The man I know as dad was my mother’s 2nd and 4th husband. She also married my birth father twice and is on marriage #5 now. I simply cannot understand why she kept tossing the men who would have loved her and taken care of her in addition to treating her as an equal in everything away. Dad was one of those men. He is a former (although in the Marines there is no former anything; once a marine always a marine LOL!) Gunnery Sgt in the Marines then later after his military career he became a police detective in Albany, Georgia. Mother married him when I was only an infant but by the time I was about 6-7yrs old she left him to return to her home state when her mother became ill. Of all people to be in my grams’ room repairing a light fixture was my birth father. It wasn’t long after when they married again although there is some question as to the fatherhood of my little brother. He’s not so little at 34 but still, when siblings have more of a parent/child relationship than a sibling relationship it seems to change things drastically.

The one thing I did after hearing of the St. Rita tragedy was begin writing my congressmen about putting into place federal and state regulations that work, not ones that simply make the owners of these fly-by-night and elderly dump companies rich. Not much is happening but I still continue to write with hopes that one day someone will listen.

The county (wow was that difficult to get used to saying upon returning to the Carolinas after having lived in the bayous where counties didn’t exist yet parishes did) I live in has for the most part fairly decent nursing home and rest homes though there are some that need some shaking up. The only problem with these few is that the ownership keeps changing so fast it is difficult to pin an owner down to file complaints with the state.

The previous respite care center where my oldest worked was built in a flood area zone! Earlier this year she made a lateral move to another of the company’s facilities when she began school at a different college that is too far for her to drive to and from the former one for every shift and still make it back to her county before she has to be in class. However, I must say that despite the flood zone building, which was rather stupid and I cannot for the life of me figure out how in the world they were able to gain approval from the commissioners to build in that area, they do have a complete laid out plan to move the patients from the facility to the hospital only a few minutes away. For someone with good eyesight, which I lack due to a degenerative retinal disease, optic nerve problems, and compromised by lupus (SLE) and Sjogren’s disease, one could stand on the high end of the property where the facility resides and actually see the hospital so they are extremely close. They have ambulances, both private and state-sponsored, available to move patients out as well as a few special buses used to transport patients to and from doctor appointments for those fit enough and with enough cognitive skills to leave the facility for their appointments. Each of the shuttle buses have wheelchair lifts as well so that takes care of those in wheelchairs. One of my favorite residents there is an elderly man who served in the military. We sat in the arboretum for a few hours together when my daughter had to do some paperwork on a day I had a doctor visit myself. My husband was picking our youngest up from school that day so it gave me time to get away from home for a while, which is not possible otherwise as there is no public transportation here.

I fear in the near future that I may have to begin to search for a place for Dad. He lives too far for either my husband or I to get to him quickly and about a year or so ago he was diagnosed with glaucoma. He already has a heart condition and underwent a stent placement then after moving back from Georgia to here, he had to undergo surgery to have a stent placed in an area where the wire could not reach during the previous stent placements. He has access to transportation through the state to take him to and from the VA hospital, so that helps. I only wish I was able to get him more assistance financially and somehow get help with his medications. Even though he goes to the VA, his medications are still too costly for him to pay and still cover his bills.

My blindness and dealing with lupus and Sjogren’s disease along with the effects from it not to mention dealing with my own spouse having had 2 heart attacks, a stroke, and a quad bypass earlier this year on top of his juvenile diabetes, which is out of control and has been since his heart problems began is too much for me to handle and take care of Dad too. I wouldn’t be able to take care of my husband if it were not for his mother. I’m thankful every day that she was a nurse for some 40 years. She worked both at the local hospital and at a local nursing home working double shifts nearly ever evening and night for as long as I have known her until she had to undergo the first knee replacement. It was like a windfall of health problems afterward and now she is unable to work anywhere, even at a desk job but to be in her mid-70s – like Dad, neither of them have any business working anywhere. It is time for them to rest. They did their job, paid their taxes, and had Mother left me with Dad, my life would have been much smoother and with less grief and heartache than it was; however, I have to admit that regardless of how bad things got, it made me a stronger person in the long run.

