She needs 24-hour nursing. Then she was told it would end

Bossier City resident Deshae Lott was 5 years old when she started having trouble walking — the first symptoms of a rare and serious disease that would mark her life.

By age 11, she could no longer climb stairs. By 17, she couldn't walk. And by age 31, she couldn't breathe on her own.

Lott’s diagnosis of Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy is rare. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted the best research has been done in England, where two out of about every 100,000 people had some form of the disorder.

But Lott said her specific subtype, involving a rare recessive gene inheritance pattern, exists in only 13 known cases internationally, according to a conversation she had with a genetics counselor at Emory University's genetics lab in 2016.

Now 46, Lott is a red-headed woman with bright blue eyes, elfin features, a warm smile and gentle voice. She also is confined to a wheelchair and unable to breathe without a ventilator, which beats a metronome-like staccato heard throughout her quiet Bossier City home.  

Under a doctor’s directive, she requires 24-hour daily care from skilled nurses who can handle her medical needs, which include administering a minimum of four to six breathing treatments, operating coughing and lung suctioning machines at least six times daily, and doling out four to five different medications over every 24 hours.

Until recently, the majority of her care was provided by licensed practical nurses through a state-licensed home health agency and the state-funded New Opportunities Waiver program.

But in late August, Lott and her husband, Jeff Sadow, received a formal discharge letter in which the agency said it no longer could meet her needs. The couple spent several desperate weeks searching for other options, with Lott concerned that her services would stop and that she would die.

A glimmer of "true hope" came Thursday — four days before the scheduled end of Lott's services. A representative from the Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities called to say that a new home health agency had committed verbally to taking Lott's case and to beginning services Tuesday.

Details hadn't been finalized, Lott said. But she hopes that sharing her story can help others in a similar situation throughout the state.

"The one comfort I have had during this process is that my case and any attention it receives could help bring about some needed constructive reforms," Lott said. "Lives depend on it."

While Lott’s medical condition puts her at the extreme end of those seeking home-based health care, she is not alone.

As of June, more than 30,000 elderly or disabled Louisianians were on a waiting list to receive Medicaid-funded, home-based services instead of through a nursing home, according to The Advocate.

And the waiting list for New Opportunities Waivers — through which Lott receives her services — runs to more than 15,800 people, said Louisiana Department of Health spokeswoman Samantha Hartmann.  (Click to Continue)

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She needs 24-hour nursing. Then she was told it would end

2-year suspension upheld for former probate judge

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The suspension of a former York County probate judge's law license for two years for ethics violations will go into effect on Oct. 1.

The Maine State Supreme Court ruled Thursday that it won't reconsider the suspension of attorney Robert Nadeau.

The court cited a series of ethical lapses and breaches of judicial conduct. Among other things, he was accused of having a sexual relationship with a client and trying to ban several lawyers from getting court-appointed work because of a personal vendetta.

The court Nadeau was unable to show he was treated more harshly than others having identified no other Maine lawyer "with a history of professional misconduct violations as extensive as his own."
Nadeau declined comment Friday afternoon.

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2-year suspension upheld for former probate judge

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Former Probate Judge Nadeau suspended

Arrest Warrant Details Abuse Of Whiting Patient

Mark Cusson, the supervisory forensic nurse on third shift at the maximum security Whiting psychiatric hospital, seemed to lead by example, with other workers either joining him as he rained abuse on a patient in the early morning hours, or watching mutely as it happened, according to warrants unsealed Wednesday in the widening abuse scandal.

Cusson, 49, of Southington, was observed on video kicking the patient repeatedly, dousing him with an unspecified liquid, straddling the patient in bed and placing his groin and then his butt on the patient’s face, the warrant states. Most of the time, the patient was in bed when the early morning abuse began, the arrest warrant states. Sometimes, Cusson would just roll into the room from the hall on his office chair or stride into the room and walk around the patient’s bed. When the patient sat up and began to watch Cusson, the head nurse would dart in a different direction and suddenly feint toward and away from the patient, causing the patient to follow his movements in apparent anticipation of another attack.

Cusson maintains his innocence and his lawyer, Brian Woolf of East Hartford, has said he and his client expect a favorable outcome of the criminal case.

The warrant affidavits for the nine staff members arrested in the case are each a little different — tailored by state police detectives to the maltreatment they observed in hours and hours of surveillance tape shot from a camera in the 62-year-old patient’s room. Allegations in the other warrants include workers placing a dirty diaper on the patient’s head and wrapping a sheet around his head and over his face.

Cusson was charged with eight counts of cruelty to persons, a felony — the most of the nine defendants charged in a scandal that has seen 31 workers suspended. Another three Whiting employees, including another forensic head nurse, were transferred from their jobs as new abuse allegations involving the same patient, surfacing in recent days, are investigated internally.

