From an October 15, 2002 Associated Press
release
comes a chilling story of how Nursing Homes kill thousands of senior citizens
each year. The story, also picked up by many other news organizations
including ABC News, noted that government documents and court records were the
source of the information. The story originally came from a series of
investigative reports appearing in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
According to the story, investigators and researchers say
that most of the deaths were caused by neglect traced to caregivers whom the
elderly rely on for food and liquid, and for turning them in their beds to
prevent life-threatening sores. In the latest national compilation, of the
more than 500,000
deaths in
nursing homes
in 1999, a total of 4,138 death certificates lists the causes of death as
starvation, dehydration or bedsores.
The US Department of Health and Human Services reported to
Congress this year that nine of 10 nursing homes have inadequate staff. It
is an inadequate number of nurses and aides that the story site as the reason
for most of the nursing home caused deaths.