Dan Shively had been a financial institution president who constructed floats for July Fourth parades in Cody, Wyoming, and adored fly-fishing together with his sons. Jeffrey Dowd had been an auto mechanic who ran a canine rescue and hosted a Sunday blues radio present in Santa Fe.
By the point their lives intersected at Canyon Creek Reminiscence Care Group in Billings, Montana, each had been deep within the grips of dementia and exhibiting a number of the illness’s horrible traits.
Shively had been wandering misplaced in his neighborhood, having outbursts at dwelling, and leaving the gasoline range on. Dowd beforehand had been hospitalized for being confused, suicidal, and agitated, medical data filed in U.S. District Courtroom in Billings present. When Dowd entered Canyon Creek, managers warned staff in a observe later filed in court docket that he might be “physically/verbally abusive when frustrated.”
On Shively’s fourth day at Canyon Creek, carrying a knife and fork, he walked over to a eating room desk the place Dowd was sitting. Dowd advised Shively to maintain the knife away from his espresso, in line with a witness assertion filed in court docket. Shively, who at 5-foot-2 and 125 kilos was half Dowd’s weight and 10 inches shorter, turned to stroll away, however Dowd stood up and shoved Shively so onerous that when he hit the ground, his cranium fractured and mind hemorrhaged, in line with a lawsuit his household filed towards Canyon Creek.
“The doctor said there’s not much they could do about it,” his son Casey Shively stated in an interview.
Dan Shively died 5 days later at age 73.
Police didn’t cost Dowd, then 66. He stayed at Canyon Creek for almost three extra years, throughout which era he repeatedly clashed with residents, generally hitting male residents and groping feminine ones, in line with facility data filed within the court docket case. His anger would flare rapidly. “I’m literally scared to death of Jeff,” one nurse wrote in a filed assertion describing Dowd’s dispute with one other resident.
In court docket, Canyon Creek denied legal responsibility for Shively’s loss of life. Its privately held company proprietor, Koelsch Communities, declined to reply questions from KFF Well being Information. Chase Salyers, Koelsch’s director of promoting, stated in an electronic mail to KFF Well being Information that the corporate prioritizes “the health, well-being, safety, and security of our residents.”
Dowd’s kin stated in a press release by way of textual content they’d not remark as a result of that they had no firsthand information. “We were very pleased with the care Jeffrey received at Canyon Creek,” they added. Dowd was not named within the lawsuit and his present whereabouts couldn’t be decided.
Violent altercations between residents in long-term care services are alarmingly widespread. Throughout the nation, residents in nursing houses or assisted residing facilities have been killed by different residents who weaponized a bedrail, shoved pillow stuffing into an individual’s mouth, or eliminated an oxygen masks.
A latest research in JAMA Community Open of 14 New York assisted residing houses discovered that, inside one month, 15% of residents skilled verbal, bodily, or sexual resident-on-resident aggression. One other research discovered almost 8% of assisted residing residents engaged in bodily aggression or abuse towards residents or employees members inside one month. Dementia residents are particularly possible to be concerned in altercations as a result of the illness damages the elements of the mind affecting reminiscence, language, reasoning, and social conduct.
Greater than 900,000 folks with Alzheimer’s or different sorts of dementia reside in nursing houses and assisted residing facilities. Most of the most severely impaired dwell within the roughly 5,000 services with locked dementia flooring or wings or the three,300 houses devoted completely to reminiscence care. These locations are largely for-profit and sometimes cost hundreds of {dollars} further a month, promising experience within the illness and a protected surroundings.
Clashes might be spontaneous and too unpredictable to stop. However the likelihood of an altercation will increase when reminiscence care houses admit and retain residents they’ll’t handle, in line with a KFF Well being Information examination of inspection and court docket data and interviews with researchers. Houses which have too few staffers or nonexistent or perfunctory coaching for workers have a more durable time heading off resident conflicts. Houses additionally could fail to correctly assess incoming residents or could preserve them regardless of demonstrated threats to others.
“As much as long-term care providers in general do their best to provide competent, high-quality care, there is a real problem with endemic violence,” stated Karl Pillemer, a gerontologist at Cornell College and lead creator of the JAMA research.
“There needs to be much more of an effort to single out verbal and physical aggression that occurs in long-term care,” he stated, “and begin to create a model of violence-free zones in the same way we have violence-free zones in the schools.”
A Hazard to Others
The primary indicators of Shively’s vascular dementia emerged in 2011 as confusion, however the illness accelerated in 2016, in line with interviews together with his spouse and kids and his medical data. He started referring to mountains he knew properly by the improper title and forgot how you can tie flies on his fishing line. “The decline was so slow at first we thought we could manage,” his spouse, Tana Shively, stated in an interview earlier than her loss of life this yr.
Because the illness progressed, his outbursts turned onerous to deal with. He took a swing at one among his sons when upset in regards to the temperature in the home. He refused to swallow his drugs and fell repeatedly.
