Camera Captures Assault

ABC News reported on a video that recorded a certified nursing assistant, Claire Garrovillas, roughly handling a nursing home resident. The most disturbing part of the video is the ordinary nature of the abuse. The caregiver approaches the resident normally. Without provocation or justification, she violently slaps the vulnerable adult on his face like it’s nothing.

Michael Mills died after being removed from Affinity Skilled Living and Rehabilitation Center in Oakdale.

Claire Garrovillas is facing a felony count and charged with endangering an incompetent or disabled person in the first degree.

“To know he was being abused by somebody and he couldn’t do anything about it is just gonna haunt me forever.”

–his girlfriend Felicia Chillak said.

Chillak would visit him and said she would see bruises. She placed a camera in his room.

Eyewitness News made repeated calls to Affinity and got no response. The nursing home has been cited by the New York State Health Department at least once for neglect.

Affinity is part of a much larger problem in an industry that is understaffed and under-regulated.