We place our loved ones in nursing homes and eldercare facilities with the confidence that they will be kept safe, cared for properly, and treated with great dignity. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. For the daughter of one particular resident, this assumption could not have been any further from the truth.
Late this past summer, Renee Herwin was having a strange feeling about the care that her 86-year-old mother, Skip MacNally, was receiving at the Peak Resources nursing home in Cherryville, N.C. In an effort to see if anything was amiss, she installed a hidden camera via the bottom of a picture frame and stuck it on the counter in a corner of her mother’s room.
A Disturbing Video
Within 24 hours of installing the hidden camera, Herwin was shocked to discover a nursing assistant yelling at her mother and moving her violently across the bed while changing her. In the video, MacNally, who is blind and suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, can be heard yelling out in pain. She also asks the nursing assistant “Have I done something?” to which the nursing assistant simply replies “Devil’s wife.”
When Herwin first watched the video she was “livid.” “It was, ‘oh my God, I can’t believe – ‘this was the last thing I expected.”
After taking the video to the director of the facility, the two employees who were captured in two different videos abusing MacNally were fired. In a DSS report, it was confirmed that two employees had abused MacNally. The social worker involved also stated that they did not open an investigation for this reason.
No Charges Filed
Despite an investigation by the police, a detective called Herwin to tell her that he was not going to file charges. To date, no charges have been filed against either of the employees in the video although elder abuse is in fact a crime under North Carolina law.
After meeting with Gaston County District Attorney, Locke Bell, Herwin claims she still walked away from the conversation without a further understanding as to why no action was being taken. According to Herwin, Bell, who watched the video, informed her that he didn’t see anything criminal in it.
In an effort to get her mother’s story out to the public, she called WBTV to bring attention to what she sees as a system that has lax regulation and little oversight. She believes that without consequences “…it’s just going to continue to get worse.”
We’ll Fight for Your Loved One
If your loved one has suffered abuse or neglect in a nursing home or other long-term care facility, call the experienced North Carolina nursing home abuse attorneys at Henson Fuerst today at 866-677-0420.
When you call, you will speak with one of our experienced Raleigh nursing home neglect attorneys. They will investigate every detail of your situation at no cost to you and fight hard to protect your rights. At Henson Fuerst, you will never pay an attorney’s fee up front—and you owe us nothing unless we recover for you.
