OAKLAND— Diana Harden, age 64, fatally shot her daughter Yvette, age 43, and then herself Sunday night at Oakland Springs Health Center in Oakland, California. Yvette resided at the skilled nursing facility for 6 years, after being serious injured in a car accident that left her with a traumatic brain injury and quadriplegia 15 years earlier. Prior to residing at Oakland Springs Health Center, Yvette had lived briefly at home and then in a series of nursing facilities.
According to a letter Diana Harden sent to the Oakland ABC news channel ABC 7 prior to the shootings, her daughter had begged her to end her life due to unremitting abuse she suffered at the facility. The local news channel checked state records and found 54 complaints against the nursing home last year, 29 of them substantiated. Pat McGinnis of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, said, "If nothing else, let's heed this mother's cry and say 'let's do something not just about the people that are in nursing homes, but let's do something about keeping people out of nursing homes in the first place.” Police continue to investigate.
SOURCES:
Mother’s Letter Explains Murder-Suicide
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/iteam&id=7014866
Murder Suicide at Oakland Nursing Home
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_13333239
Mother kills disabled daughter, self in apparent murder-suicide at Oakland nursing home
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-nursing-home-murder-suicide,0,5577715.story
36 comments:
It brings chills down my spine to hear about this tragic incident at Oakland Springs Health Center in Oakland, California. Where are the supervisors when all the abuse was happening? Surely there are at least a couple of witnesses that should stand courageous and tell all! I have to admit, I am still in shock at the fact that such abuse has gone on unknown. This also has me questioning how long the patients were subjected to such abuse, and also what specific type of abuse was going on and the severity of it. For a patient to write a letter to her mother begging her to shoot her seems that the severity of the abuse was intolerable for her and that death seemed to be her only solution to such horrific abuse.
I agree with Pat McGinnis from The California Advocates for Nursing Homes, society needs to make an attempt to get people out of nursing homes and there needs to be an alternative solution or another option people have instead of just having to be placed in a nursing home. Also, nursing homes should implement new hiring procedures to screen prospective employees in order to see if they are fit to work at facilities that have people with disabilities. This indeed is a tragedy not only for the state of California, but for all those people with disabilities.
Amy G.
This is what happens in our health care today, the facility is more worried about money and warm bodies then the actual people they are caring for. This is just one story of the hundreds we hear about the abuse that goes on in nursing homes. Mainly because of unqualified professionals or lack of sufficient background check I watch a 60 minutes that showed people that had been previously fired for abuse at one nursing home get a job at another without a problem these are the issues we need to face in the industry today.
OK. Let's take a step back here. Abuse at a nursing facility is terrible and is grounds for alerting authorities and leaving the facility.
However, abuse is NOT grounds for shooting your daughter and yourself. Perhaps the mother was stressed about not being able to find a permanent home for her daughter, but to kill her for that is ridiculous!
Unfortunately, abuse is “alive and well” in inpatient settings. I don’t know if you have ever had a loved one reside in such a facility, but I have had 2 very important people in my life at such facilities. My maternal grandmother and my paternal grandfather were both put into a nursing home (the same home actually, during different periods of time). My gradnfathers' placement took place at his request literally days before his death. My paternal grandmother had Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and he was caring for her (with the help of my aunt) up until being placed at the nursing home. He stated that it was torture seeing his wife of over 60 years suffer through the symptoms of the disease and did not want my aunt to feel the “burden” of caring for him as well. I went to visit him on the day he was admitted and it wasn’t the happiest of places to be. Not to be mean, but the odor that was being emitted by some of the individuals at the center was not very pleasant. I can’t imagine being in a right frame of mind and having to endure being surrounded by individuals with debilitating ailments that trigger a somber feeling of nothingness. In my opinion this mother did what she did out of love, courtesy and ultimately respect for her daughters wishes, but could not face the reality and absoluteness of what she had done and took her own life. It just comes to show how far a mother's love can and often does go. It reminds of me Carol Carr and the "curse" that her 2 sons endured prior to her ultimate love gift to them in 1998.
