years, but said in a statement that she was cooperating with the authorities and that “we pay close attention to the care and well-being of all patients in our institution.”

CNN journalists appealed to the relatives of other patients who had previously reported that they had been sexually abused at the Walker Methodist Medical Center while Kpingba was working there (although in no case were they considered him to be suspects). According to them, officials immediately rejected complaints from patients, calling them hallucinations or fantasies.

“The leadership of the Walker Methodist Center, of course, did not take the necessary measures to deal with what happened to my mother and other patients, and should be punished,” said the son of the first alleged victim, having learned from CNN journalists that Kpingba was convicted of rape .

According to the son of another alleged victim who accused the unknown rapist, he was frantic, because he was not told that several same complaints had been received for one orderly. If he knew about this, he said, he would have taken his mother’s statement about sexual abuse more seriously. But he then believed the leadership of the Walker Methodist.

In the Minnesota Department of Health, CNN reporters were told that state law does not allow the name of a person being investigated for a charge that is not supported by evidence, regardless of the number of allegations with such charges.

But both relatives of these two alleged victims of sexual assault also expressed doubts about the state health department. How effective is his supervisory activity, if his employees were aware of the numerous reports of violence in the center of Walker Methodist, and they still could not intervene?

After more persistent inquiries, the department’s staff told CNN journalists that the reports came at a time when the documents were issued on paper and that they were working on upgrading the system, hoping to get an opportunity to “label such statements”.

Sexual abuse, "put on stream"

Some records of alleged sexual abuse are contained in court documents filed in civil and criminal courts in the framework of lawsuits against the leadership of nursing homes, boarding schools and boarding houses for the elderly and disabled, as well as their employees. Other incident reports are kept in detailed reports compiled by state crime commissions.

Фото: Depositphotos

One of the residents of a nursing home in North Carolina, weighing only 35 kilograms and suffering from such a serious cognitive disorder that she could not perform simple everyday tasks without any help, reported that the orderly, closing the door, pulled her head to herself and forced her to oral sex. the act.

In another case, a male nurse raped a Texas patient in a nursing home. He ejaculated into the mouth and chest of the injured. When he left, she, desperately trying to keep at least some evidence of a crime, spat out the sperm in her bra and kept it unwashed for three weeks. “This is the only thing I have,” she told the investigators later.

In Iowa, a woman who could not walk without a walker and wash herself, reported that a nurse had raped her in the shower. But the leadership of the nursing home did not report this to the relevant authorities, since this orderly left the country.

A 88-year-old woman from California, in whose life there was only one man - her husband, with whom she lived almost 70 years, said that she woke up in her bed in a nursing home and noticed that her catheter had been removed and the bed was wet. The next thing she remembered was an unknown orderly who was looking at her naked body. As she told the police, she remembered his words: “That's why I love my job.” A few weeks later, the woman complained of severe vaginal pain and "wet blisters", and subsequently she was diagnosed with incurable genital herpes. The identity of the alleged perpetrator has not yet been established.

Finally, in a small town in North Carolina, the orderly continued to work for many years, despite numerous reports of alleged sexual abuse. Only after one of the nurses had the courage to report the violence to the police, was he fired and arrested. 58-year-old Luis Gomez (Luis Gomez) is now in prison awaiting trial and insists on his innocence.

In most cases studied by CNN journalists, the rapists acted alone. But in some cases they were led by a herd instinct in the commission of violence. And the victims were not only women.

Convicted of rape living in nursing homes (from left to right) Andrew Merzvski, Antonio Nieto and George Kpingbach

Over the course of several months, a group of orderlies at a home for the elderly and people with disabilities in California scoffed and humiliated five patients, taking pictures of them and shooting them on video to show them to other employees. One victim - a 56-year-old man with cerebral palsy - was forced to pace naked. The other, an elderly man with paralysis who could barely speak, squeezed his nipples and penis tightly and was also forced to eat feces from his own diaper. He was very afraid that the offenders would kill him. Although the orderlies and deprived of certificates of qualification, as a result of an investigation conducted by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the State of California, it turned out that many of them did not appear before the court.

