Helpless pensioners drugged, neglected at Cape Town home of horrors

31 October 2014 - 16:15 By Tanya Farber, Aphiwe De Klerk and Reitumetse Pitso
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Fifteen residents of a fly-by-night old-age home in Cape Town have died in the past five months amid allegations of gross neglect.

The deaths since June represent about half the total number of residents at the Serendipity home in Panorama, Cape Town.

According to a caregiver, a former cleaner and the daughter of a resident, festering wounds were left untreated and scabies and bedsores were common. Residents were drugged to keep them quiet and those who were "too noisy" were locked in the bathroom.

In one case staff were allegedly ordered to retrieve old food that had been put in the dog's bowl and serve it to the pensioners.

The unregistered facility is owned by Sharon Roberts who supervises it from her home in Hermanus, about 90 minutes away, and leaves the residents in the care of helpers who have no nursing qualifications.

Roberts, who has owned the home since 2008, charges each resident R5200 a month for "assisted care".

Two officials from the Department of Health carried out an inspection on Friday, apparently as part of the process of assessing a licence application. Roberts applied for a licence for the first time in April.

The officials, who spent three-and-a-half hours at Serendipity, declined to comment.

A spokesman for the Western Cape department of social development, Sihle Ngobese, confirmed the home was not registered, as is required by the Older Persons Act.

Interviewed on Friday, Roberts initially said only six people had died at the home since June, but later put the figure at 15.

She denied that the residents were not cared for adequately but acknowledged the home was not equipped to take care of the frail.

"I have a compassion for old people," she said. "Who is going to take care of them? I think that I should not take people, to be honest, who are so frail.

"I shouldn't try and want to help everybody in the universe when we should only take the 'assisted living' and not the frail people," Roberts said.

A caregiver at the home, Lozita Benjamin, said speaking out about conditions at the home was the right thing to do - "because if you don't then you are part of it" - even if it meant losing her job.

Benjamin said Roberts repeatedly instructed staff to drug the old people if they were noisy. She said Roberts provided canned food past its "use by" date and oats infested with insects.

Residents recently had to sleep on thin mattresses on the floor after the roof blew off one room, and in the past some residents had been locked in the bathroom if they made too much noise.

However, Roberts said patients were always given fresh food.

Joanne Lee, a cleaner who worked at the home in 2012, said she left after two months because she was shocked at how the residents were treated.

"The residents were given old food and the washing was done with chemical products meant to clean floors. It irritated their skin but Sharon wouldn't budge," Lee said.

"People were just left to lie there until they got sores on their bodies. Sharon is never there yet she says she is the only one who can say who goes to hospital and who doesn't."

In an affidavit, Helen Dinkelmann, the daughter of a resident who was removed from the home earlier this week, wrote: "It has come to my attention through personal experience, and that of concerned staff who have alerted me, that there is severe neglect and abuse at Serendipity home for the aged."

Dinkelman said that last month there was an outbreak of scabies but staff were instructed to "withhold information from the families of loved ones and say that it was bed bugs".

Benjamin said staff administered the sedative Trepiline and a schedule two antihistamine, Phenergan, on Roberts's orders. Phenergan can be bought over the counter and causes drowsiness.

"[Roberts] buys a lot of them at once. If people make a noise, she feeds them the pills or tells us to," Benjamin said. "I was on day shift before, and they used to tell me to give it to the patients but I wouldn't."

She said that when she did not give the drugs, she would be reprimanded and asked why the resident was still being noisy.

Roberts said only three people - who had been prescribed Trepiline - were on the drug.

A litany of cruelty and casual neglect

Incidents that are alleged to have occurred over the past five months at the Serendipity old-age home include:

  • A 92-year-old woman with Alzheimer's who kept trying to eat her nappy was locked in the bathroom and drugged with Trepiline (a schedule five drug) if she made too much noise;
  • A new resident arrived in good health and was not on any medication. She reacted badly to the food and was left in bed and became more ill. She got bedsores, and by the time she got to hospital, her leg had to be amputated. She died soon afterwards;
  • Despite instructions from the family of a resident that she could eat only dry chicken and plain vegetables with no gravy, she was given the same food as everyone else. For four days she did not pass urine or stool. By the time she was finally sent to hospital, she had a severely bloated bladder and died;
  • Within 24 hours of this death, two female residents died from food poisoning. One arrived at hospital with a catheter that had not been inserted properly and which had developed a crust around the tube. Nobody at the facility is qualified to insert a catheter;
  • A resident had a gaping wound in his leg after an injury. It was sprayed with antiseptic and covered up when the family came to visit. Initial requests to take the resident to hospital were refused. By the time he went, he had chest and bladder infections;
  • A resident had a bruised eye on three occasions when family members came to visit. They were told it was a reaction to her tablets; and
  • A resident's foot burst open after rough handling by the staff. - Staff Reporters
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