NEW YORK (WABC) -- A woman says she suspected her elderly grandmother was being abused inside a Bronx nursing home, so she hid a camera to find the person responsible.
The alleged abuse happened inside a Bronx nursing home called Gold Crest Care Center.
After noticing unusual markings and bruising on her 89-year-old grandmother, Diana Valentin took it upon herself to investigate.
Her grandmother was helpless, defenseless, and apparently abused.
The granddaughter of 89-year-old Ana Louisa Medina says the injuries were caused by a nurse's aide at Gold Crest Care Center in the Bronx.
Medina suffers from dementia and Alzheimer's.
"They were telling me she had gotten the bruising on her hands by banging on the bed railing," Valentin said.
Frustrated with the nursing home's response, Medina's granddaughter Diana Valentin took matters into her own hands.
Last June, she concealed a camera inside the plastic base of a plant and says she recorded more than 600 hours of footage, some of which shocked her.
"The first video that I saw, she grabbed my grandmother's arm, twisted it back, lifted her off the bed and slammed her into the bed," Valentin said.
Valentin is referring to 55-year-old nurse's aide Sandra Kerr, who's been arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a physically disabled person.
Kerr has been released on her own recognizance and Eyewitness News went to her home looking for answers, but no one was there.
Because of pending criminal and civil cases, Diana Valentin is not releasing the video of alleged abuse that she recorded.
"I viewed the video on a Sunday and a Monday morning I was at the nursing home, and I requested that they transfer her to the emergency room because my grandmother was not safe there," Valentin said.
Valentin's grandmother is safe now.
She's being care for in a nursing home in New Rochelle.
"She basically took care of me. I was very close to her, so now it's my turn to take care of her," Valentin said.
Eyewitness News has been unable to reach nursing home administrators for comment.
Diana Valentin told Eyewitness News the nursing home fired three additional workers because of this investigation.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=8995262
---
Get Eyewitness News Delivered
Get Eyewitness News Delivered
(Copyright ©2014 WABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
No comments:
Post a Comment