The Cochran Firm Legal Blog

A mother who shot and killed her 43-year-old disabled daughter before turning the gun on herself last Sunday in an Oakland nursing home alleges in a letter to a local news affiliate there was abuse going on at the facility. In the five-page letter, the mother explains why she killed herself and her daughter in what surviving family members say was "the ultimate act of love."

The mother lists several different nursing homes where her daughter, who barely survived an auto accident in 1994, was at turns neglected and abused. However, it is the last one in Oakland where the disabled woman spent the last six years of her life that has gotten the notice of the California Department of Health. Obviously, this is due to the murder-suicide in the woman's room, but it has opened up the facility's files to public scrutiny and how younger brain damaged patients are treated in places meant for the elderly.

Past Complaints and Abuses

After being left brain damaged and partially paralyzed in an auto accident, the woman was placed in one living facility after another by her mother. In the suicide note, it is explained that many of these places had no idea, or no interest, in taking care of a young person. She was left on the toilet for a time at one place before she fell off and hit her head, fell off the edge of the bed and injured at another place, burned with coffee, threatened by other patients, and more. At one facility, the mother alleges doctors and staff didn't want her daughter around and let her roam the streets in her wheelchair all day long. While out, she stole, panhandled, and fell out of her wheelchair constantly.

The final facility under investigation has had its share of write ups by health investigators. There were at least 32 substantiated complaints involving the staff hitting, ignoring, and neglecting the patients. The state claims these nursing home abuse reports were dealt with.

The murdered daughter had diabetes, yet was allowed ice cream and other things with sugar. As a result, she gained so much weight that she outgrew two wheelchairs. The staff allegedly called the woman "fat pig" and sprayed her down in the shower as they would a car. For the last two years, the daughter asked her mother to end her life. Apparently, she fulfilled this wish last Sunday morning.

This tragedy did not need to play out this way. The facility has gone through several staff and administrative changes, and had several complaints. The state could, and should, have done more to protect the patients. Unfortunately, this is only one of many nursing facilities that have a negative track record.

If you suspect a nursing home of abusing or neglecting your loved one, please contact the nursing home abuse lawyers at the Cochran Firm. We serve clients nationwide.

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