The life of Agustina Herrera, 74, hangs by a thread, the consequence of a vaginal infection. The elderly woman was hospitalized at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, after being transferred from New Brunswick's Rose Mountain Care Center. Herrera was placed there four years ago.

Waiting for death to provide physical and spiritual rest for his mother, Víctor Ortega has accused the authorities of Rose Mountain Care Center of negligence. He alleges that they failed to give his mother the minimal care necessary for her to pass her final years in comfort.

Mrs. Herrera was born in Cuba and arrived in New Brunswick 23 years ago. In 1999, of her own volition, she decided to move into the care facility to avoid becoming a burden to her son.

In the last two years, Ortega says, “My mom has experienced at least six suspicious incidents. In one instance, she broke a leg and it became necessary to insert a metal pin. In another, she scraped her eyebrow and got a black eye. On still another occasion, she was found with bruises on her back and cuts on her arms.”

“In every case, the managers of the institution assured me that her injuries had been the result of falls from her bed,” added Ortega.

Falls or Abuse?

“They always informed me when my mom was hospitalized. In one of these reports, my mother told me that a nurse had hit her. I complained to the administration, and they denied everything. But later, I realized that the nurse had been fired from her job," Ortega said.

According to this desperate man, until two years ago, his mother was an active person, who enjoyed participating in activities at Rose Mountain. Later, however, her attitude began to change. Every time he visited her, she hardly spoke and seemed drugged, he said.

Six months ago, she was taken to a psychiatric center in Philadelphia for testing, because she was shouting out for no discernible reason.

“The three months that my mom stayed in that place were good. I found her rested and with in better spirits, but she began to deteriorate again when she was moved back to Rose Mountain Care Center. Then, on March 10, they called to tell me that she had been taken to the hospital emergency room,” Ortega said.

Her son asserts that the emergency room doctor, whose last name was Elías, who attended to Mrs. Herrera, found her dehydrated and with a vaginal infection due to a lack of sanitary care. Because of the infection, Mrs. Herrera had with a fever of 103 degrees.

“A nurse told me that my mom wouldn't get better, because she had damaged her trachea. She is living as a vegetable, and now I must resign myself to waiting for her to die," he said.

She could have been drugged

Luis López, a friend of Herrera for many years, suggests that she was being drugged, because she went from being a happy person to one who did not speak and who seemed under the effect of a tranquilizer.

Center administrator Dominic D'Ambrosio strongly denies any accusation of mistreatment. “Our center has strict rules against abuse. In this case, the accusations have no foundation or evidence,” he said.

What D'Ambrosio does not know is that Ortega took photos of his mother each time that she displayed strange bruises and when she was hospitalized for the broken leg.

Another accusation

The Herrera case does not seem to be the only one against the center. Wally Núñez is the daughter of Cirilo Reyes, who died on March 13, 2001, at age 78. Núñez indicated that during the nine months in which her father was under the center's care, he was the victim of substandard care.

“My father was a diabetic and he began to suffer from dementia. Because of this, we decided along with my mom to place my father in Rose Mountain. We wanted him to receive the care he needed from qualified personnel. But when I began to visit him, I didn't like the place. The stench of urine was terrible, and I saw that they didn't have sufficient staff to care for the elderly,” Núñez says.

At the end of February 2001, Núñez received notification that her father had been taken to the hospital. He had fallen out of bed because of an alleged imbalance in his blood sugar level.

“I asked, to no avail, why they had not placed safety bars on his bed or fastened him with the restraining belt they use onto some patients-- precisely to avoid this type of accident," she said.

“Four days later, they called me because my father had suffered an attack. For this reason, he was in intensive care for two days until finally, he died. My dad had a bandage on his right arm and a note that blood could not be taken from that arm. I never knew what happened. I regret not having taken photos and not having requested an autopsy in order to determine the real causes of his death. Today, I am so sorry for this, because it is my belief that the center acted negligently in the case of my father," Núñez concluded.

Both Ortega and Núñez share a desire to publicize their accusations, not only in the name of their families, but for the other elderly people who at this moment could be victims of mishaps under the watch of care facilities, while their families suspect nothing.

Report from the state

According to the results of the last inspection conducted at Rose Mountain Care Center on November 27, 2001, it was determined that the senior care center was not complying with regulations governing the safety, ease of use, cleanliness, and comfort in the area for elderly patients.

On the other hand, from November 1999 to November 2001 not one malpractice complaint was recorded.

In 1999, three complaints were filed regarding the quality of care, of the following types: to assure that the each resident's nutritional requirements were being satisfied; to ensure that each patient has the necessary devices for getting help and preventing accidents; and to provide each resident with treatment adequate to avoid new sores caused by being bedridden for long periods, or to treat already existing bedsores.

This year, another two complaints were filed upon direct examination of the residents. This evaluation detected low quality in the management of complaints. It said that these were not remedied in a timely or effective fashion, in order to maintain or increase the dignity of each patient.

Additionally, the center was tasked with developing a institution-wide plan to satisfy the needs of each resident with an agenda of quantifiable actions.

In the year 2000, two more complaints were filed. One complaint was nutritional: that food was not being stored, cooked, or served in a safe and clean way. The other complaint was based on environmental conditions, and consisted of assurances that the area for elderly patients be free of hazards which cause accidents and moving, cleaning, and storing sheets, towels, and other clothing, in order to avoid contagion by infectious agents and to provide sanitary conditions and necessary maintenance.

Year after year, inspectors recommended that the suggested changes take place, but the complaints are not solid enough for the authorities to take any specific action.