What
people may not know what happened during the Time of the previous
administration. A number of abuses of veterans at the home occurred.
Veterans
were systematically stripped of all assets by the Guardian/Conservator System
imposed on them by the state courts. Several times we had wives of veterans
tossed to the street, their family home sold out from underneath the wife who
belonged to the generation that took care of their “house wives”. because her
name was not on the houses deed. Married for 50+ years, no Social security,
nothing, and curbed because her hubby vet got put into the vets home when she
could no longer care for him due to her own problems she gets with aging. The guardian/conservator kicked them to the street.
Veterans
were MURDERED by incompetent medical staff who gave them wrong
prescriptions, refused to follow VA
doctors instructions or did not treat their medical conditions properly. One
veteran named Monrow, was kicked out of Dom unit for refusing to turn over the medication he
got from VA Ann Arbor, after a major shoulder operation. And Dom unit people
are "self medicating" meaning they keep their meds locked up in their rooms, and take them as
required without help of nursing staff. The Doctors wanted to change his meds upon his return from his VA Hospital stay, and he refused to let them, choosing to follow the VA Surgeon's instructions. So
they kicked him out to the street.
Other vets in Nursing units were overdosed, given wrong meds, given meds they did not need, forced to take them against their will or have their personally owned property taken from them as punishment.
Some of the veterans would have a meds routine that they
had been on for years, then they move into the home and the doctors there
changed them, many times resulting in the Vet having to go to the ER. One vet
was taken by family members just 3 weeks after moving into the home, to the VA
hospital in Battle creek, near death because of what the homes medical staff
did to his meds schedule.
Then
we had veterans who were forced to take drugs they did not need. One fellow
died from taking Depakote, a drug he did not need. The state imposed
conservator Sythia Thornbury ordered him to take it. When he refused they
threatened to take away his scooter – his PROPERTY that he owned. I call that
theft and intimidation. He had to carry a sign on his scooter that said if he did not take his meds, he would loose his scooter. This is abuse of veterans. And it happened more than just one of them.
Michigan family court judge David Murkowski was the one
who approved many of the homes request to impose a guardian or conservator upon
the veterans who became slaves to the guardian/conservator.The Veterans Freedom to choose, freedom to consent, was taken away from them by the courts and Murkowski. The veterans were
forced to pay the service fees for the conservators/guardians too, out of their own pockets.
I have one veteran currently living at the home whose conservator REFUSES To put his money into a trust for his daughters. The state wants to claim it after they kill him off, just as they did so many others before him.
They
tried to make another veteran take drugs he did not need because of a family
history of epilepsy. He did not have it, and taking it made him feel like a zombie.. so when he refused they fought with
him and his wife for 8 months trying to get the courts to impose a guardian on him. He
finally left the home after an accident caused him to spend 4 months in a
recovery hospital, and just 3 months after leaving that, he began walking again
for the first time in 6 years, with the help of a walker. His health improved
dramatically after leaving the home.
Then
there is the intimidation of veterans. Sara Dunne stated publicly she would not
tolerate any resident talking bad about the home to state legislatures. She
said it was her job to talk to them. - denial of freedom of speech.
Sara, and
Board of Managers Lino Pretto told a group of residents they did not have a right to
hold a meeting amongst themselves to discuss issues. This is a denial of their
freedom to assemble and freedom of speech. It is well known, that any resident
who spoke up or made waves risked being kicked out of the home. And many were
under the Sara Dunn administration.
Jim Dunn, attorney, and I believe a former Michigan House of Represenatives, told people that he told the Governor everything that was going on at the home. He lied. The truth is he withheld information from the Governor to protect him and the upper management.
These people were intimidated to the point
where they were afraid to speak up about the abuses they suffered every day,
because they had no where else to go. And this is just some of the abuses
veterans tolerated every day.
One veteran was kicked out of the home for laying his hands on another veteran, while stopping 2 of them from fighting - one of which was nearly killed by the other one who was hitting him in the head with a bike lock in his hand. Had the veteran who broke up the fight not done so, we would have had another veteran murdered at the home by a fellow veteran and the Andy Ball case would have been one of several. - and it is.. the others just never got into court. The man who got kicked out is Jerry L, one of 2 veterans who testified in Lansing to the House joint committee about the abuses at the home. He too has become a victim of the administrations abuses.
Another veteran was kicked to the street without warning because he lost his temper when the home threatened to steal his car, having it towed away and impounded when it was parked in the wrong spot due to the staff always parking in the area reserved for residents. His first offense, and they kicked him out because he was an activist advocate for the veterans there. After being kicked out he was the other veteran who testified in Lansing about the abuses at the home.
When veterans called GR police department to report crimes by staff, GRPD refused to investigate.
It is really a wonder no one went postal there. A couple of times I thought someone was going to. One guy went around and pulled every fire alarm he could find in retaliation for the abuse he was putting up with.. they put him in court yard for a year and threatened him with removal to Battle Creek VA psychiatric unit..
And that VA Director of the Battle Creek VA hospital Mary Beth Skupian, who signed off on several years of VA audits showing continual problems at the Home. She needs to be held accountable as well. She could have done something, but did nothing.
During this time, AG
Schutte 's response to the complaints by veterans was "they don't have to live there", instead of looking into the complaints filed by veterans, families of veterans and advocates.
Well, yes they do have to live there, when
their only other option is the street. And many were kicked to the street, only
to die on the street, and in several case, less than half a mile from the home
itself. To this day residents are still afraid to speak up, and many do not
trust the new administration.
When
advocates and residents took their concerns to Lansing, they were refused, and
rebutted and told that anything they told Lansing would be used to support the
administration. Basically their pleas for help were rejected. THIS is why
everyone is so upset with Schuttes recent act of shear incompetence, and why so
many feel insulted by what he did not do. Lansings job was to protect people,
the veterans. Instead they protected the administration, and by doing so, have
now helped to victimize the veterans.
And now Schuttee dismal performance by announcing the criminal charges against middle management while refusing to hold accountable the upper management who supposedly were supervising the middle management and FAILED, has insulted the veterans, veterans groups and advocates, and everyone is in an uproar over it.
This isn't over yet people.. the fire storm is about to hit Schuette and Lansing. Shuette might as well give up his run for governor because this incident will be put front and center where ever he goes to speak for his run for governor.
These are just SOME of the abuses that happened.
