Grabbed by the throat
Families tell Mail inquiry of sickening abuse of their loved ones
THEY had no option but to put their loved ones into care homes.
But families have told the Daily Mail how they then discovered their relatives were being horrifically mistreated by the very people who were meant to be caring for them.
The Mail Investigations Unit today reveals how four in ten care homes reported on this year have been found to be inadequate or requiring improvement.
Reporters analysed thousands of Care Quality Commission reports and interviewed families of those who have lived at homes branded failing in reports this year. Some were so concerned about the welfare of their loved ones that they installed hidden cameras in their rooms – and were distraught when they watched back the shocking footage.
Confirming their worst fears, the videos showed their elderly relatives crying out in pain as carers manhandled them. The disturbing cases include:
79-YEAR-OLD ENDURED CAMPAIGN OF VIOLENCE
GLADYS Wright was grabbed by the throat, shoved into bed and sworn at by carers who were paid to look after her.
Six weeks into her stay at Granary Care Home near Bristol the 79-year-old dementia sufferer was subjected to a horrific campaign of violence by night shift workers.
One tried to force her eyes open while she lay in bed. Another said ‘f*** her’ as he left Mrs Wright in soiled clothing. The mother of three was called an ‘aggressive bitch’ while her screams of pain were ignored.
The abuse came to light after her son James hid a camera in an alarm clock in her bedroom at the £800-aweek home. What he found was worse than a horror story, he said.
‘My mother was thrown around like a sack of potatoes and hit by the people who were supposed to protect her,’ he told the Mail. In a particularly shocking piece of footage a carer used his weight to pin the pensioner’s legs apart in order to provide personal care.
Nine carers were sacked, three of whom were prosecuted and found guilty of abuse. But only one received jail time – four months.
Mrs Wright suffered the abuse in 2012 and died in 2014.
The home, run by Shaw Healthcare, is still failing.
A spokesman for the firm said ‘the CQC confirmed significant improvements had been made’.
GRANDMOTHER FLINCHED IN FEAR AT SIGHT OF STAFF
A GREAT-GRANDMOTHER lived in fear at an NHS care home, her daughter said.
Retired nurse Bridget Rees, 92, had dementia, heart disease and a broken leg when doctors advised that she move to Mary Seacole Nursing Home in East London in the summer of 2014.
Her daughter Veronica Davis hid a camera in a clock after finding bruises on her mother’s arms.
During visits she grew concerned at how her mother winced when carers approached. And when her bedroom door opened, the widow pulled her bedclothes over her head. Footage then captured staff nurse Faderera Bello slapping and poking Mrs Rees and shouting ‘Shut your mouth’ while she was lying in bed.
Bello was sacked and later sentenced to four months in jail for ill treatment and wilful neglect.
Mrs Rees was moved to another home where she died of pneumonia in May 2015. At its last inspection Mary Seacole Nursing Home was rated as ‘requires improvement’. A spokesman said: ‘This case highlighted the appalling behaviour of an individual. We have made all staff aware that this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated.’
CHARGED £5,000 AMONTH BUT LEFT LYING IN URINE
BRENDA Hibberd thought a £5,000-a-month home would give her elderly mother with dementia the best possible care. But she says Elsie Reeves suffered terribly at Maples Care Home in Bexleyheath, south-east London.
Mrs Reeves, 95, begged staff for help when her legs became swollen and painful but her complaints were ignored for three weeks. She was eventually hospitalised with a severe deep vein thrombosis.
Her daughter found unexplained bruising on her mother’s forearms after she moved to the home – then owned by Churchgate Healthcare – in November 2014. A few months later, she arrived for a lunchtime visit to find her mother lying in her own urine, still wearing her nightdress. She had not been fed all morning.
Mrs Hibberd hid a camera in her mother’s bedroom in March 2015. In one clip, Mrs Reeves can be seen pleading with carers as they swing her precariously from a hoist.
One staff member tells another: ‘We nearly dropped her the other day.’ Another clip captures a male carer saying ‘there’s too much fat on your a***’.
‘ I was heartbroken and disgusted,’ said Mrs Hibberd. She moved her mother to another home where she died in June 2016.
A CQC report into the home in March found it ‘requires improvement’. A spokesman for the home, now owned by Canford Healthcare, said: ‘We too were shocked by the
events at Maples Care Home before we took over the ownership and management in July 2015. We are confident that our imminent inspection from CQC will confirm that substantial changes continue to be made at Maples.’
HORRIFIC LEG ULCER THAT WENT UNNOTICED BY CARERS
A DEMENTIA patient with a simple cut on her leg developed a horrific ulcer because care home staff left it untreated for 15 months, her family claim.
After Jean Sass hit her leg on a wheelchair, staff at family-run Woolton Manor care home in Liverpool covered the cut with cotton wool and plasters.
But they gave it no proper treatment for more than a year and it became infected. The wound was only discov- ered when she was admitted to hospital with a chest infection late last year.
Her family say she was healthy and strong when she arrived at the home three years ago. But she weighed only five stone when doctors advised her to leave. She died at 88 in January this year, two months after the family removed her from Woolton Manor.
Her children Karen and Paul spent £60,000 in fees for the three years she was at the home.
Mr Sass said: ‘The staff once tried to give her the wrong medication while on other occasions we found mum sitting in someone else’s clothes. She was covered in pressure sores because she was left too long lying down.’
In January the home received an inadequate rating from the CQC. Last night the home declined to comment.