Laura Spooner is grieving the loss of her aunt, Dee Feldman.
“She was a really special lady to us,” Spooner said.
But she said she is very worried about how her aunt spent her final moments in Hillview Nursing & Rehab in Platte City. She said the quality of care started to slip late last summer.
“It was 100 degrees out, and she was in somebody else's clothes. It was full-on sweat pants, and she was just totally red, soaked hair, just sweating,” Spooner said.
She said the family tried to give Hillview the benefit of the doubt. However, Spooner said things didn't get better.
Dee had dementia and needed help bathing and eating. Yet, in January, she was allegedly left in the shower alone. She fell, and a medical chart shows her entire body was bruised.
A few weeks later, Laura's daughter got a call that Dee wasn't doing well.
“She was bedridden," Spooner said. "Just two weeks prior, my daughter was in there, and she was sitting up in her wheelchair, and she was fine."
The family insisted Dee go to the hospital. The doctors there said her condition was dire.
“They found out she was severely dehydrated. She had to have five bags of fluid,” Spooner said.
Spooner flew in from Wyoming. After her aunt Dee was released from the hospital and sent back to Hillview, Spooner and her daughter stayed there around the clock.
“The conditions that we saw were just unbelievable,” she said.
She snapped photos of filthy and busted floors, dirty bathrooms, and she even caught an employee sleeping on the job, twice. She said it was on nights when he was the only CNA on duty for 66 patients.
“We couldn't find people to help as my aunt was choking on her own secretion. We were running down those hallways. It was unbelievable, the filth in that establishment,” Spooner said.
They also got Dee's patient logs, which show her aunt hadn't been bathed in 23 days. There's no record of her having dinner in weeks. The time stamps on meals are also off, including meals listed on days Dee was hospitalized.
“Every life matters. Every resident at Hillview Nursing Home matters," Spooner said. "I want family members to know they're not being taken care of. They're sitting in soiled pull-ups. Soiled pull-ups. And that should not be."
After a current resident, past employee, and Laura Spooner called the state’s nursing home neglect hotline, state inspectors visited. They issuing several citations for health and safety violations.
FOX4 spoke with the administrator of Hillview Nursing Home. She said:
“Patient safety is top priority. We are taking the concerns very seriously, with the issues brought from the state. We’ve thoroughly investigated and are promptly addressing those issues. We comply with state and federal patient privacy and employment laws and cannot discuss anything further about this matter.”Hillview has 10 days to make a plan for improvements and report back to the state.
Documents show Hillview is tied to a company called Health Systems Incorporated. HSI has faced numerous wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits in Missouri at various facilities and was also part of a $30 million Medicare fraud case in 2014.
However, the party listed from Health Services Incorporated on state records told FOX4, “Health Systems, Inc does not have any ownership interest in Hillview Nursing & Rehab.”
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‘It was unbelievable, the filth’: State investigators find several violations at Platte City nursing home
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