Seeking Justice

13ABC reported on the tragic case of Sam Ray Jr. For months now, an Ohioan family has been seeking justice for the murder of their loved one at Sylvania Township nursing home.  After being hospitalized for a UTI and pneumonia, Sam Ray Jr. was admitted to the nursing home with the promise they’d look after and improve his health.

Yet immediately after his admission, Sam Ray Jr. experienced a bed transfer so bad that this ankle was sprained- previewing the kind of service he’d really be receiving at Arbor.

Despite being capable of using the restroom with assurance, Sam Ray Jr. was refused help and instructed to soil himself in a diaper. Humiliatingly, the 72-year old Sam Ray had to stay in his bed and soil himself for months, soon causing a bed sore to develop and become infected.

According to his family, the bed sore was so extreme that his spine could be seen. Ignoring the family’s concerns and the patient’s intense pain, Arbor staff simply put patches over the wound, told the family it was no big deal, and downplayed all their concerns. That was until Sam Ray Jr. was suddenly rushed to the hospital for an infection in the gaping wound.

Unsurprisingly, the patient received an infection in a deep wound that was located near where he was forced to soil himself.

So, by the time the family found out about the severity of the situation, it was too late. A few months after being rushed to the hospital, Sam Ray Sr. passed away from sepsis that was traced to the wound’s original development and infection. This case has since been ruled a homicide.

Ultimately, the man who simply needed basic recovery services died far too young as he was forced to allow a wound to eat through his bone over the course of months. Yet the avid Cowboys fan and bowler is far from the only patient to have to endure such treatment, with multiple families suing the same facility for similar experiences. Arbor has clearly shown that such treatment is standard across all their facilities; that it’s the result of a top-down systemic policy due to understaffing.

“That’s a systemic failure coming from understaffing. You don’t have people to transfer someone to the toilet. It’s a total denial of your dignity and humanity,” explained the family’s attorney, Michael Hill.

Yet it doesn’t seem to matter how many individuals these facilities make suffer, they are still allowed to keep their doors open and pretend to care about patients. It is hoped that more families speak up about the harm their loved ones have endured to finally shut Arbor’s dangerous and careless doors for good.