Another group of young nurses in the town of Albert Leigh, Minnesota, harassed at least 15 men and women, many of whom suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Nurses beat, pushed and groped patients, grabbed their breasts. One of the patients they inserted their fingers into the anus. They grabbed their charges for the crotch and laughed. One nurse lowered her pants and sat on the patient's knees - imitating mating and roughly squeezing her. “In truth, I was outraged by this rudeness and utter disregard, disrespect for human dignity,” the judge said later. Two tormentors, who at that time were 18 years old, and whom the court found guilty of the misbehavior of medical staff, stayed in prison on the 42 day. Other young nurses were brought before a juvenile court and did not receive any prison terms.

The problem has not been studied

Despite a long list of bullying and violent actions, described in detail in government reports, comprehensive data reflecting the total number of cases of sexual offenses registered in health facilities that contain elderly people are not available all over the country.

Commissions to investigate violations in the health care system consider all abuses registered in nursing homes and boarding schools for the elderly and disabled, information about which is received in the form of reports from the institutions themselves or in the form of complaints against state authorities from witnesses, relatives or the victims themselves. As for nursing homes, these investigations, as well as regular inspections, are usually carried out by state authorities on behalf of the federal centers Medicare and Medicaid Services, which monitor more than 15 of thousands of nursing homes receiving government compensation for caring for many elderly patients. Both state-owned health facilities and federal subordinate agencies then use this information to evaluate and compile a rating, as well as to impose fines on malicious violators.

CNN journalists conducted a survey among health departments and other organizations that oversee medical institutions to provide long-term care in all 50 states. In those states that were able to provide at least some data, the survey results differ significantly.

Фото: Depositphotos

For example, a survey in Illinois has shown that since 2013, 386 has been reported from nursing home patients about sexual violence, while in 201, of the reported incidents, the orderlies committed violence. In Hawaii, between 2011 and 2015 years, eight allegations of sexual abuse were reviewed, and in five cases nurses appeared. When state authorities conducted further analysis to determine how many charges were substantiated, the results showed that very often the charges remain unproved. And this is explained either by the fact that the need to overcome serious obstacles associated with the elderly age of the victims, or the fact that the evidence was destroyed, or the lack of interest of the leadership of nursing homes and supervising bodies in conducting investigations.

Of the 386 charges in Illinois, 59 was found to be well-founded. And in Texas, from 251, complaints of sexual violence in the 2015 fiscal year, evidence was obtained only in 11 cases. According to a survey conducted in Wisconsin, over the past five years, none of the reported cases of sexual violence could not find evidence.

But in most states, the authorities cannot say how often cases of sexual violence were involved in the investigation of violent actions, and experts often claim that the charges of sexual violence are not separated into a separate group, but are considered together with other types of violence.

And at the federal level, the authorities do not carry out special monitoring of all accusations of sexual violence.

In accordance with federal data provided by the Agency for Social Services for People Living in Special Medical Institutions, over the period from 2000, more than 16 thousand were registered in institutions providing long-term care (which include nursing homes and boarding schools / nursing homes for the elderly and disabled) complaints of sexual abuse. But representatives of the agency warned that this figure does not include all cases - but only those in which the ombudsmen for the rights of persons in need of long-term care took part in the consideration of complaints (acting as lawyers for people living in nursing homes, boarding schools, etc.) P.).

In the centers working on Medicare and Medicaid programs, allegations of sexual assault are included in a general group containing all kinds of violations of the law — for example, physical violence or financial abuse. According to representatives of the agencies, this is explained by the fact that they take seriously all types of offenses. At the request of CNN journalists, the agency conducted a specialized search using keywords related to sex. But since not every case of violence was sexual in nature, CNN journalists had to consider each case separately in order to filter out all extraneous references.

According to reports, between 2010 and 2015, 226 nursing homes were fined for failing to protect patients from violent acts that were confirmed and qualified as sexual assault.

At the same time, approximately in 60% cases, fines totaling more than 9 million dollars were imposed - although funding under the Medicare and Medicaid programs was permanently denied only to 16 institutions. (Since the federal authorities only control nursing homes, this analysis did not include boarding schools and nursing homes for elderly people).

But these statistics make it possible to assess the situation only insignificantly, since they do not represent many cases in which nursing homes are penalized for inappropriate actions when handling complaints of sexual violence, from illiterate investigation to concealing facts.

Using the audit reports for the period from 2013 to 2016 and a similar keyword search (“sex”, etc.), CNN journalists conducted their own detailed analysis.