“He would start walking the neighborhood and get lost,” Casey stated. “He would turn on the gas stove but not light the stove, and the room would start filling up with gas. He would put clothing in strange places. I found socks in a punch bowl. It got to the point where we couldn’t do this anymore.”
Dowd, in the meantime, had lived in a Santa Fe nursing dwelling and had an extended historical past of dementia with behavioral points, main depressive dysfunction with psychotic options, and hypertension, in line with medical data filed in court docket. Dowd entered Canyon Creek in October 2018 to be nearer to his brother, who lived close by in Wyoming, in line with an admission discover the power offered to staff that was included within the court docket document. The discover stated Dowd suffered from dementia attributable to extreme and long-term alcohol use.
Two months later, Shively moved in.
Montana licenses Canyon Creek, which has 67 beds, as a Stage C assisted residing facility, which allows it to accommodate folks with cognitive impairments so extreme that they can’t specific their wants or make fundamental care selections. Montana legislation says these services can not admit or retain a resident who’s “a danger to self or others.”
Within the lawsuit, Shively’s household argued that, on condition that legislation, Canyon Creek by no means ought to have accepted or saved Dowd. The Shively household’s lawyer, Torger Oaas, famous in court docket papers that Canyon Creek’s consumption evaluation kind for Dowd categorized his conduct as “physically and/or verbally abusive/aggressive 1x per month.” Oaas additionally wrote in court docket papers that in Dowd’s first weeks at Canyon Creek, he mocked and threatened to hit different residents and threw somebody’s silverware to the bottom throughout dinner.
In its protection filings within the lawsuit, Canyon Creek stated the Montana statute was too broad to be the premise of a negligence declare and argued that each one reminiscence care residents are unpredictable. And whereas Dowd had yelled and cursed at different residents at Canyon Creek, he hadn’t had bodily confrontations — or any conflicts with Shively, Canyon Creek stated. “The accident was not reasonably foreseeable,” Canyon Creek argued.
Within the days after Shively’s fall, nurses famous that Dowd was “more anxious, angry toward others.” Dowd yelled at a nurse to get off the telephone and “do your job,” a nurse wrote in a logbook entry filed in court docket.
“He got into my face,” the nurse wrote. “It looked like he was going to hit me — he had his hand/fist raised.”
‘As Bad as I’ve Ever Seen It’
Individuals with dementia will lash out as a result of they not have social inhibitions or as a result of it’s the one manner they’ll specific ache, discomfort, concern, disagreement, or anxiousness. Some widespread triggers — overstimulation from loud noises, a frenzied ambiance, unfamiliar faces — are hallmarks of dementia care establishments.
“We can’t expect someone who is constantly and unfailingly disoriented to adapt to our environment anymore,” stated Tracy Wharton, a licensed medical social employee and dementia researcher in Florida. “We have to adapt to them.”
Eilon Caspi, a College of Connecticut researcher, analyzed 105 deadly incidents involving dementia residents and located 44% had been deadly falls through which one resident pushed one other. “Some people are aggressive, and some are violent,” Caspi stated, “but if you look closely, the vast majority are doing their best while living with a serious brain disease.”
Holly Harmon, a senior vice chairman on the American Well being Care Affiliation/Nationwide Heart for Assisted Residing, an business commerce group, stated in a written assertion that conflicts can not all the time be averted regardless of facility operators’ finest efforts. “If they do occur,” she stated, “providers respond promptly with interventions to protect the residents and staff and prevent future occurrences.”
However Richard Mollot, govt director of the Lengthy Time period Care Group Coalition, a resident advocacy group, stated many operators of assisted residing facilities, together with reminiscence care items, are pushed by the underside line. “The issue that we see quite often is that assisted living retains people they should not,” Mollot stated. “They don’t have the staffing or the competency or the structure to provide safe care.” Conversely, he stated, when services have sufficient rooms stuffed with paying prospects, they’re extra prone to evict residents who require an excessive amount of consideration.
“They will kick them out if they’re too cumbersome,” Mollot stated.
Teepa Snow, an occupational therapist who based Optimistic Method to Care, an organization that trains dementia caregivers, famous that the house inside many services, with double rooms, tight widespread areas, and restricted out of doors entry, can gasoline conflicts. She stated the pandemic degraded situations in long-term care, as dementia residents with restricted social expertise atrophied in isolation of their rooms and staffing grew even sparser.
“It’s as bad as I’ve ever seen it,” she stated.
‘Very Common Fits of Rage’
The next account of Dowd’s time at Canyon Creek relies on 44 pages of nurse’s notes, witness statements, and inside resident-on-resident altercation stories; all had been contained within the facility’s data and filed as displays within the court docket case. After Shively’s loss of life in December 2018, Dowd was given new prescriptions, though the court docket document is unclear if the change was due to Shively’s loss of life. Nonetheless, the data present, Canyon Creek was unable to go off recurring altercations involving Dowd.
