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Elderly Patient Beaten in Nursing Home
A video has emerged of an African American man repeatedly punching an elderly white patient in the face as he lies in bed. The events in the video took place in a Detroit nursing home, and the authorities have arrested the suspect.
“Get Out of My Bed”
In the video, the assailant stands over the bed of an elderly patient, and begins repeatedly punching him in the face, saying “this [expletive] won’t get out of my bed.”
The president then reacted to the shocking video, tweeting, “Is this even possible to believe? Can this be for real? Where is this nursing home, how is the victim doing?”
After the videos’ release, police in Detroit investigated the video and promptly made an arrest. The police department tweeted: “Thank you to everyone for your assistance in bringing the senior home incident to our attention. The @detroitpolice is investigating the situation and an arrest has been made. Thank you again.”
The suspect was a temporary patient of the facility. He was undergoing rehabilitation treatment, according to a law firm representing the Westwood Nursing Home where the attack took place.
“Westwood has been cooperating with the police and will continue to do so. The safety, health, and well-being of our residents remains a top priority of Westwood. We will continue to monitor the situation,” said the law firm in an official statement.
The elderly man has been hospitalized. Also, those who attended to him say that he didn't suffer life-threatening injuries.
A Cleveland woman, Joann Uhler, saw the video online and informed the Detroit police. Regarding the shocking video, she said it “absolutely shattered my heart”.
She also told local media, “Honestly, I think if he were receiving visitors this would have been addressed a lot quicker than something like this having to evolve on Twitter.”
Abuse in Nursing Homes
https://twitter.com/naeldon/status/1263758007265046528
Nursing home patients are, tragically, often the victims of abuse at the hands of their caretakers. A lack of oversight or ability of the patients to defend themselves make for an easy target. These assaults can range from scams to physical abuse. The isolation brought on by the pandemic has made these scams even easier.
The Federal Trade Commission recently warned that in Iowa, among other places, instances of people swindling nursing home residents out of their coronavirus stimulus check exists.
As FTC Elder Justice Coordinator Lois Greisman explained, “We’ve been hearing that some facilities are trying to take the stimulus payments intended for their residents on Medicaid. Then they’re requiring those people to sign over those funds to the facility… They’re claiming that because the person is on Medicaid, the facility gets to keep the stimulus payment.”
The coronavirus payments are technically a tax credit, and thus the funds are not taken into consideration when it comes to MEDICAID eligibility or any other federal benefits. Elderly patients, who now have less access to their loved ones, would likely trust their nursing home administrators to accurately inform them.
Greisman went on to warn, “If a loved one lives in a nursing facility and you’re not sure what happened to their payment, talk with them soon, and consider having a chat with the facility’s management to make sure they know which side of the law to be on.”
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