3 charged in elder abuse case (didn't take mom to hospital, she was uninsured)

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald-AP

Published Thursday January 14, 2010

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Charges have been filed against three Lincoln residents accused of abusing an elderly family member.

Fifty-three-year-old Sheryl Dunn was charged Wednesday with abuse of a vulnerable adult. Her 20-year-old daughter, Francis Wilson, and the daughter’s husband, 24-year-old Jonathan Wilson, were charged with being an accessory.

snip: Officers say she was found in a urine- and feces-soiled bed, where she’d been for eight days. Other relatives had called police.

Dunn told police she didn’t seek help because her mother wanted to die at home. The Wilsons said it was because Wickline was uninsured.


Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/20100114/NEWS01/701159937

[pfitz59]

1. The truth is in there somewhere

Medical care bankrupts people. Especially life-prolonging care. I say send the bill to Lieberman...

[rkennedy_68]

23. Lieberman is a waste of space

[virgogal]

2. Medicare?

[Coyote_Bandit]

3. While most of the elderly qualify for Medicare

there are some exceptions. Maybe she didn't work enough years - or didn't have a spouse who did. Or maybe she worked jobs that failed to pay into Medicare for some reason.....

[Cleita]

5. You can still get it if you pay a premium. I don't think it would be that much.

http://questions.medicare.gov/cgi-bin/medicare.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=121

[Cleita]

4. At her age she was eligible for Medicare Part A, which is hospitalization,

even if she hadn't signed up for Part B. It seems there was massive ignorance here or something more sinister.

[Downwinder]

7. She might not have been able to pay $100/month for Part A, or

the 20% copay for a hip replacement.

[CTyankee]

9. Part A does not cost $100. You are thinking of Part B. Part A. would have prevented this

if it were because of inability to pay...

[JDPriestly]

15. Medicare does not cover all longterm care.

Just for an example, if the younger members of the family live on a family farm in the mother's name, and the mother needs long-term institutional care, the younger family members might have to choose between getting the care for their mother or giving up their and their mother's home to pay the bills for the long-term care. It is quite possible that the mother would not want to go into a nursing home if she knew she would lose the house she shared with her children or that she wanted to leave to her children.

Of course, then the question arises, assuming that or some similar situation was the case, why weren't the children themselves taking better care of her?

[quiller4]

19. It does cover 100 days of nursing home upon referal from hospital.

[Downwinder]

17. Whatever. All I know is that $96.60 is withheld from my check each month

to pay for Medicare. Plus Medigap costs $175.00 per month and Part D is another 30.00 per month.

[Cleita]

21. The money withheld is for Part B.

[logosoco]

6. There may be more to this story,

I don't know. But having insurance or not does not have anything to do with letting your mother/grandmother lay in a dirty bed. There is no excuse for that.
It is very sad to think that this 53 year old woman let her mother lie in shit. This woman probably didn't do that to her when she was a baby.

I have a severe shoulder injury that makes many things very hard and painful to do,but if my mother was bedridden I would STILL make sure she was clean. It would be hard to do if the patient had a broken hip, but getting sores from laying in crap would only make it worse.

I respect this womans choice for wanting to die at home, but there is no reason for her to have to go in such a mess.

[CTyankee]

8. At 94, my mother lay in a hospital bed, pretty helpless and she was close to death. .

I had been there for several days and one morning I came in and her bed had not been changed. It was obvious that her overnight nurse had neglected her.

I raised holy hell and they cleaned her up immediately. I reported the night nurse.

This drives me nuts...

[emilyg]

10. You are right. Wouldn't have

cost them to wash and make her comfortable.

[marshall]

11. I suspect they were protecting their inheritance

I hope the police investigate the circumstances of the "fall".

[bc3000]

14. That's what it sounds like to me too

[dysfunctional press]

16. what 'inheritance' would that be...?

it never occurred to you that they're possibly dirt poor...?

[marshall]

18. Even dirt poor people wipe their bed ridden mother's dirty asses

And don't let them lie in piles of shit.

So no, it didn't really occur to me, given the evidence.

[dysfunctional press]

20. most of the 'houses of squalor' that end up on the news aren't exactly in well-to-do neighborhoods.

and that's what this struck me as.
given the evidence.

[Warpy]

12. This is bullshit

because, while they could indeed have had a compelling reason to keep her at home, they had absolutely no justification for keeping her in her own filth.

Likely Medicare would have picked up much of a hospital tab, anyway, as it will now if she's still alive. Medicaid will kick in if she has to go to a nursing home.

I strongly suspect a lot of substance abuse in this family. I can see no other reason to treat someone this way.

[undeterred]

13. When I worked as an aide, an older woman was admitted

to our medical unit to die. At first there was a strong smell of talcom powder. The family was distraught. The talcom powder was an attempt to cover the fact that she had been lying unattended in her own incontinence and hadn't had a bath in weeks. The family wanted the nurses to think they cared, but apparently they didn't.

[rkennedy_68]

22. devastating stuff