Some had been verbal threats. As soon as, Dowd yelled at residents in the lounge to close up, referred to as them “retards” and advised them they need to all die, a caregiver wrote in a witness assertion. He grabbed one resident’s face and threatened to kill him, in line with a nurse’s observe. One other time, Dowd went as much as a resident sitting on a settee and grabbed his walker. Dowd shook it and advised him to close up. In accordance with a witness assertion, as a nurse took the resident to the lavatory, Dowd muttered below his breath: “Stuff his head in the toilet.”
Different conflicts had been bodily. Dowd shoved a resident “down on his back so hard his head bounced off the floor,” a nurse recorded in a observe. In a special incident reported by a nurse, Dowd pushed a resident who had been agitated and cursing right into a chair. On separate events, Dowd hit two residents on the top, as soon as inflicting bleeding, in line with two resident altercation stories.
The notes element that Dowd was not all the time the initiator. As soon as, Dowd’s roommate scratched and punched him after Dowd advised him to make use of the bathroom quite than pee on the ground, leading to a combat. Caregivers separated the 2. One other day, a resident named Invoice wandered into Dowd’s room and pulled Dowd’s hair and beard. Dowd advised the nurses he “felt unsafe and VERY angry,” a nurse’s observe stated. The nurse led Invoice out of Dowd’s room, however Dowd adopted, yelling at Invoice that he was “a fat bastard” and saying he was going to make Invoice’s spouse a widow.
“Jeff kept making a closed fist as tho he was going to hit Bill,” the nurse wrote in a witness assertion. “I was legit scared because there was nothing I could do to defuse the situation. I’m literally scared to death of Jeff. I’m scared to approach him and talk to him when he gets into these very common fits of rage.”
Dowd finally went again to his room and a employee locked his door so no different resident would go in.
The data describe how Canyon Creek caregivers intervened after altercations started, typically separating the combating residents and updating Dowd’s brother on the clashes. Nurses would take away Dowd or the opposite resident from a room and discourage such acts. “Tried to explain it was inappropriate to hurt others,” one nurse wrote after one incident.
Salyers, the corporate advertising and marketing director, stated in his electronic mail that the employees at Canyon Creek and different Koelsch services are “highly qualified” and “extensively trained.” He stated the corporate’s reminiscence care communities are “distinctively designed and staffed” for folks with Alzheimer’s and different types of dementia.
‘It’s Good To Have a Girlfriend’
The nursing notes and statements within the court docket file counsel that incidents had been frequent sufficient that nurses commented on Dowd’s occasional serenity. “No agitated or aggressive behaviors this shift,” one observe stated. One other nurse observe stated Dowd “continues to isolate at meals, sitting at a table by himself.” Whereas Dowd loved studying books and doing puzzles, he was overheard saying he was depressed and was “wondering if he wouldn’t be better off if he wasn’t around anymore.”
Nurses famous Dowd repeatedly exhibited sexual conduct that was both inappropriate — making “crude oral gestures while looking at younger females” — or ambiguous, equivalent to inserting his hand on a resident’s shoulder and commenting, “It’s nice to have a girlfriend.” Somebody noticed Dowd “grabbing on multiple residents[’] private areas,” a witness assertion stated. When nurses caught the conduct, they separated these concerned and rebuked Dowd. A employees member wrote in a press release that Dowd was inappropriate all through her shift, making sexual jokes and “trying to grab me.”
In accordance with nursing notes, in summer time 2021, Dowd advised one feminine resident he wished to see her genitals and later touched her breast. In August, a caregiver walked into Dowd’s room and located him touching the identical resident below her shirt and pants. The caregiver advised Dowd to “stop it and not ever do that again” and introduced the girl out to fulfill her household, who had come to go to her.
After that incident, Canyon Creek despatched Dowd to the emergency room at Montana State Hospital, a public psychiatric facility, in line with a nurse administrator’s testimony in a deposition filed in court docket. The nurse testified Dowd was not at Canyon Creek. That’s the final point out of Dowd’s whereabouts within the public document. A spokesperson for the Montana Division of Public Well being and Human Providers, which oversees the hospital, wouldn’t verify whether or not he was a affected person.
At a pretrial listening to, the decide excluded dialogue about Dowd’s altercations after Shively’s loss of life. In a court docket submitting, Shively’s lawyer requested permission to share proof with the jury that Canyon Creek gave its govt director a bonus any month when 90% or extra of the beds had been crammed so he may argue Canyon Creek had a monetary motivation to confess Dowd. However the decide additionally barred that data from the trial, which Canyon Creek stated in a court docket submitting was irrelevant.
The Shively case went to trial in 2022 earlier than a federal civil jury in Billings. Regardless of the exclusions, the jury determined Canyon Creek’s negligence prompted Shively’s loss of life. It awarded the household $310,000.
“For us, the money wasn’t a huge factor,” stated Spencer Shively, one other of Dan Shively’s sons, who referred to as the damages so modest as to be a victory for Canyon Creek or its insurer. “At least they were negligent per se. But I don’t know it really changed anything. For me, I got some closure. I feel like these facilities are just continuing to do the same things they’re going to do because there hasn’t been systemic change.”