It is my hope that one day the United States will stop putting a price tag on human life. I mean just how high must the “butcher bill” go before the majority of the citizens realize that we are guaranteed by the right of law to life. It should not be a privilege; it should be a right and it is long overdue to make life available for everyone. Preventative care alone would keep people healthy longer, which would allow more to work longer with fewer accidents and/or pre-existing conditions causing disabilities at such young ages.

I attempted to return to work after I dealt with the blindness, which included learning how to do everything all over again including going from point A to point B with a sighted person, a cane, and a guide dog. I had to learn to cook all over again because I wasn’t able to see as I had before. So many things changed. Once I thought my life was back on track I went back to school and worked for about 7 yrs as a medical transcriptionist until I began having problems with the ulnar nerve in my right arm, which led eventually to the discovery of lupus and Sjogren’s disease. It explained how the arthritis I had that hurt all the time no matter what I took was more than arthritis. The reason I was always the first to come down with a cold, virus, or bacterial infection was because my immune system was screwed up from the autoimmune diseases. I had to learn to do only so much and no more or risk being bed-ridden for days, a week, to a month.

It has been a long hard road for me. I’ve learned a great deal about myself and the strength I had that I wasn’t sure existed. It put my marriage to the test numerous times yet somehow we managed to hold on through the storms. And, I can say with absolute certainty that there is nothing more frightening than going through a high-risk pregnancy, a high-risk birth, then raising that little baby with little to no sight remaining and later teaching her the abc’s and 123′s as I did her older sister only I had sight when she came along. I must have did something right along the way though. My oldest is in college working to remain in the medical field and working with her patients while the baby is in middle school now and has made the honor roll every report card since she began receiving letter grades in the 1st grade. Last year not only did she have the highest score in language arts and the second highest in math by less than a tenth of a point, she received the student of excellence award from the governor for her volunteer work, participating in the diabetes and cancer drives, not to mention working as the editor of the school newspaper for two years now and being a reporter for it too. This year she even convinced the principal to start a recycling program at the school!

If our generation cannot fix these wrongs of today, I have high hopes that our children will be smarter and more sympathetic to make sure the laws change as they should. Nobody should have to die because they can’t afford life-saving medication. It’s flat out wrong. Doctors took an oath to do no harm. Failing to treat patients all because of the mighty dollar goes against everything they swore to do when these people became doctors. At least that’s my thoughts on the subject. It also should apply to anyone who owns or works within the walls of a nursing home, rest home, or a hospital.

Warmest regards,

Sam

I do feel that a closer look should be taken on the parish’s decision not to order a mandatory evacuation. It seems that this has never come up, or it was simply ignored. They are every part of this horrific situation as the owners of St. Rita’s are. It just baffles me to sit and listen to the excuses the parish officials had for not issuing the order. One mentioned that fact of it affecting businesses. Well, I would like to know who in the world needs to continue to run a business with the approach of a catastrophic hurricane? I would think their business would be the last thing on their mind.

You are absolutely correct about nursing homes needing more attention. Just to hear about some of the horrors that occur within some of these homes makes me very upset. More stringent controls and federal regulation is a necessity for these places. I would love to see a requirement for third party 24 hour surveillance.

I really appreciate the insight from your reply. Unfortunately, there is nothing more that can be done for this particular case.

Sincerely,
Barry

I find it ironic that none of the owners’ families died in the waters of Katrina.

If this sounds hard-hearted then so be it. I’ve witnessed the short-cuts taken by nursing care and rest home facilities for years and it disgusts me how they charge exorbitant amounts of money in addition to taking the patient’s social security checks every month while cutting staff members so short that it leaves every patient within the facility in jeopardy. The reason they can get by with all these infractions among many many others is because there are far too few inspectors to go out to check these facilities in addition to the fact that most of these facilities have prior notice of the inspectors’ visits, which should be illegal.

It is high time that we stop treating the elderly as if they were cattle to put out to pasture. These people are the backbone of this country. They worked a lifetime to support their families, raise children to become vital members of society, and paid taxes to keep this country going not to mention the thousands upon thousands of military personnel who are living in nursing homes and/or rest homes today. Their treatment is equally as horrifying considering what they gave up to keep this country free.