Фото: Depositphotos

As a result, CNN journalists independently established that the federal authorities fined more than a thousand nursing homes for the fact that their leadership did not properly or did not prevent alleged incidents of rape, sexual assault or coercion to sex in their institutions. (This includes some cases that were provided by centers working under Medicare and Medicaid programs). During that period, around 100 of these institutions were fined several times.

Complaints and statements that are not grounds for imposing a fine and which the authorities call “inferior” are not included in such Medicare reports. In addition, as studies conducted on a national scale show, many rape victims, as a rule, do not report on the violent acts committed against them. So these numbers probably represent only a fraction of the alleged cases of sexual violence in nursing homes across the country.

At least in 25% of the cases examined, sexual assault was performed by nurses, nurses / other nursing home workers, and only a small proportion by visitors to the institution (including family members) or unknown persons. And although in most cases the reports related to sexual violence perpetrated by some patients against others, the accusations against the orderlies and other workers of the institutions are usually much more serious and are associated with such actions as coercion to sexual intercourse, oral sex, penetration by fingers and other forms of sexual abuse.

The description of the cases of violent actions cited in these reports evoke a mixed reaction - from feelings of vexation, pity to disgust.

Journalists lead a series of testimonies relatives about how people living in nursing homes were abused.

An analysis conducted by CNN journalists showed that the problem was largely caused by the nursing homes themselves. More than 500 institutions were fined for not conducting thorough investigations of cases of sexual violence and not reporting them to the authorities, or not conducting proper checks of individuals when they were hired, it was not a question of whether they had been noticed in past abuses. One director of a nursing home told the inspector that “if his institution reported all incidents and complaints, there would be a lot of them, and the state supervisors would also not want to.”

And since incidents and complaints are not properly investigated, or they are not reported to the appropriate authorities, it is difficult to determine how many of the alleged cases of sexual violence have been proven and have led to a criminal case. But there are at least several hundred reported cases when the rapists confessed themselves or when information was obtained from witnesses of the violence.

Amid reports of sexual assault, hundreds of testimonies were recorded describing the chaos that is happening in such institutions:

There, patients pick up other patients in their beds and steal food from each other. Run around like crazy in the corridors. Send knives and other similar objects to people. They suffer from hallucinations - it seems to them that snakes are crawling out of their heads, and little boys are hiding behind the curtains. They urinate in trash cans. Drink and use drugs. Fall asleep in the bath. Stealing walkers. They stifle people and attack them with fists, beat the details of wheelchairs. Run away, getting out through the windows. Drink lotion and plate cleaner.

Uncontrolled "epidemic"

This is rarely talked about, but sexual abuse in the very institutions whose task it is to provide care for the elderly is a long-standing problem - such cases occurred decades ago.

This happens throughout the country. In the cities, in the suburbs and in the countryside. In low-income nursing homes that are covered by Medicaid. And also in the centers, for the stay in which people pay thousands of dollars from their own savings. The owners of these institutions are huge corporations and regional networks, as well as non-profit organizations and small family businesses.

And this problem is becoming more urgent as the number of “elderly people” is growing, and according to forecasts, the number of Americans over the age of 2010 will more than double in the years from 2050 to 65.

However, such institutions, which currently have more than one million senior citizens, tend to pay low salaries to nurses (approximately 11-12 dollars per hour), so it’s quite enough to attract qualified specialists to this work and ensure that they do not quit. difficult. And often at the most dangerous time of the day - on the night shift - there are few workers who keep order in the institution.

Violence is an “epidemic,” says Mark Kosieradzki, a lawyer from Minnesota, who represents the interests of some of the victims and their families — including Maya Fisher, a woman who told the court about the rape of her mother. “Predators consider elderly patients to be easy prey. These patients often suffer from dementia. They cannot say what happened, or they do not believe it, because many people do not consider it possible for a 28 summer nurse to want to rape someone’s grandmother. ”

Kozeradski and other experts who protect the interests of the elderly, say that there are harsh laws in the states and throughout the country, according to which the registration and investigation of incidents of violence are mandatory. The problem, they say, is that in nursing homes these laws are not always respected. And although federal officials and state officials told CNN journalists that the regulatory authorities are actively investigating complaints and bringing the leadership of nursing homes to justice, critics argue that control over their execution is not tough enough. And often the investigations carried out by the state agencies themselves are, at best, superficial in nature — they are not so thorough and do not envisage any complicated actions necessary to gather evidence and substantiate the charges.