Writing in support of Cusson’s arrest, state police Det. Matthew Geddes said Whiting’s director of nursing, Renata Kozak, contacted police officers with the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, the agency overseeing Connecticut Valley Hospital and its Whiting Forensic Divsion, and said she had received a report from an agency employee “alleging abuse” against the patient.

Kozak, who herself has been suspended, told DMHAS police that she was “requesting the video recording from the patient’s room” in unit 6 at Whiting “be downloaded and saved onto a DVD disc for viewing,” the warrant states.

The warrant doesn’t answer a question asked by patient-rights advocates, the patient’s co-conservator, and critics of the way Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and DMHAS Commissioner Miriam Delphin-Rittmon have responded to the scandal:

Why didn’t one of the many layers of DMHAS and Whiting management catch the videotaped abuse while it was happening or soon after?

A recent investigation by the state Department of Public Health found that the video monitors and the tape-recordings were not routinely viewed, prompting Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, the co-chair of the legislature’s public health committee, to ask, among other things, how the state’s mental health system can have a surveillance setup and not use it.

After detailing episodes of Cusson allegedly kicking the patient in bed, or trapping the patient’s neck between his legs in a “scissor hold,” or putting his foot on the patient’s head and pushing down, the warrant describes one of the more jarring acts attributed to him:

“Cusson is seen entering the patient’s room, going straight to the patient, turning around and placing his buttocks very close to the patient’s face for several seconds. Cusson moves away from the patient for approximately a minute, then returns, mounts the patient’s bed and straddles himself over the patient, placing his groin in the patient’s face,” the warrant states.

“Cusson then makes a back and forth motion toward the patient’s face with his groin … Cusson gets off the patient, comes around the patient’s bed, and again bends over and places his buttocks in the patient’s face.”

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Arrest Warrant Details Abuse Of Whiting Patient

Court-appointed guardian charged with stealing from man in her care

Michelle Alexander

NOBLE COUNTY, Ind. (WNDU) A court-appointed guardian has been charged after allegedly stealing more than $51,000 from a man she was caring for.

Police say that in August of 2015, 45-year-old Michelle Alexander became the caregiver for a Kendallville man who was in declining health.

During October to December of 2015, police say Alexander used the victim's disability checks for her own financial benefit.

In 2016, a new guardian was appointed due to a lack of communication from Alexander. A short time later, an audit revealed discrepancies in the victim's finances.

Alexander was arrested on theft charges and later released on bail.

From Indiana State Police:

A 45 year old woman from Reading, Michigan was recently jailed on a charge alleging she stole more than $51,000 from a man she was supposed to be caring for.

The investigation by Indiana State Police Detective Mike Carroll revealed in August of 2015, Michelle Lynn Alexander, 45 of Reading, Michigan was appointed by the Noble County Circuit Court as a court appointed guardian of a then 59 year old man from Kendallville who suffered from declining mental and physical health.

During the time period between October 2015 and December 2015, it is alleged that Alexander accessed the victim’s bank account and used his disability checks for her own financial benefit, and not the benefit of the victim. The total loss incurred by the victim totaled more than $51,000.

In July of 2016, the victim was transferred to a mental health facility in Jay County by Alexander and shortly thereafter, a new guardian had been appointed because of a lack of communication from Alexander. An audit was then conducted and the significant discrepancies in the victim’s finances were discovered. Carroll was made aware of the theft in May of this year, and following a four month long investigation, the case was presented to the Noble County Prosecutor’s Office who filed the following charge:

• Theft, Level 5 Felony

Alexander turned herself into the Noble County Jail on September 24, 2017 and has since been released on bond.

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Court-appointed guardian charged with stealing from man in her care

Caregiver sentenced to year in prison for abusing 95-year-old woman

Roxann Bucchan-Straker

SILVER SPRING, Md. - A Maryland caregiver who pleaded guilty to abusing an elderly woman has been sentenced to a year in prison after being captured on video striking the victim several times.

Several videos shows Roxann Bucchan-Straker hitting the 95-year-old woman, who uses a wheelchair, in the head with a cell phone at least twice along with slapping the woman multiple times while she was eating her meals.

The physical abuse happened at the Springvale Terrace retirement community in Silver Spring in 2015.

Bucchan-Straker was given three years probation in addition to her prison sentence.



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Caregiver sentenced to year in prison for abusing 95-year-old woman

Three years later, this terminally ill man is glad he rejected assisted suicide

Washington D.C., Oct 4, 2017 / 03:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Three years ago, J.J. Hanson received a diagnosis that no one wants to hear. He had terminal brain cancer, and doctors said his time was short – he likely had about four months to live.

