Family protests outside Watrous Nursing Center to have say in care of grandmother

By Sarah Page Kyrcz

MADISON — Some 20 family members held placards and protested just outside Watrous Nursing Center to bring to light what they consider ill treatment of the matriarch of their family for several hours on Sept. 12. The distressed family also called 911 at one point.

The Baldoz family’s concerns include the family being denied visitation rights to the resident due to COVID, who they say has been taken off her medications, while at the same time is not being properly fed or cared for on a day to day basis, they claim.

For some five hours, the protesters held signs with messages such as “Respect Not Neglect,” Save Our Grandma,” “Whatever Happened to Humanity,” as cars drove by the Neck Road facility beeping and stopping in traffic to talk. The family members stood on the property line of the facility.

Early in the protest the family placed a 911 call to the Madison Police Department to get the grandmother transferred to an emergency room for an independent medical evaluation. An ambulance arrived, along with a Madison police officer, but left empty because the nursing home would not release her, according to her son, Al Baldoz. The family does not have conservatorship rights, he noted.

Al Baldoz said he and his wife, Cherie, had an early afternoon meeting with the director of nursing and a social worker to discuss his mother’s care but that meeting abruptly ended when family members began protesting outside the facility.

“I pleaded with her not to do so (end the meeting) and knowing we weren’t going to get anywhere I had to call the police department, via 911, and ask for independent confirmation of my mom’s health because I wanted a second medical opinion, from an independent doctor, because I don’t think she’s in the condition that she (nursing home staff) is stating she is in,” Al Baldoz said.

Apple-Rehab, the parent corporation for Watrous Nursing Center, commented via email.

“Watrous Nursing Center rejects the allegations that were asserted against our staff that work tirelessly to protect and care for all of its residents,” wrote Karen Donorfio, vice president of operations for Apple-Rehab.

“The facility has followed all appropriate protocols regarding resident care and visitation and has been in contact with the Dept. of Public Health regarding these concerns,” she added. “We continue to work with and abide by the wishes of the court appointed conservator.”

Al Baldoz said he has sent messages to various state agencies including Department of Health Services and the long term assisted living ombudsman for the region and had not heard back from them.

However, later Al Baldoz, and Cherie Baldoz, were allowed to visit the 70-year-old resident.

After the visit Al Baldoz said his mother was sleepy, but he was glad to be able to see her.

“It was a poor visit and it was very quick,” the resident’s eldest son said. “We said, ‘We’ll only make it 15 minutes.’”

Al Baldoz explained his sister had been his mother’s conservator after it was discovered his mother was making “bad decisions living on her own, wandering off and those kinds of things.”

He added that after his sister “pushed some of her treatment and some of her caregivers pretty hard and they pushed back by having her removed legally because she was putting too many demands on them and they said she was being irrational.”

Al Baldoz plans to begin legal proceedings “to at least get co-conservatorship so my family has some say” and said he is currently working with his court appointed lawyer to get her discharged and have her come home.

He added, after seeing his mother and talking with the facility administrator, “We’ve run out of options, but the legal recourse, really.

“I’m just a little let down because I thought our discussions were going to go somewhere earlier,” he added.

Baldoz said his mother does have health issues, but he is concerned about the care she is receiving.

“We don’t think that she’s receiving enough attention that she could be receiving,” he said.

“Mostly it’s just the quality of the last few days,” he added, saying that she is currently on hospice care. “It makes it easier on the family when we come to visit her and she’s the best she can be at that moment and we sort of rest when the time comes.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated.

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Family protests outside Watrous Nursing Center to have say in care of grandmother

5 elderly siblings living together again at same nursing center

More than seven decades after growing up together, the five surviving siblings of their family's 11 children are living together again under one extended roof.

They all are residents of the same nursing facility in Peabody, Massachusetts.

“We all have different health problems and medical appointments now, but we do always check on one another,” said Mary Cena, 92, who was the first of her siblings to get married and leave the family home, back in 1946.

Jeffrey and Susan Brudnick Center for Living

From left, siblings Carmen Wesala, 98, Lawrence Mallia, 90, Mary Cena, 92, Georgia Southwick, 93, and Lucy O'Brien, 85, all live at the same Massachusetts care center.

“We were very good to one another growing up and that still rings very true today. That’s how we were able to all be together again.”

Cena, a widow, moved into the Jeffrey and Susan Brudnick Center for Living in 2013 to be closer to her 98-year-old sister, Carmen Wesala, who had moved into the facility the previous year. Sister Georgia Southwick, 93, arrived two years later, followed by another sister, Lucy O’Brien, 85. Finally, last November, the group was joined by their 90-year-old brother, Larry Mallia.

“We are all just so happy to be together again. I just wish my other brothers and sisters could have experienced this with us,” Cena said.

 

Courtesy of Janice Regis

Mary Cena with her sister, Georgia Southwick.

Among the five siblings at Brudnick, four worked in a local grocery store the family owned until 1978. But all 11 children were very close and everyone grew up either living in Peabody, Massachusetts, or in nearby towns, always making time to get together for picnics and other events with their burgeoning families.

“The 11 of us always got along. There was a lot of love in our family and you can see so much proof of that today,” Cena said.

Before moving to the center, the siblings would get together for a weekly bridge card game. They also enjoyed putting on yard sales during the summer.

