Thankfully, there's no snow in St. Augustine Florida. But is there elder abuse and elder financial abuse, brought to you by billionaires and private equity, which has gobbled up formerly non-profit nursing homes, like our once-beloved BAYVIEW? You tell me.
From Hartford Courant:
Nurse, CNA arrested in death of 93-year-old found in the snow at CT nursing home
Two employees were arrested Monday in connection with the death of a 93-year-old resident at Bickford Health Care Center in Windsor Locks, who was outside for more than three hours on Feb. 8 before being found unresponsive in the snow by staff, Windsor Locks police said.
The resident, Margaret Healey, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, had a history of wandering and was supposed to be secured in her room at the time.
Papy Bibo, a registered nurse at Bickford Health Care Center, which was closed April 10 by the Department of Social Services after Healey’s death, surrendered himself to the Windsor Locks Police Department and was charged with criminally negligent homicide and tampering with evidence, according to police. He was later released on a $25,000 bond, police said.
Uchenna Obi, a CNA who was reportedly overseeing Healey’s wing at Bickford Health Care Center at the time, also surrendered herself to Windsor Locks Police Department and was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment and tampering with evidence. Obi was released on a $10,000 bond, police said.
Both are scheduled to appear in Harford Superior Court on Aug. 7.
When staff found Healey on Feb. 8, police have said, she was unresponsive in the snow about 40 feet from the building. Staff brought a wheelchair to bring her back inside, where they changed her out of her wet clothes and used blankets to try to raise her body temperature, Lt. Paul Cherniack of the Windsor Locks Police has said. Police were not called until 6:23 a.m., Cherniack said, and EMTs on the scene pronounced Healey dead at 6:46 a.m. at the long-term care facility.
According to the arrest warrants, paramedics found Healey unresponsive in her bed hours after she was found but possibly alive. Due to a DNR order, paramedics’ lifesaving efforts were stopped, the warrants said.
A DPH investigation found the facility “failed to ensure its physician was notified of a resident’s change in condition; failed to notify the local police department within 15 minutes when a resident was missing from a facility; and failed to notify emergency services timely when a resident was found unresponsive outside the building in below freezing temperatures.”
Video surveillance of Bickford showed that Healey exited the facility through an employee entrance at the rear of the building. That door is not equipped with the alert system equipment, police said, “but is designed to remain closed and locked. A keypad adjacent to this door requires a code to unlock the door. Investigators learned that this door is often left propped open, but the access code is also printed by the keypad.”
The circumstances surrounding Healey’s death prompted the Windsor Locks Police Department to initiate a criminal investigation, which lasted several months.
Cherniack said at a news conference Tuesday that “over the months that followed, our detectives conducted an extensive investigation” which included reviewing surveillance video, interviewing and reinterviewing witnesses, examining medical and facility records and working in collaboration with DPH and in regular contact with the state attorney’s office.
“It is our hope that the completion of this investigation and the judicial process now moving forward will finally provide answers regarding the circumstances surrounding Miss Healey’s tragic death,” Cherniack said. “While nothing can undo the loss, we hope these actions represent an important step toward accountability and provide some measure of closure.”
Joining Cherniack were Detectives Sgt. Jeff Lampson and Heriberto Resto, who shared updates on the investigation, including that they believe there was an intent to cover up the incident.
“So they were trying to, in my words, to do some type of damage control, but they reached the point where they had to call 911,” Lampson said. “They didn’t call 911, which is what they should have done. That’s the basis of the warrants. Anybody that has any type of medical background, even at the lowest level, knows in a situation like that, you immediately call 911. And they didn’t.”
The detectives said they believed that Bibo and Obi worried that they were going to be trouble and that a statement was made that they feared going to jail if they didn’t fix the situation.
Resto said everybody in the facility was cooperative with police during the investigation.
“No one really had anything bad to say about Bickford with regard to the family and other employees I spoke to,” Resto said.
Lampson also said Obi, in a statement to police, said she “poked her head” in Healey’s room and saw her blankets at the foot of her bed and made the “assumption that she was still in bed.”
“She clearly didn’t give a thorough inspection like she probably should have,” Lampson said.
Resto said that decision “resulted in the death of Miss Healey.”
Lampson said there was nothing to suggest that Obi and Bibo were under the influence of anything when they were caring for residents at the facility.
Asked if staffing was an issue at the facility, Lampson said it is his understanding that staffing levels “were typical for that shift, with three CNAs and one supervisory nurse.”
As far as questions about how Healey was able to leave the facility through the back door, Lampson said the keypad was not functioning.
“The door was unlocked and I don’t think we were able to establish whether it was actually left ajar, but it was not locked,” Lampson said. “So somebody could have just walked out whether it was ajar or not.”
Lampson said when Healey left the building she walked all the way around the building down the long driveway to Main Street “where she fell in a snowbank on the sidewalk.
“It was frigid cold that night and she did not recover,” he said.
Clare Kindall, Healey’s niece, told the Courant that “the family is relieved that the arrests have been made.
“We are looking for justice for Aunt Peggy,” she said. “We believe there was clearly criminal conduct associated with her death and are looking forward to the process where justice can be done. We are hoping no other family will have to suffer what we did and we look forward to working with the legislature this fall to come up with legislative proposals to strengthen protections for residents.”
Kindall said staffing levels were clearly an issue but that “the existing staff did not do their job.”
Rep. Jane Garibay, a Windsor Democrat and co-chair of the Aging Committee, said overall that the “system isn’t built to oversee the amount of nursing homes we have.”
There are 233 nursing homes in the state.
“We don’t have the staffing,” she said. “We don’t have the training. I am worried about every nursing home in the state, in the country, to be honest.”
Garibay said she was troubled that the door was unlocked in the facility where Healey exited on the frigid night in February.
“That’s a violation,” she said.
She said at Bickford they were staffing employees out of an agency instead of hiring.
“It takes time to interview, hire, get the right people and give incentives,” she said. “And they chose to hire from an agency?”
Bibo reportedly is facing other open criminal cases, which Garibay said was also troubling.
Currently, the law in Connecticut does not prohibit someone from working in such a role if they are facing charges.
Garibay said that needs to change.