E.C. Palacios
There are alot of tragic issues that unfortunately went on in this case. First of all, the abuse that Yvette and her family reported apparently was ignored. How much abuse did she have to go through and what happened that no one that could stop it listened? If what her mother stated in the letter is true, it scares and angers me to know that the abuse was so much that the only way they felt it would end was with death. Among all the complaints and reports made over the past it is also suprising that there was nothing else they could do to stop it, it seems that besides ignoring the reports they tried to stop Yvette from saying anything, Of course this is just a supposition. Another thing that is troubling is that her own mother decided to kill her daughter and ultimately herself. I don't know what went through her mind and her heart that drove her to this extreme, but I can't help but wonder if the abuse was reason enough to end their lives. I can't pretend to understand and I try not to judge, however, the way the story is presented; that the mother killed her daughter in an attempt to end the abuse, it seems that desperation is equally as dangerous as abuse and those who don't listen and take action.
-Leivy S. Resendiz
My heart goes to the mother and the daughter that suffered this tragedy.
I cannot imagine what was going on in that facility, obviously many abuses with patients. Where was the director of that facility? Who was protecting these patients? What happened with the reports against the treatment the facility was giving to the patients? Where was the government authority?
I still cannot understand this mothers’ reasoning. Maybe she felt trap, or maybe she was depressed just like her daughter, and instead of asking for help and talking with someone, she took the wrong route to solve this situation. This is a very sad story.
Mary Carmen T.
Abuse in health care facilities is oxymoronic. The fact that these two concepts exist together baffles me. I think more stringent assessments of all health care professionals need to be implemented in order to prevent occurrences like this from happening. I'm trying to understand this from every perspective and I am overwhelmed with various emotions. I'm very upset that these health care professionals go into providing services for those in need, then proceed to neglect and abuse those very people in need. I'm trying to understand the emotions running through a mother about to kill her very own daughter and I'm frightened at the very own thought. Then, I think about how Yvette Harden must have felt and picture myself in a torture chamber and realize the pain and suffering she must have endured. I hope that this tragedy serves as an eye opener to all who read. I know it has for me.
Maggie Ybarra
6345
I most definitely agree that we should try to keep individuals out of nursing homes all together. Perhaps I feel so strongly about the issue because of my Hispanic culture being that it is expected that the family take care of the individual who has aged and can no longer care for him or herself, this also includes family members who have some sort of disability. My father was terminally ill due to liver cancer and because of the illness his needs drastically changed. I do not feel that nursing homes are equipped with the staff members needed to provide the quality care all individuals deserve. In our family admitting my father into a nursing home facility was never an option and I thank God for that because this tragic story presented is perhaps the exception but abuse added to already difficult circumstances may not cause a tragic act of murder and suicide every time like this but individuals can become dead within their very being because of the extra hardship and lack of hope. Gloria P.
Being a mother myself, I lack understanding the motive of this horrible incident. Not knowing the entire family history is primarily important when commenting on such articles as this. However, morally, I can't come to terms with what Diana Harden did. First of all, I think she should have been more verbal. Just like she sent the letter to Oakland ABC news after the fact, she should have sent this information to the news and open up an investigation, and then taken the bull by the horns and tackle these nursing facilities. We need to learn to use the resources that are free and available to us to help us advocate for our loved ones when we lack the monetary resources. It is important that we take care of our family members who have a disability and advocate for them. It is also vital that we educate family members and let them known that they need to let their voices be heard when unjustices are caused. I know that I have ruffled a few feathers myself when I've had to, but it's not that I'm asking for the impossible, I'm only aksing for what is just as well as expected from professionals in the field. Like I said earlier, not knowing the whole story, maybe Diana Harden knew she would not be able to provide better managed health care for her daughter, so she opted to take this route...still for me, this should not have gotten to this point.
Norfy G.
