TX Family Blames Nursing Home Neglect for Mother's Death

Consepcion De La Garza was not your average 94-year-old. "I always telling my mom, you gonna live to be 100, mom, maybe more," said Luis Fonseca, her son. The De La Garza family says cell phone video taken in their mother's final days shows her rapid decline. "Apparently they didn't care or apparently they weren't doing their jobs."

Just a few months after moving into Buena Vida nursing home in San Antonio she died. "My mom would always complain her back hurts, her back hurts and I thought maybe it was something else," said Fonseca. Now, the family says they know why. De La Garza's certificate of death lists a cause as sepsis. The severe illness develops when the bloodstream is overwhelmed by bacteria, often from bedsores. "When we were at Southeast Baptist and they brought us in and finally let us see the sore we were amazed, we were in shock," said Debbie Jo Fonseca, her granddaughter. "It was actually bone that was being exposed."

For the De La Garzas, the problems don't stop there. "They told me they were not bathing her, they found mold under her breast," said Luis Fonseca. "I noticed she wasn't eating like she was supposed to and I would sometimes feed her because sometimes they would just leave the tray there," said Gloria Woytasczyk, her daughter. "I was down the hall with my son and I could hear someone screaming," said Debbie Jo. De La Garza's granddaughter says she filed a complaint after seeing a Buena Vida employee's attempt to multi-task. "She was like on a cell phone trying to maneuver my grandmother... she just kinda said I'm changing her, I said no you are mishandling her, your treating her like she's just a ragdoll."

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Family Blames Nursing Home Neglect for Mother's Death