“The surgeon said my cancer was inoperable and three different doctors told me there was nothing they could do,” Hanson said.

He was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the same type of brain cancer that led Brittany Maynard to choose to take her life through assisted suicide in a high-profile case in California in 2014.

“I would have easily met the criteria for accessing assisted suicide if I lived in a state like Oregon or California, where assisted suicide is legal,” Hanson said.

“In a dark moment, I might have opted for it, but I am fortunate to have a supportive family, and was given the opportunity to pursue cutting edge, experimental treatment instead,” he said. “Here I am three years later, enjoying the arrival of our second son and living life to the fullest.”

Today, Hanson is president of the Patients Rights Action Fund, which opposes efforts to legalize assisted suicide. The group is currently backing a Congressional resolution objecting to assisted suicide on the grounds that it puts all people at risk.

“When assisted suicide becomes accepted public policy it threatens the lives of everyone, especially the poor, elderly, mentally ill, disabled, and terminally ill,” he said. “Why? Well, for starters, abuse is unavoidable and doctors are fallible. Assisted suicide policy also injects government insurers and private insurance companies with financial incentives into every single person’s end of life decisions.”

House Congressional Resolution 80, proposed by Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) on Sept. 26, has nine co-sponsors from both parties. Besides Hanson’s group, other supporting groups includes the National Council on Independent Living, the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, Not Dead Yet, ADAPT, and Physicians for Compassionate Care Education Fund.

Rep. Wenstrup and the resolution’s sponsors said doctor-assisted suicide “undermines a key safeguard that protects our nation’s most vulnerable citizens, including the elderly, people with disabilities, and people experiencing psychiatric diagnoses. Americans deserve better.”

“When governments support, encourage, or facilitate suicide – whether assisted by physicians or others – we devalue our fellow citizens, our fellow human beings,” the legislators said. “That should not be who we are.”

The proposed resolution says that assisted suicide “puts everyone, including those most vulnerable, at risk of deadly harm and undermines the integrity of the health care system.” It notes that the purported “safeguards” limit the laws to patients with a prognosis of six months or less to live, but such people “outlive their prognoses every day.”

The federal government “should ensure that every person facing the end of their life has access to the best quality and comprehensive medical care,” including palliative or hospice care, says the resolution. It says the federal government “should not adopt or endorse policies or practices that support, encourage, or facilitate suicide or assisted suicide, whether by physicians or others.”

States with legal assisted suicide have come under criticism for lacking adequate safeguards to protect those who are depressed or pressured into requesting assisted suicide. Reporting standards for assisted suicide are substandard, according to the resolution. It also objects that some states require physicians to conceal assisted suicide and to list the cause of death as the underlying condition.

It adds that the low cost of lethal medication will make it more likely to be recommended to disadvantaged and vulnerable people.

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Three years later, this terminally ill man is glad he rejected assisted suicide

McCracken County nursing home found guilty of negligence

MCCRACKEN COUNTY, KY — A Paducah nursing home could potentially be paying out $28 million for neglecting one of their patients and trying to cover up an injury.

Recent court documents show jurors in the McCracken County Circuit Court found McCracken Nursing and Rehabilitation guilty of negligence and other charges earlier this year.

According to the court documents, Cecil Gary fell while in the nursing home’s care but the nursing home did not report it to his family which is required by law. It is not mentioned in the documents when the fall happened.

Along with negligence, jurors also found the nursing home guilty of losing or destroying medical records, causing physical pain and suffering, and not treating Gary with dignity and respect.

The $25 million awarded by the jurors is a recommendation only and is not legally binding. A judge will take the recommendation into consideration and decide how much McCracken Nursing and Rehabilitation has to pay.

McCracken Nursing and Rehabilitation is locate at 867 McGuire Avenue in Paducah. The case against the nursing home was brought by a guardian of Cecil Gary.

Attorneys for the nursing home sent Local 6 this statement:

“We do not agree with the verdict and were disappointed in this wildly excessive $28 million judgment awarded by the jury.

We maintain that our staff provided appropriate intervention in an urgent situation, keeping our residents’ best interests in mind. We stand by the facts and testimony in the case, and are evaluating all our legal options moving forward.

This is yet another example of the extreme risk involved with operating a nursing facility in Kentucky, where the industry remains under attack from aggressive Plaintiff’s firms that distort the facts and where any jury in any county can, at any time, render an unlimited verdict purely at their own discretion.

McCracken Nursing and Rehabilitation Center is a good facility, staffed by dedicated caregivers who go above and beyond for their residents every day.”

 (Click to Read Court Document)

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McCracken County nursing home found guilty of negligence

Vera House: Money stolen from the elderly happens every day in CNY

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SYRACUSE (WSYR-TV) - Across the country, billions of dollars are lost annually to elder financial exploitation, according to Vera House, Inc. in Syracuse.