Like Amy, I also had chills and goosebumps down my spine to my legs. This woman must have been scared and helpless to think that she had no way out. How can a nursing home still be in business after people have been complaining about the care and management of the facility so many times? Its disgusting to hear of things like this. From what I understand, working in a nursing home is a last resort for nurses. I believe its from the lower wages, and bigger case loads per shift. They run each nurse until their last minute. My mother was a nurse once as a teenager at a nursing home, and she told me that no one would have any time to chit chat with the patients. And that's because she loves talking to everyone. She admitted that the patients with the most visits from family and friends were the ones with the most care. So its unfortunate for the ones who don't have daily visits from people that look after them. It shouldn't be that way, but if someone is being paid through some kind of welfare system, its also likely that they won't get preferrential treatment. Being a single mother of two boys, I contantly think about who will take care of my boys, and who look after them like I do. To be honest, no one will give the same love or the same nurturing parenting that I would. If anyone were to have hurt my children, it would break my heart in a million pieces, but if I had no where to turn to like this woman must have felt, I don't know how I would feel... I can't imagine what kind of abuse was going on to make Diane feel like she would rather be dead, but I hope many people get charged life sentences for abusing people like this.
The abuse in nursing homes had been around four years. It is sad to see so much abuse. The residents being in a helpless position from defending them selves. The picture that is painted when the are recruiting patients for there facility seems so beautiful. It is ashame to see such cases of abuse, especially since the expenses for the familiy and residents are costly. You would assume that they would be have a system in place to avoid such incidents from occuring. I feel that there should be internal investigations conducted randomly. The state (adult protective serices),should be more involved with investigating of abuse cases.
I recalled that when working at the nursing home there were interdisciplinary meetings to staff each residents case. At that time the cases are review and a plan is determined by assessing the medical needs, physical neeeds, and social needs. The abuse usually seen occurs from the the staff members. There are a few cases where the residents will bully another.
The system has to be monitored and the residents examined in effort of avoiding abuse within the system. The abuse most frequestly seen are, medical neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse and verbal. The Nursing home should have an intervention plan implemented in attempt of protecting the residents and to avoid such cases.
The media providing further coverage is necessary to demonstrate to the public the abuse that is occuring in nursing homes. This issue should also be a concer to be brought up to our legislatures to implement stricter enforcement on such violations
By: Tina Casares
It’s really unbelievable to hear such a story. I can’t imagine what was really going on with that poor lady. Maybe it’s not a good excuse for shooting her daughter but after so much abuse it can really mess with your emotions and mind. Today’s nursing homes are more worried about making money and not focusing on the patients. It’s easy for them to have patients because most of the patients don’t have to pay for it, unlike home health care. This would not be the first time I have heard about abuse in a nursing home. I have one aunt that owns a nursing home in Edinburg and another aunt who owns three home health care services around the Rio Grande Valley. I can’t say all nursing homes are bad because I know there are still employees who really do care about the patients. My aunt has really good employees and of course does background checks. It’s really important to know what kind of people you have working for you. It’s better to be safe then sorry! As an adult thinking about putting a parent or grandparent in a nursing home you really have to do your homework. When visiting a nursing home take a good look around and ask lots of questions. Talk to other patients if you can and see what kind of activities the patients get to part of. Check to see if the nursing homes are having the patients active and keeping them healthy not only physically but also mentally.
Tanya Davila
This event brings about many issues that need immediate attention. it is sad to see that this murder-suicide needed to occur in order for any action took place from the appropriate authorities. It is not justifiable for Diane Harden to kill her daughter and then commit suicide, but what might they have gone through in order to come to such conclusion. Might there have been any other option for them? With such an event, special attention should be placed in the care and services provided to people in nursing facilities. Stricter regulations should be enforced or in any case re-enforced. It is important to provide the proper services in these facilities according to the needs of the resident. Of course, this also means special attention should be placed on who is providing the care. What type of public servants (providers) are employed in each facility? Nursing facilities are the home for many people with disabilities, the least they deserve is proper care; in other words, treated with respect and dignity.
Another issue brought out due to this murder-suicide is the attempt to keep people out of nursing homes in the first place. It is important to take this into consideration, but there are many cases/situations in which nursing homes are the best option for their particular family situation. I do agree that it would be best to keep people out of these facilities; but in the mean time, while the proper legislations come through for or better options come along. People with disabilities deserve the best attention and care that is possible.