These days, with five of them again under the same roof, it's easier for their combined families to spend holidays together.

“It’s wonderful, because I go up and I can easily check in on all of them at once,” said Janice Regis, Southwick’s daughter. “If there’s ever a rare chance that I end up going away somewhere, it’s so reassuring to know they have each other. They still enjoy each other’s company, for sure.”

Courtesy of Janice Regis

Carmen and her late husband, along with her sisters Georgia, Mary, and Lucy, with their late brother, Sam, at a niece's wedding.

Wanda Carratu, the nurse who manages resident care at the facility, said four of the five siblings have dinner every night because they’re in the same annex. But those four always visit the other sibling — or vice versa — nearly every day.

“There are a lot of times when they’re together just sitting around the table talking to each other, or with visiting family members,” she said. “They all look after each other. And they know when someone may not be feeling well that day, or whatever may be happening. They sense that.”

Betsy Mullen, chief operating officer for Chelsea Jewish Lifecare, which owns the Brudnick Center, said she’s never seen such a circumstance in more than 35 years in the business.

“I’ve had sisters together. I’ve had brothers, husbands and wives, mothers and daughters. This is so unusual,” she said. “I’ve never seen the likes of it.”

 

Jeffrey and Susan Brudnick Center for Living

"We were very good to one another growing up and that still rings very true today," Mary Cena said of her siblings. Cena encouraged anyone hearing about her family’s story to appreciate their loved ones, especially if they have siblings.

“I can’t understand how brothers and sisters can go through life without speaking to each other. Each of us has to accept the others’ differences because it makes us who we are," she said.

“When you’re old and you think of the best time of your life, you think of those times when you were surrounded by family and friends. Those were the best times of my life. I couldn’t ask for anything better in the end.”

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5 elderly siblings living together again at same nursing center

Bristol Twp. Man Charged With Raping Dementia Patient

The Bristol Township Police Department has filed charges against a township man they say raped a 93-year-old dementia patient while employed as a certified nursing assistant (CNA) at the Silver Lake Nursing Center.

Christopher Frederici, 41, was charged with rape of a mentally disabled person, sexual assault and indecent exposure in the case. He was arraigned Wednesday morning and sent to prison on 10 percent of $75,000 bail.

According to documents filed by police, an officer responded to the Silver Lake Nursing Center on May 10 for a report of a possible sexual assault against a resident of the facility. It was then that police were informed of an incident that had occurred on April 13. A facility administrator told police a CNA opened the curtain to a resident’s room to find Frederici with his “penis in [the] resident’s mouth and [the] resident’s diaper open”

When the witness observed the incident, she told police she ran out of the room crying before approaching Frederici to confirm what she saw. Frederici, who promised the witness he would not do it again, later threatened the woman at her car by moving his finger across his neck to jester what would happen if she told, as noted by police record.

It was reported by the witness that Frederici had not been assigned to care for the dementia patient on the night of the incident.

During an interview with Frederici by Bristol Township police, he told officers that the elderly woman had initiated the incident by kissing his stomach because “she loved it so much”. When officers asked Frederici if he enjoyed the incident, he noted, “no, well I let her have her fun because she is 93 years old.”

Medical reports and the victim’s daughter noted she has suffered from dementia and cognitive impairment since at least 2012.

Frederici awaits a preliminary hearing with District Judge Joanne Kline scheduled for July 14.

Editor’s Note:All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents

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Bristol Twp. Man Charged With Raping Dementia Patient

Employee At Brighton Beach Nursing Center Arrested For Beating 82-Year-Old Dementia Patient

Shore View Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Brighton Beach. (Photo via Google Maps)

An employee at a Brighton Beach nursing center has been arrested for abusing and mistreating an 82-year-old resident, who suffers from dementia and is unable to care for himself, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced Thursday.

According to prosecutors, Certified Nurse Aide Mina Maxine Gayle-Campbell repeatedly struck the elderly man and threw water at his face and body while administering a bed bath on April 29 at the Shore View Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Brighton Beach. She also allegedly used the man’s own fist to hit him in the face. The abuse was caught on video, according to a press release from the attorney general’s office.

“When families make the difficult decision to place the care of their loved ones in the hands of a nursing home, they expect them to be treated with compassion and respect—not abused and mistreated,” Schneiderman said in the press release. “My office will continue to prosecute anyone who abuses and mistreats elderly and vulnerable New Yorkers in this way.”

An official at Shore view said the facility provided surveillance video of the abuse to the Attorney General’s office and reported the incident to investigators.

“We immediately reported this staff member to the New York State Attorney General’s office and terminated this employee – there is absolutely no place for employees like this at Shore View. Every employee at Shore View knows we are continually monitoring their actions and that only those employees who meet our standard of care and delivers that care with compassion, will remain an employee at Shore View,” administrator Kwang Lee in a statement.

A spokesperson from the Attorney General’s office said the case was referred to them by the Department of Health. We reached out to the Department of Health to confirm the incident was reported by staff at Shore View and have yet to receive a response.

Gayle-Campbell was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on charges of Endangering the Welfare of an Incompetent or Physically Disabled Person in the First Degree, a Class E felony, and Willful Violation of Health Laws, a misdemeanor, according to the attorney general.

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Employee At Brighton Beach Nursing Center Arrested For Beating 82-Year-Old Dementia Patient