Personally, I know a lot of people who have horror stories of nursing homes and live-in care nurses. Although they are all unique situations with their own factors, a sad fact is a lot of elderly people in this country suffer abuse at the hands of these supposed caregivers. The National Council on Aging reported that 1 in 10 Americans who are 60-plus have experienced some form of elder abuse pre-pandemic. During the COVID-19 crisis, that figure jumped to 1 in 4. And that just represents cases that are reported.
An 81-year-old Florida man, who’s a Navy veteran, was determined to not become one of those statistics, CBS 12 reported. The anonymous man said he being abused by his live-in caretaker and decided to seek out help.
The man said caretaker Denise Williams’ latest attack was the final straw. “Every month, every day, she got a little bit worse,” he said, WPBF reported.
The man said the caregiver flew into a fit of rage over the state of his bathroom. When he tried calling 911, he claims she stopped him by scratching him and squeezing his hand until he “couldn’t stand the pain.”
“She jumped on my chest. I was lying down, trying to get my phone, and she jumped on my chest, and started grabbing it, my phone, and she finally got it, and scratched me,” he told the outlet.
She then reportedly hid the phone in his room and disconnected the landlines so he couldn’t call. That’s when he got creative. He wrote a three-word note and left it in his mailbox for the postal worker to find. “Call the police,” the note read, per WPBF. The worker saw the note, thankfully took it seriously, and placed a call for him immediately.
Police found Williams at a nearby gas station with the victim’s checkbook and debit card, WPBF reported. Williams was being held in Palm Beach County on multiple charges including robbery and battery on an elderly victim.
According to the Mirror US, the police claim Williams confessed to taking his cellphone and hurting the man’s hand. She also admitted to disconnecting both of his landlines and hiding his phone in her room.
Now he is in search of a new caregiver. “I got a hold of a VA, and I may get a hold of somebody else because I really need a live-in. I’ve been getting worse and worse and worse off and worse off,” he admitted.