A.Huerta
Wow! I think it is horrifying every time I hear of a murder, but then to hear of a suicide as well and it including people who are related, I think it makes it all that much worse. One thing that I was bothered by when I read was that at the Oakland Springs Health Center they do not have designated visiting hours for relatives. This in itself poses a problem because how do they know who is being visited, if a relative came and picked up or took a resident of the facility, and what the relatives are bringing into the facility. Case in point, Diana Harden ended up bringing a revolver in her purse to the facility without anyone being aware of it. Another thing I do not fully understand is how the abuse that Yvette suffered at the facility led to her mother kill her as well as herself, and if this is so, why was there no legal action taken against the facility for the reported abuse complaints that Yvette file? To me, this case goes much deeper than what they are leading us to believe and I feel that it needs to be further investigated.
A. Arellano
I cannot believe that this actually did happen. I cannot judge mom for murdering her daughter and then commiting suicide because she must have felt she was in a place with no escape.
Abuse and neglect in nursing homes and health center has become more publicly known, but what has been done? Time over time we hear these tragedies in the news but what about those complaints that only stay in the management level?
I feel that govenment should start getting involved in regulating and making sure that patients in nursing homes and health centers are treated with respect and dignity. I assume that mom was going through the stage in her life when she realized she was getting older with a daughter with a disability who was being abused must have had her stressed over the situation.
But at the end of the day, who will take responsibility?
Melchora Gracia
I am pretty sure that we all have heard horrible stories about abuse in nursing homes, but I also think that this is not a reason to kill your daughter. I think the mother was stressed to find a home to her daughter but the abuse in the nursing home was not an excuse.
Ana Ramirez
It’s horrible what happened to Yvette. On the one hand, I do agree with Sylvia’s comment about it being ridiculous that Diana, Yvette’s mother, had to kill her daughter and then herself. But then, on the other hand, I agree with Elizabeth as well. She stated that the mother’s actions were probably done out of love, whether that definition of love be right or wrong. She couldn’t bear the thought of her daughter suffering any longer due to the abuse she was supposedly encountering with the staff. I also liked Elizabeth’s comparison to the Carol Carr case. Let me elaborate on that more. Carol, like Diana, also killed not one, but two of her sons while they were in a nursing home. She shot them because she couldn’t stand the thought of them suffering either. They both had Huntington’s disease. Regardless, something terrible was happening in that nursing home where Yvette was residing. I just don’t get why Diana didn’t go to the proper authorities with her allegations. Maybe she did. Maybe no one took her statements seriously. This is just a sad story and I hope that some serious investigations occur at that nursing home as well as any facility that houses people with disabilities. On a side note, did you notice the first line of the Oakland Tribune story? It used the term “handicapped” to describe Yvette. In other words, it didn’t use person-first language. So sad how the media hasn’t caught up to proper usage yet.
Vanessa C. (6345)
A cry for help? Yes! However, we shouldn't have to wait for incidences like this to happen in order to get something done. I can not even began to imagine how lost and neglected this mother felt about her daughter's situation in the nursing home. It is a shame that these individuals can work at this types of places and not care a single bit about the individuals they are serving. How about the supervisors, managers, or owners of these places where are they? How is it that neglect and abuse can go on and nobody know about it or care enough to fix the problem. It is obvious by the more than 50 plus complaints made against this place that they abuse and neglect was not a one time thing. I think that there is a lack of skilled workers when it comes to this situation. We should really focus on training individuals that work with people with disabilities to prevent these types of incidences from happening. I really wish that there was more of a focus going on in the media about this type of discrimination against people with disabilities that is going in nursing homes.
-Bibiana Medina
This situation was terrible! The truth is that such things occur in nursing homes across the entire United States and I believe that this is due to lack of security and professionalism for the most part. However, there are situations where the abuse is amongst patients and is hard to monitor. It scares me to think that someday my parents might have to depend on a nursing home for support and stories like these make me want to take matters into my own hands. I have always believed in the slogan, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” and in this case “abuse from another person” is what drove the mother to end her daughter’s life and hers as well. I think that the government should up the penalties for abuse to life time sentences. But, then what do we do about false accusations, or persons with certain mental conditions, for example, a person who has schizophrenic hallucinations? Maybe we need to start teaching more about ethics and morals in public education from an early age. It might not seem to be enough, but it’s a start.