Many nursing home workers promptly inform the authorities about the facts of violence, as required by federal law, and assist in investigations. But in numerous cases of sexual abuse, disclosed by CNN journalists, The leadership of the nursing homes themselves didn’t take action to stop violent acts such as brutal rape and forced sex.

In these institutions, complaints and accusations are usually questioned or denied, because victims suffer from cognitive impairment such as Alzheimer's disease. Workers often do not have the special training necessary to recognize signs of sexual violence, which is why information on sexual violence does not reach the relevant authorities. In addition, it is possible that the management’s reputation and the smooth existence of their institutions are key - managers often fear that with the advent of investigators in an institution experiencing financial difficulties, other problems can also be identified, which creates the risk of closing down the nursing home or starting costly court cases. litigation

But the worst thing in all of this is those managers and employees who actively impede investigations.

“There are some situations when they do not understand that this has happened, and they do not want to believe in it. They just don’t understand this, ”said Ann Burgess, a well-known nurse and a nursing teacher at Boston College, who deals with the assessment and treatment of older people who are victims of sexual abuse. - There are other cases when they try to hide it ... They blame the victim. ”

At one facility in Colorado - the Broomfield Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation Center - an orderly Antonio Nieto was already accused of raping a woman in her bed when another woman complained ... Prosecutors say the center's management allowed Nieto to return to work after he allegedly committed the first sexual assault, as it felt that the patient's claim was "unfounded." After the first incident at the center, the leadership changed, and according to him, the orderly Nieto was allowed to return to work only after the police said that the investigation was at an impasse and, most likely, no criminal charges would be brought.

After another victim appeared, he was fired. In the end, Nieto was sentenced to 24 years in prison. The center at Broomfield paid a fine of $ 51837 dollars — a scant amount compared to the millions it received as annual state compensation for patient care.

When the Beau Provence Memory Care in Louisiana elderly caretaker was arrested last year for allegedly raping an 78-year-old patient, Julie Henry, the director of the institution, immediately made an emotional statement in the local media, saying that workers are "shocked and disappointed." But soon after that, Henry was arrested, on charges that she had developed a complex plan to conceal this case of sexual violence. According to the police, she tried to prevent the investigation by ordering the officers not to report the incident. She asked the boarding school to transfer to her all the evidence that she then allegedly destroyed. Chef Jerry Kan has been charged with first-degree rape, but he does not plead guilty. The case was not terminated, and his lawyer declined to comment.

Director Henry was not formally charged, and her case is pending. According to her lawyer, he is confident that as a result of further investigation, Henry will be released. “The patient and cook Kan initially denied what had happened, misleading everyone and giving reason to doubt that the incident had taken place. When it became known that the incident was still there, Ms. Henry began to cooperate with the police and continues to do so, ”he said in an e-mail. Representatives of the orphanage said they were working with the police and the state Department of Health to “verify the facts underlying these allegations,” but they noted that they could not comment on how the investigation was proceeding.

In Minnesota, officials transferred the Edgewood Vista 89-year-old patient to a psychiatric ward at a local hospital after she reported that she had been raped. 28, a certified medical orderly, Andrew Merzwski (Andrew Merzwski) admitted that he had sexual intercourse with the patient, but said that this happened by mutual consent. The director of the nursing home believed him and blamed the victim (who suffered from dementia) by telling the victim nurse examining the victim of rape who was examining the victim that the patient was always “flirting.”

“She (before) complained about the situation in a nursing home, and she was locked in a room,” nurse nurse Theresa Flesvig told CNN. - She felt like in prison. It seemed to her that she was being punished. ” An examination of her rape was carried out almost a week after the alleged attack. According to Fleswig, she discovered clear physical signs of violence — one of the biggest tears in the vagina she had ever seen. Mervski pleaded guilty to a sex offense and was sentenced to 2014 months in prison in 53.

