According to reports, a US Army veteran lost his life after staff at his nursing home failed to wash him regularly and he developed gangrene on his infected genitals.

The 84-year-old, York Spratling, contracted gangrene while he was a resident at the Consulate Health Care in Jacksonville, Florida. He was rushed into surgery to remove the dead tissue on his genitals on February 24, 2017. However, the elderly gentleman succumbed to the disease shortly after.

Family members would often see problems with the care York received and brought it to the attention of nursing staff at the facility, according to Derwin Spratling, his nephew.

York, who suffered from diabetes, was sent to the emergency room on a stretcher late February 2017, Derwin said. According to him, he was in a waiting room when the doctor came out to inform that his uncle needed surgery to get rid of the dead tissue around his genitals.

In a conversation with Naples Daily News, Derwin said the doctor "had never seen anything like that before, especially in this day and age." According to him, his uncle could no longer live alone as his health was deteriorating rapidly. "It didn’t just happen overnight, but it was quicker than you could imagine," he said.

It was the nursing home staff's job to care for York and they should have known there was an issue, Derwin emphasized. "It’s way past obvious. This is so past obvious that it’s mind-blowing," he said.

In his early days after retirement, the army vet worked as a cab driver and used to play pickup basketball games around the city. Towards the end of his life though, he struggled to walk or even feed himself. Speaking to investigators, staff at the nursing home said they could smell York's infection from the door to his room, but they neither documented the wounds and severe infection nor did they notify a doctor for five days.

According to family members, the nursing home staff did not focus on York's hygiene, and instead accused the veteran of refusing showers.

The News Press reported that in the year prior to York's death, state regulators had cited the home thrice for not having enough nurses to properly care for residents. According to a death review report by the Florida Department of Children and Families, York’s death was due to inadequate supervision and medical neglect.

Meanwhile, Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration is yet to take action against the facility, Daily Mail reports.