Elderly Virginia woman found with maggots in urine, daughter and granddaughter charged with felony neglect
PITTSYLVANIA COUNTY, VIRGINIA: Two women from Pittsylvania County have been arrested on charges of elderly abuse. Shannon Tipton along with her adult daughter Brianna Tipton were reportedly caring for Shannon's 74-year-old mother when the alleged abuse happened.
According to the criminal complaint, the alleged abuse came to light after SOVAH Hospital in Danville alerted the Pittsylvania County Department of Social Services - Adult Protective Services and they then reported the senior adult abuse and neglect case to the Pittsylvania County Sheriff's Office. The hospital said that the elderly woman lived under the care of her daughter Shannon and granddaughter Brianna.
The official documents showed that the old woman, whose name has not been revealed, was discharged from the SOVAH Hospital on March 18, 2020, after a foley catheter was placed inside her body. A foley catheter, also known as an indwelling urinary catheter, is a sterile tube that is placed inside one’s bladder to drain urine. However, again on April 2, the elderly woman was admitted to the emergency room of the hospital with maggots in her urine and vaginal area and had initial stages of minor bedsores. The hospital treatment included cleaning the woman and flushing her foley before being released the same day, medical records stated.
After the April 2 admission, the old woman was sent back to her daughter and granddaughter’s care. While Shannon is her mother's primary caregiver besides being her financial Power of Attorney/Responsible Party, her daughter Brianna was being paid by Medicare to care for her.
According to investigators, both mother and daughter have admitted to locking up the old woman in her bedroom from the outside at night to “prevent her from wandering”. They also said that they would put the woman to bed at around 9 pm every day and lock her from the outside without checking on her until the next day, about 12 hours later.
After the alleged abuse came to light, both the Tiptons were arrested on July 13 and they face two charges of felony abuse and neglect of an incapacitated adult resulting in serious bodily injury or disease. The women have been held in the Lynchburg Adult Detention Center without bond and are scheduled to appear in court on September 9.
In another incident, a care worker was fired from her job after she mocked an elderly dementia patient and called him a “drama queen" while he lay helpless in his own excrement in bed. The insensitive act of the worker was caught on camera at Lyndhurst Park Nursing Home in Weston-super-Mare when she was cleaning up Michael Pearce. As she cleaned up the 87-year-old, he was told "that's very clever."
The hidden camera was reportedly placed by the old man’s nephew Ian Moss. In the footage, the care worker with blonde hair said: "Oh my God, oh my God" and then, "I think we need to take a photo." The worker can also be heard saying to Pearce "you are such a drama queen". She also made comments like, "there is something seriously wrong with this man."