‘Dad deserved to be properly cared for and he wasn’t’
THE GRIEVING LOVED ONES OF BRIAN JEFFREY BELIEVE THAT HE SUFFERED NEGLECT IN THE DEMENTIA UNIT WHERE HE DIED
BRIAN Jeffery was a family man with the “strength and determination of a bear”. But his last weeks and months were in stark contrast to the lively, loving and funfilled existence he enjoyed before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and later moved to a specialist dementia unit.
It was there he tested positive for Covid-19 in January and died a week-and-a-half later, aged 82.
Coronavirus was just one of many concerns his family had while he lived at the Aaron’s Specialist Unit in Loughborough. They have catalogued them, raised them with safeguarding teams and now shared them our reporter.
While he was at the unit, his family claim he was neglected, had various unexplained injuries, dressed in other people’s clothes and was not properly cared for.
Rushcliffe Care Group, which runs the unit, has said it is cooperating fully with the local authority over the family’s complaint.
Brian was married to Sue for 42 years. They had three children, Corina, Shane and Tammy, and 11 grandchildren.
The couple had lived for over 30 years.
He worked hard for his family, by day a long-distance lorry driver and DJing weddings at parties at weekends so he could take his family on holidays abroad.
“The neighbours would always be setting off for Mablethorpe or Skegness and we’d be off to Spain,” his daughter, Corina said. “I used to wish we could go to Mablethorpe, too, but he’d have none of that.”
His sun-filled breaks abroad were so important to him that Brian once boarded a plane to Puerto Rico in Braunstone hours after breaking his leg over a guitar.
“He was a crazy character, an amazing dad – he gave us the best childhood – an amazing grandfather, always laughing and the glue that held us all together,” Corina said.
But when Brian started to develop Alzheimer’s about 10 years ago, he began to slip away and eventually became a shadow of himself. His family were heartbroken.
“It was hard to hear that he had it. It wasn’t fair. But he faced it with courage and the humour with which he approached everything in life. Alzheimer’s, though, is the cruelest of diseases,” Corina said.
“As things got worse, Mum cared for him. We would all help out but he was okay.”
As his Alzheimer’s progressed, Brian’s health deteriorated and his behaviour became more challenging.
Corina said: “He was becoming a danger to my mum and to himself. It became unsafe for him and for my mum for him to be at home.
“He would wander off – we found him in the middle of a roundabout at a busy junction once – he would get out of bed in the middle of the night and disappear. falling
“He needed specialist care and that’s what we hoped he would get.
“We know how difficult he could be to manage. We did manage for as long as we could.
“We had to make that decision for him to move out of the home he loved, away from Mum.
None of us wanted that but we knew he had to, we couldn’t care for him.
“We thought we were sending him somewhere that someone could.”
Brian was assessed by psychiatrists at the Evington Centre, where he spent a few months after being sectioned for his own safety, and was then placed in the Aarons Specialist Unit, in Loughborough, in November 2019.
It was recommended he went under level two observation – meaning he should be checked on every 15 minutes.
But his family had concerns and, as time went on, they became more worried about Brian.
“Dad was neglected.” Corina said. “The disease itself is damaging and heartbreaking enough – you have to watch someone become a shell of themselves – but he deserved to be properly cared for and he wasn’t.
“He was never an aggressive man but Alzheimer’s changed that. Yes, he could become aggressive or distressed but that is exactly why he was put where he was, exactly why these places exist.”
To add to their anguish, the family were stopped from seeing Brian due to the pandemic.
Sue would catch four buses every day to visit her husband, Corina would make the trip three or four times a week, but when the lockdown started the visits had to stop. It was then that the family’s concerns deepened.
Corina said: “We weren’t able to see him.
“We’d gone from at least one of us seeing him every day to not even being able to get through on the phone to check on him.
“We were getting updates but they were irregular and it wasn’t the same.
“We would get the odd video call and Dad would be wearing other people’s clothes, there was one time when he had days-old food in his beard.
“He hated any kind of facial hair, he was always clean-shaven and the staff knew that.
“He didn’t get deserved.”
As time went on, more concerns were catalogued.
“There were unexplained injuries, bruises, a bloodshot eye, he’d done something to his shoulder,” Corina said.
“They’d tell us that he was moving furniture in his room and that was how he’s hurt himself. But they knew he did it but did nothing to stop it.
“You can’t tell me that he ended up in some of the states he did when someone was checking in on him every 15 minutes.”
Corina and Sue took their concerns to Leicestershire County Council as the safeguarding authority.
Meetings were held with the unit as a result.
The family raised concerns about the dignity he injuries Brian suffered that could not be unexplained, reported that he was missing possessions and the fact that Mr Jeffery was not having a daily shave.
After meetings between the family, unit and local authority, it was agreed that Sue would video call Brian every day and Corina would also be contacted twice a week.
In January, the unit told the family Brian had tested positive for Covid. Even in his final hours, there were rows between the staff and family over who could see Brian as he lay dying.
“I think it was because of the complaints. My mum was allowed in but to begin with, they said I wouldn’t be.
“Nothing would have stopped me though. He deteriorated in that week-and-a-half and died. The cause of death was Covid-19 with Alzheimer’s as a contributory factor.
“It’s a very sad end to an even sadder story. Dad deserved more. I promised him I’d fight for him and that’s what I have to do.
“We can’t have anyone else have this. It’s heartbreaking and we’ve not even had an apology.”
The family’s concerns were outlined to the Rushcliffe Care Group, which runs the unit.
A spokesman said: “We have been in full cooperation with the local authority as per due process under the multi-agency policy for safeguarding vulnerable adults.”