2 Investigators: Nursing Patient's Last Days Included STD
(CBS) – A mother says her daughter died after suffering repeated abuse and neglect at a nursing home. That same nursing home is facing nearly 90 lawsuits against it.
2 Investigator Dave Savini reports.
Mary Mims' daughter Letasha started suffering from severe mental-health issues, including dementia, and ended up needing full-time care at Alden-Wentworth Rehabilitation.
Mims says Letasha couldn't speak or use her arms or legs, yet was repeatedly left in her own feces. Mims took pictures to document the alleged neglect, which she says resulted in bed sores and wounds.
"I've never seen a wound as bad as my daughter's. It was all the way to the bone," Mims says.
She says there were even bugs in her daughter's bed and that Letasha went through drastic weight loss – Mims says because of starvation.
Letasha died in 2014. What she went through is difficult for her mom to handle.
No one at Alden at Alden would with CBS 2 about Mims or a lawsuit the home recently settled in her case for nearly $900,000. The suit included allegations of physical and sexual abuse.
A lawsuit against the daughter's doctor, Emmanuel Paintsill, is pending.
According to a sworn deposition, he admits he never reported her suspected physical abuse.
Attorney Stephan Blandin filed the lawsuit for the family and says during a deposition the doctor also agreed Letasha had a sexually transmitted disease and treated her for it but did not call police.
Because no rape kit test was done on the nursing home resident, there is no chance of ever catching the offender, Blandin says.
"There's no chance in finding out who that individual is, whether that individual still works at the nursing home."
Mims says her 36-year-old daughter was nonverbal and incapable of giving consent to sex.
Mary Mims filed a neglect complaint with the state against Alden long before her daughter died but she says the state found no wrongdoing.
CBS 2's calls to Dr. Paintsil and his attorney have not been returned. Paintsil was disciplined by the state last May, fined and reprimanded for unprofessional conduct while practicing at a different hospital.