G. Garcia
Med. Aspects
Abuse can be a very traumatic experience to any body and it sounds like Yvette certainly was going though abuse herself. Sadly enough people at nursing homes are at the mercy of “strangers” and I mean people who work at nursing home and are only subjected to their own boundaries and ethical guidelines. As a result, abuse goes uncovered and residents at the nursing home pay the consequences like in Yvette’s case. It is defiantly difficult to think about it, but Yvette might have be experiencing extreme abuse, which made her thought death, was her only option. Who know what she was going through? and what was going thought her head? On the other side, Diana Harden, Yvette’s mother, defiantly had other options however, only the two of them knew the reality of the situation.
I defiantly agree with Pat McGinnis, from California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, she is right in a the scenes that we should keep people out of nursing homes. Keeping people out of nursing homes would be ideal however, is not probable to happen. I wonder if investigations also include research, it would be very interesting and useful to research the triggering of the abuse from the attendants towards the patients. If we could find out the causes we could promote constant education among the attendants to prevent abuse and to lower the incidence.
Mariana GG
It is unfortunate that this mother and daughter had to go to such an extent, in order for them to find some sort of relief. It's a shame that such a tragedy had to occur in order for their voices to be heard. However, I don't agree on the mothers decision in killing her daughter and ending her own life because she could have taken care of this situation very differently. First of all, when your complaints aren't being heard, make a complaint to the Department of Health and Human Services for them to send someone to investigate and find out what they can do to help your situation. If so much abuse was happening why would anyone allow a loved one to stay in such a place, and can you imagine how much pain this person must have been feeling to ask her mother to commit such a crime. However, people need to learn from these situations and these health care facilities need to be further look on because abuse and neglect are just a few of many things that happen in these health care facilities past closed doors. Impossing new laws and regulations,that will enable the patients in these facilities to be better taken care of by professionals, and not just anyone.
These types of stories relating to people being abused in nursing homes makes me so upset and disappointed in the people that are doing this. These two women must have gone through so much abuse that they rather end their lives then have to deal with it. The people who are responsible definitely need to pay the consequences for their actions. Nursing homes are for people who need proper medical care and love, these individuals are already going through so much, they do not deserve to be abused.
Ruby Q.
COMMENT FOR REHS 6300
It is a sad thing to think that the nursing homes may cause more harm than good. During my high school years I did rotations at a local nursing home in order to receive my Nurse Assistant Certificate. The conditions at this place were very horrible. Some patients were not taken care of properly. I am a witness to that fact. When I think about the conditions in nursing homes I think about the lack of education that CNA's receive. I feel that it is important to retrain CNA's as to ethical practice and human ways of behaving. It is human to treat others like humans and inhuman to treat them otherwise. We approach an era of danger if this issue is not addressed because baby boomers may be the primary clients receiving care in nursing homes or assisted living homes. With the demand of care, demand for employers in nursing homes will grow. It is essential to start retraining now. I also believe that the government should set higher standards for the services provided and the professionals hired in the nursing homes. We also must consider the amount of hours the workers are putting in. A happy worker is a good worker, and it is important not to over work the staff because many times they will take it out on the patients. We must also inform the public of the rights given to institutionalized people through CRIPA (Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons). I think that every issue has more than one side to it and this is not the exception. Institutions must provide appropriate training and education for their workers as well positive working conditions and reasonable hours, employees must be retrained and qualified, the government must enforce the right and improve standards, and clients and family members must make the effort to be informed on the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons as well as the living conditions in which their family members are living in. REFERANCE: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/split/cripa.php
What can I say? Abuse is everywhere but it is devastating to here that it is happening at a nursing facility. I did some volunteer hours at a nursing facility and it had a warm environment but I bet that is how everything will seem at first. Like Javier mentioned the facilities are more concerned about making money by having as many warm bodies they can have then the actual people they are caring for. It is just difficult to understand why a mother would do that. I am not a parent so I do not know how it must have felt to be in her shoes. I can only imagine that it must have been painful to be placed in that situation. No parent should ever have to go through this. That is why I think it is good that people are doing something to trying to keep people out of nursing homes.
