Mom who shot daughter wrote of abuse by nursing home
September 19th, 2009
From the San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland [CA] Tribune, and KGO-TV (ABC) San Francisco:
Diana Harden, who shot and killed her daughter and herself in an Oakland nursing home last weekend, sent a letter to a local television station the day before their deaths. She alleged that nursing home staff members had been abusing her daughter Yvette, calling her a “fat pig” and subjecting her to cold showers where she was washed “like a car.”
Neighbors of Harden’s said she had never complained about the nursing home, but that she was increasingly worried about her daughter’s well being and long-term care as her own health declined. She had filed two complaints with the state against the Oakland Springs Health Care Center. Yvette Harden, 43, had brain damage and limited mobility following a car accident in 1994.
The state public health department is investigating in the wake of the shootings. Over the past five years, 152 complaints have been filed against Oakland Springs, of which about half were substantiated by the state. No fines were issued.
Oakland Springs “has an unusual amount of complaints,” said Charlene Harrington, a UCSF School of Nursing professor who studies California nursing homes. “But there are very few quality homes in California. You can see how somebody would feel trapped.”
(Photo from KGO-TV)
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