New York State Police are currently investigating a recent case of alleged elder financial exploitation.

Police say a Canastota couple is being charged with grand larceny. They're accused of scamming an East Syracuse man in his 80's and getting money from him over the course of a year.

Investigators say Kenneth Bennett, 58, was working as a handyman for the victim before they became friends. He then allegedly told the victim he was in trouble with the mafia and owed people a lot of money.

Police say Michelle Beck, 47, would call the victim pretending to be from the mafia and telling the victim they would hurt him, if he didn't give them money.

"Cases like this happen all the time in our community," said Jenny Ackley, a project coordinator for abuse in later life at Vera House. "It can be millions of dollars and we have had cases like that. We've had cases that are $100,000 and people lose their life-savings, lose their homes or it could be $1,000 but that is their life-savings and everything they have is now gone."

Ackley says 90 percent of these cases are at the hands of a family member or someone else who becomes close to the victim.

"Somebody who does things for that person and all of sudden they become reliant on them," Ackley said. "They trust them. Once that trust has been built that's when the abuse can start to happen."

In Central New York, she says for every one case called in -- 34 go unreported.

Vera House works on these cases daily alongside other agencies such as the Office for Aging, the NYS Attorney General's Office, Adult Protective Services and the Onondaga County District Attorney's Office.

"If people are concerned about somebody they know, it never hurts to make a phone call here," Ackley said. "Or get on the phone with that individual that you're concerned about and call together, help them through that process because there's all kinds of abuse."

Warning signs of elder financial exploitation:
-Sudden use of an ATM by the victim
-Large amounts of money withdrawn
-More checks made out to "cash"
-Someone new accompanying the victim to the bank

Resources:
-Vera House Inc. 24-Hour Crisis & Support Line: (315) 468-3260
-Adult Protective Services: (315) 435-2815
-Office for Aging: (315) 435-2362
-NYS Attorney General's Office: (315) 448-4800

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Vera House: Money stolen from the elderly happens every day in CNY

Trenton woman not guilty of elder theft

Kathleen Prunier

ELLSWORTH — A Trenton woman was acquitted Tuesday of theft from an elderly man with dementia but still faces a civil lawsuit filed by the man’s family.

Kathleen Prunier, 59, had been charged with theft by unauthorized taking for misleading the elderly Trenton property owner that a parcel of land she purchased from him was worth far less than its assessed value. The case was heard during a three-day bench trial in August in Hancock County Unified Criminal Court.

The judge in the case, Justice Michael Roberts, handed down the verdict Tuesday, saying that he could “not find beyond a reasonable doubt” that Prunier committed a crime.

Roberts called the case “somewhat unusual” in that it hinged upon the mental state of the property owner, Richard Royal. Prunier, who was friends with Royal, purchased the property in 2014. He died in July at the age of 85.

“Mr. Royal suffered from cognitive impairment from 2012 forward,” Roberts noted. “The impairment became more substantial as time went on.”

Testimony during the trial revealed Prunier brought Royal to the home of Trenton’s administrative assistant, who is a notary, on a day his caretaker was absent to have the sales contract notarized. Under the contract, Prunier bought the 5.27-acre property with right-of-way to the shore for $4,000, with a payment plan where she was to pay $49.38 per month with no interest.

Royal’s cognitive decline led his doctor to conclude that he needed help with financial transactions. In response, his niece Lisa Harriman was given power of attorney. But according to a July 2015 letter from the doctor, Royal was still “capable of making decisions,” Roberts said.

The value of the property was questioned during the trial. Roberts described the evidence presented as “all over the place.”

Roberts stressed that Prunier was charged with a criminal act, which has a higher standard of proof than a civil action.

Outside the courtroom, Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin, who prosecuted the case, said this was the first case involving a theft from an elderly person that the financial crimes division has prosecuted.

“This is new ground here,” she said. “Elder financial exploitation is growing. I think it was important to bring to trial.”

Robbin described Roberts’ decision as “reasonable and well-thought-out.” She agreed that evidence regarding the true value of the property was “muddled.” Citing the town’s valuation, Robbin said it wasn’t simply a matter of showing that Prunier bought a $75,000 property for $4,000.

Robbin said Prunier still faces a civil suit brought by Royal’s family and echoed Roberts’ comment that there is a lower standard of proof required in civil cases.

Harriman also faces a criminal charge. She was indicted by a grand jury in October 2016 on a theft charge. She is charged with taking control of cash in excess of $10,000 during the period between November 2012 and July 2015. Robbin said the case “hopefully” will go to trial before the end of the year.

Prunier is a veterinarian who once operated Your Pet’s Next Best Friend in Bar Harbor.

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Trenton woman not guilty of elder theft