COVERED IN BRUISES

A BLIND woman with dementia was covered in cuts and bruises after three weeks in a care home, her family said last night.

Pamela Matthews, 85, was so badly injured at Woodbine Manor Care Home in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, that half her body was purple.

The widow went into the home in July last year and died the following month but the home – which has been failing since February 2015 – is still open and said by watchdogs to need improvement.

Mrs Matthews’s daughter Celia discovered bruising to her mother’s back one week into her stay at the £825-aweek home. She said staff did nothing to treat her. Two weeks later the bruising had spread across half her body.

Relatives also discovered carpet burns on her legs and were told by carers that the great-grandmother had suffered a fall. ‘My mother was destroyed by her spell at Woodbine Manor,’ Celia, 64, told the Mail. She said the former civil servant asked her why ‘horrible’ night staff made her crawl on the floor.

There is no official record of how Mrs Matthews was injured but her family suspect she was handled roughly and dropped by carers. She died from pneumonia two weeks after leaving the home.

Woodbine Manor said: ‘The case went to safeguarding and it is private and confidential. We have followed all the recommendations and it was all dealt with. We are not prepared to comment on it as it is private and confidential.’