Crystal Sanchez
I know that a mother can be capable of many things when it comes to their sons and daughters but to kill your own daughter can be something else. The only thing I can think of after reading the stories, it sounds to me that the mother was desperate and wanted for her daughter to stop being abuse including her suffering. I know there are people who are cruel to people who are not disable and all but to a disable person, that's unrealistic. It just makes you wonder how many people are really being abused in Nursing Homes? Not only that, but how can it be going on and unnoticed? I understand that there are employees who are nurses that do care; I believe those are the nurses who wanted to be nurses all of their lives because their interest was to help people. In the other hand, you got your nurses who became nurses for the money and those are the ones who are doing their job not thinking of the patient first but themselves and their needs. I understand that it might sound not true but in reality it is because I have heard it from nurses who have said to me that, if they had to do it all over again, they've would have chosen another career due to the long hours and the ponderous of the job.
Sylvia Garza
It is certainly very sad about what happened in Oakland, California. I know many of you might say “how could a mother kill her own daughter”, but by the story she told about her daughter being abused in a nursing home; and with her daughter being a paraplegic and having brain injury I don’t see how she lived for so long. I agree with some of the previous posts about the nursing facility needing to be stricter when it comes to checking the background of employees. I have heard so many cruel stories of how many of the patients are treated there and it is sad because most of the people that are in there cannot speak for themselves or are afraid of saying anything because they are scared of the people there. I think there needs to be more security in facilities like that because if it doesn’t stop then what are those poor individuals supposed to do? I know I told myself that I am never going to put my parents in a nursing home because I do not want that happening to them.
Elizabeth G (REHS 6345)
This jaw dropping story makes us remember that there are many people being taken advantage of at nursing homes and in-patient facilities. I drive by two nursing homes every day, expensive and nice looking ones, but I can never forget hearing my mother tell me how my grandmother complained of physical abuse and actually seeing bruises on her arms and wrists. This is real, sad, and messed up. In regards to the Yvette, I feel she was depressed and crying to go home. I also understand the severity of her disability and we have to consider her mother’s age. I don’t know the living conditions of the mother’s home or of the support she may or may not have had but I’m sure she may have wanted her daughter back home where she was safe. I feel in this case the mother had tunnel vision and saw no other way out. I obviously disagree with what she did but she was obviously not thinking rationally. For her to leave a letter explaining what she did must have been insanely hard to write knowing what was in her immediate future. Not to say she may have been planning it for a while. The intense ideas and the thought of doing this may have resulted in her mother being in an altered mental state. Of course, we ask “where was the security?” This was an unfortunate event and Diana paid the ultimate price.
Joseph G.
What to think in a situation like this? The most obvious is to condemn the mother for killing her daughter and 'cowardly' ending hers to escape the pain. Yet, while I uphold that these actions aren't right I suggest that this unfortunate event could have been prevented. I know that many will disagree that when there's a plan and an intent it is hard to dissolve such idea but I do think there are various critical points in time when actions can be discouraged. Were there any supports for these women? Did the mother have outside help? Did the nursing facility have counselors or spiritual leaders available? Were there any outside sources to help them? Unfortunately, most often than not it takes tragedies like these for all of us to open our eyes to reality and step into action. THe problem is: what will be done and who will do it? -Eliana M.
This is a very sad situation. Why is it that people do not get heared until there is a tragic situation that comes out. If we have noticed many of these nusing homes do not get investigated until something tragic has to happen. Now, due to the double homocide/suicude there is an on going investigation on the nursing home. This is not like this is the first time nursing homes have been under the light due to their abuse. This abuse situation has been going on for several years now. Just as the article "Christmas in Purgatory" described the gruesome abuse that takes place in these awful nursing homes, something should have been done a long time ago about this issue. Now, due to the murder/suicide this situation will be taken seriouly yet again.
It is awful that people work hard to make enough money to put their loved ones in a nursing home to get the proper attention that they need and yet this happens.
As Mrs Harden puts it, this is the only thing she could think of that would be in the best interest for her daughter and her. It is sad to see such a situation transpire. How can anyone have faith in any of these places. To imagine such drastic measures taking place, how severe was the abuse.