I believe it is time for EVERY state in the USA to change it’s policies when it comes to the running of nursing care and rest home facilities. My daughter works for a respite care center as did my MIL before she retired for good in her early 70s due to health reasons. Unless you have been in these facilities a considerable amount of time you have NO IDEA what happens on the inside when family is not present. After my birth paternal grandfather had to go live in a nursing home I took it upon myself to check out various homes and made the decision under threat of legal action against my birth father’s siblings to have this wonderful man placed in the best facility I found. To ensure his care was adequate and above the call of duty over the 10+ years before his death in his late 80s to early 90s, I stopped in to visit him during my lunch hour at work, before work when I had time, and after work on days when my oldest daughter did not have tutoring or dance classes. In addition, I would take an hour or so off from work at a time different from my lunch hour to pop in unannounced. I also invoked my right as stipulated in the agreement signed upon his moving there to pop in during evening hours and even the middle of the night.

I must say the people who cared for him were wonderful. He was cared for well in the last years of his life at ALL TIMES OF THE DAY AND THE NIGHT AS WELL AS ALL TIMES IN BETWEEN.

When he became ill had had to be hospitalized due to geriatric diabetes, the nurses, staff members from the offices, and even the candy stripers (interns & volunteers) sent him cards, fruit & diabetic goodies once approved by his doctor. They welcomed him back afterward with open arms. Each of his caretakers were there with the family (mostly for my sake since my younger brother and I were the only two out of many many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, and great-great-great-grandchildren not to mention his living 6 children, one of which was my birth father who did not bother showing up at his father’s funeral!

I wish ALL nursing care and rest homes were built and run according to the manner of this one. If it was, it would be such a pleasurable place to spend the years when a loved one becomes too sick to care for him or herself.

During each one, I have, “rode out the storm”. Over time, as each hurricane comes and goes, you begin to become confident in your home, that you do not have to evacuate. This was the general feeling of many people that experienced hurricanes in the past. This was also the same consensus of many people that lived on Pensacola Beach during Hurricane Ivan. As we know, this particular hurricane devastated the Florida Panhandle. Despite the warnings and the mandatory evacuation order (which this particular scenario lacked and I can’t see why), people still remained behind. They were stubborn and chose to risk their own lives. Many were lucky to survive.

As this is not a story about Hurricane Ivan, but that of Katrina, I will get to the point. People of the area instilled a certain trust and confidence in their ability to ride out the storm. Many residents and business owners alike had faith in those controls that were built to protect them. Unfortunately, those controls failed causing this horrific tragedy.

In fact, all the victims were safe during the hurricane. It wasn’t until the failure of the levy system that caused this mass loss of life.

The decisions made by the government not to issue a mandatory evacuation order would allow you to have a false sense of security. This is why the facility was not evacuated. If the order would have came, this tragedy would have been avoided. Not to sound one sided or partial, the owners still bear responsibility for their failure to ensure personal safety.

So, with this, you can not place all the blame for this tragedy on the owners. It was caused by a series of bad decisions that first started with the lack of an evacuation order coupled with underestimating the full potential of the storm. A whole series of bad decisions has led to this horrible conclusion.

For all the family’s that lost loved ones, I could never feel the grief that you are suffering still at this moment. Despite your immense sorrow, I encourage you to have faith. Have faith in knowing that your loved ones suffer no more. As hard as it may seem, the first step to healing your wounds comes with forgiveness. I encourage you to forgive those that you despise and to blame no more. Through this, only good can come.

The horror of St. Rita’s should never have happened. I am like others over this issue. I believe the owners should pay for the crime of allowing people under their care to die such a horrible death. Sure, the powers that be will deal with them in time. Karmic justice always gets its way in the end but they should also suffer man’s law too. They are guilty of allowing all those people whom family had entrusted into their care to drown not to mention the survivors to have health and mental issues for the remainder of their short lives as well as leaving all family members with this torment for the rest of their lives. It’s simply too large of a crime to allow them to get away with. I also hope the fact their license was expired comes into play as well.

Families of St. Rita, you are in my thoughts and my prayers. It is my hope that justice for your loved ones be found in the criminal case as well as a civil case if the chance becomes available.