Sometimes the police and state investigators also do not take complaints seriously. In one case, a police report examined by CNN journalists cited a statement by an official in which, as a reason for refusing to seriously deal with the complaint, the victim stated that she was “a fan of the Law and Order series”. “It seems that hallucinations are somehow connected with episodes of the series,” writes the officer. As a result, no one was detained, the analysis of biological materials for evidence of rape was not made, and the case was closed.

“In this case, the“ victim ”has already made similar statements against suspects who do not exist and who are not physically able to perform the actions of which she accuses them, - is written in a statement from the police department sent to CNN journalists. “The victim has a mental illness and hallucinations, her statements are contradictory and unfounded.”

In a case with a medical officer at Kpingba in Minnesota, a state investigator wrote that the first alleged victim “had long and repeatedly unreasonably accused male nurses of unacceptable sexual behavior” and “sexual licentiousness and violation of what was permitted”.

Responding to a question from CNN journalists on this topic, a representative from the Minnesota State Health Department said that these allegations were taken seriously and investigations were conducted on them. “After a while, and in accordance with the current practice of writing reports, the department regrets the wording in the statement and asks the family for forgiveness for this tactless statement,” the agency said.

Although rapists like Kpingby appeared to be behind bars as a result of their crimes, many have not been charged.

According to a study conducted among elderly people with the financial support of the National Institute of Justice, the older the victim, the less likely that a criminal will be convicted of sexual violence. And it’s even less likely that victims living in nursing homes will wait until they are charged with the perpetrators and found guilty.

Moreover, victims suffering from senile dementia and other diseases are often considered so unreliable witnesses that even those cases in which the offender admits to having committed a crime may result in their refusal to consider them, or the defendant is almost not punished. This is exactly what happened in the case of Walter Martinez, an orderly from St. Louis, who wrote a letter of resignation and confessed to committing sexual violence against two elderly patients. He had to stand trial on rape charges, and he was in danger of a long prison term. As a result, Martinez received two years conditionally after the alleged victims died or their dementia took such a serious form that they were unable to testify.

His lawyer told CNN journalists that, despite the letter of resignation, Martinez did not admit his guilt in committing the actions for which he was charged, and is ready to defend himself in court. “Mr. Martinez asked for psychological help, was consulted and acknowledged that he had sexual thoughts when performing his normal job duties. Because of these thoughts, he felt a strong sense of guilt and it was then that he used the term “sexual abuse” in his letter of resignation, ”the lawyer explained in an e-mail.

In the case of a woman from Texas who had kept her bra for several weeks as evidence, the suspect was arrested and charged with alleged rape. But, as follows from the court records, prosecutors could not preserve the evidence and testimony of the alleged victim. Last year, the case was discontinued, despite the fact that the genetic examination of the biological material, preserved in the bra, and the material taken from the defendant, showed the coincidence of DNA. The lab says that the likelihood that DNA can belong to another person is less than 1: 983 trillions.

Even those nursing homes that actively hinder the investigation or hide incidents of violence often get off with a minimum penalty. The overwhelming majority of nursing homes, for which terrible facts were recorded in the reports of the controlling bodies, are still working, accepting new patients.

Instead, state agencies charge fines and stop paying for Medicare and Medicaid in the hope of bringing these nursing homes into compliance. But even in the event of fines being imposed (which, according to representatives of the Medicare and Medicaid centers, should force these institutions to eliminate this problem as soon as possible), these fines are often amazingly small.

When a nursing home in Texas did not take appropriate measures after an elderly man, he said, was raped and drugged, the authorities punished the institution by imposing a fine on 116,5 thousand dollars and temporarily stopped paying him compensation for the costs of caring for new patients. But the fine was ultimately reduced by almost half due to the “financial difficulties” faced by the nursing home. Yes, and the suspension of government compensation lasted only 11 days.

A nursing home in California — whose management allowed a certified nurse to work for several weeks, despite reports that he had repeatedly committed sexual assault on a patient — was fined 22 thousands of dollars by state authorities.

There is also the nursing home Walker Methodist in Minnesota, where 83-year-old Sonya Fisher has been the victim of just that sexual abuse. Here she was raped by a nursing home worker whose leadership knew that this man was accused of committing sexual violence several years ago. The nursing home did not incur any punishment at all.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Americans are dying more and more at home: how does this affect relatives

From the first person. How the US cares about the health of its citizens

How to avoid a fine if there is no health insurance

How to reduce the bill for treatment in an American hospital

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.