There should be more programs available to individuals to be able to live at home and be taking care of them there. But then again some faily members might not be able to handle the pressure and come to get annoyed and frustrated with their family members as well and lead to abusing them. This is such a tough situation.
This absolutley breaks my heart. Does it take something of this status to draw attention to how poorly some nursing homes are treating thier patients? Although I don't think that it was grounds for a murder suicide, I think that it brings awareness to the situation to many people. I think that there needs to be more done to help protect the rights of people who live in nursing homes.
Cassie Moya
Ok this is just plain sad, discusting, and ridiculous. I do not know how this was allowed to happen. There was not just one complaint but there was a numerous amount of them. This should never be allowed to happen.
Shocking, that is the first thing that came to my mind when I read the article. How can someone choose to end her daughter’s life and then commit suicide instead of taking legal matters into her own hands? First of all, Diana should have collected her daughter’s medical chart and taken it to a medical specialist to verify the abuse was happening and then head to her attorney’s office to follow up with legal action. Nursing homes have a very high rate for abuse and neglect because of they are understaffed most of the time. It was a tragic incident that had to happen in order for police intervention and investigation to take place.
C. Cardona
This is such a sad story on multiple levels. I think their needs to be extreme vigilance over nursing care facilities and strict guidelines and legislation that makes offenders pay for harming people in their care. Yvette had serious injuries and her mother may not have been able to care for her at home. I can only imagine a mother's turmoil in know her daughter was being abused and having 29 substantiated cases of abuse would have been enough to drive any mother to such an act. I think the system failed both Yvette as the patient that deserved care and dignity and the system also failed her mother because if she could not give care- then she needed to find her daughter a facility and it sounds like she had been through so many. Why are there always horror stories about nursing care facilities, how can people be silently abused? How can a defenseless woman be abused in 29 substantiated cases and that facility still be open? This is shameful in a country that is the best in the world.
Cindy V.
Cases like the one about mom and daughter committing suicide are not only devastating but a debilitating sign of our society. I would agree that abuse can lead someone to want to terminate her life, but perhaps that was not the best way to do it. I will not judge M. Harden, as she was a mother who was tired of listening to her daughter's cry. I don't doubt that she had some type of unbalance in her emotional life as well, or perhaps she was clinically depressed. May be what surprises me is that her daughter Yvette had been asking for two years and no one else knew about it. There are many other unanswered questions such as, how did she get into the facility so easily? had any claims of abuse been made by this family? how come if the nursing home had so many complaints nobody fought to close down that place?
Anyway, this is indeed a hard situation and a very sad story. I hope something gets done about this and many other abusive nursing home facilities.
--Leila Flores
I don’t know what the solutions to these kinds of tragedies are. This entire situation must be difficult and desperate for the mother. Did she make the right decision? Who am I to judge? Is bureaucracy a “society member” that doesn’t listen or see? After 54 complaints how is it that this keeps happening? Pat McGinnis said to do something to keep people out of nursing homes. Is that the solution? What happens when the family can’t take care of their loved one? I don’t think that the solution is to keep people out of nursing homes. There are some models and solutions, which can fit individually. The problem, I think, resides on making the facilities work with fairness and compassion for PWD, but how? Designating more supervisors that could make undercover surprise inspections, or that listen carefully to complaints and investigate more often. Well, as I said at the beginning, I don’t know what the solution is, but something definitely should be done.
L.M.Lastra
The fact that a mother thought her daughter wasn’t such distress that she had to endure life is extremely sad, and the fact that this is happening in America is just shocking. Individuals are always talking about helping people in other countries because of the horrible situations but all they have to do was look in their backyard and find horrible stories such as this one that distresses our hearts so much. The individual with disabilities who has suffered already so much was put to more suffering after her injuries at the hands of the people who were supposed to be helping her. In our nursing homes we expect our loved ones to be cared for and treated with the utmost dignity but instead time and time again we see on the news our loved ones being abused and treated inhumanely what must be done in order to stop this tragedy from happening again, we must take a stand against this type of violence in this type of unnecessary loss of life. Losing people because of this type of the situation is just unacceptable.
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