According to Erdman B. Palmore, a professor emeritus of gerontology at Duke University, “The way our society devalues older people could contribute to their neglect and abuse on some occasions.” One Alzheimer’s patient cried out for water before going to the hospital with dehydration. Another broke an eye socket when a wheelchair rolled down a ramp and crashed. A patient at a third nursing home died when workers adjusted a breathing tube. Two at yet another home weighed less than 80 pounds each. Those cases and more were drawn from a Tribune-Review analysis of state surveys conducted at 118 nursing homes in Western Pennsylvania over the past three years.

Click to read “Care for Elderly Lacking” by Andrew Conte and Mike Cronin