Elderly man ‘frail, underweight’ when admitted to rest home

An elderly man with advanced dementia refused help from rest home staff as he cleaned himself after soiling himself saying ‘‘no, I’ve got to do it’’, a court has heard.

The man’s son and his son’s partner are on trial in the Christchurch District Court before Judge Mark Callaghan on two charges of neglect of a vulnerable adult.

The son is also alleged to have taken about $275,000 from his father’s bank account and faces 32 charges of theft by a person in a special relationship.

The elderly man has since died.

The couple’s names are currently secret while they appeal the judge’s refusal of name suppression.

In June 2020, police found the man locked in his bedroom in a soiled adult nappy and a wetsuit he could not remove.

He was then taken to a rest home by his daughter. The manager saw the man walk through the doors. She noticed he smelt of faeces and instructed staff to give him a shower and offer him some lunch, fluid and fruits.

‘‘He appeared frail, he looked very small, like underweight and probably pale at that point in time.’’

An initial assessment showed he had very dry skin and was possibly dehydrated.

The manager observed him once when he appeared to have soiled himself.

‘‘He was attempting to clean this up himself but was quite distressed by that; I went in and offered to help but he said, no no, I’ve got to do it, in a very distressed way and was hard to distract from the task.’’ She said the incident was ‘‘unusual’’, as most dementia patients would allow help even if they tried to do it themselves. The man appeared to have some ‘‘day night reversal,’’ which was common with dementia patients.

At one point she was informed he was coughing and appeared unwell. He was later diagnosed with a chest infection.

The court earlier heard from a psychiatric nurse who met with the elderly man on March 17, 2019.

The elderly man appeared ‘‘anxious and agitated’’.

Asked about his living arrangements, he said it was ‘‘terrible and awful’’.

A pharmacist told the court the elderly man’s notes said for staff to call his son for everything but not to call his daughter.

Another note from December 2019 recorded there were two months’ worth of medication uncollected.