Nursing Home Defends Rapist Employee: 89-Year-Old Victim Was A 'Flirt'

[ismnotwasm]

This is filed under what. the Fuck.

An elderly woman in Minnesota is seeking punitive damages against a nursing home that placed her in a mental health facility and protected her attacker after she was raped.

According to court documents obtained by the Star Tribune, Edgewood Vista senior living facility forced the 89-year-old woman to spend 72 hours in the mental health unit of St. Luke’s Hospital near Duluth after she reported that 30-year-old Andrew Scott Merzwski had raped her in her bed at the senior home.

The woman said that Merzwski had entered her room as she preparing for bed. After she invited him to watch a movie, he started taking off his clothes.

“It’s not right, this wouldn’t be right,” the woman reportedly told Merzwski, pointing to a photo of her husband.

After the victim's daughter notified police, Merzwski admitted that he had sex with the 89-year-old woman.

About that same time, the nursing home transferred the woman to a psychiatric ward at St. Luke’s Hospital for nearly three days.

"The room she was in was dark and cold … and they locked her in at night and all she had was a blanket," nurse examiner Theresa Flesvig said in the court documents.

When Flesvig was finally able to examine the victim, she found the “biggest tear” as a result of rape that she had ever seen in her career.

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/02/nursing-home-defends-rapist-employee-89

[SummerSnow]

1. Oh my.

Why is the rapist always protected?

[redqueen]

3. Patriarchy.

It's why so very many people try to blame women for everything they can. (e.g. A man beat a woman? Well what did she do to make him do that? or A man beat his children? Why didn't his wife stop that from happening? When often these women are terrorized, brutalized, and broken - often by their often fathers before they end up with similar men. It's at the root of every attempt to blame the victimized for the actions of the victimizers.)

Patriarchy established our hierarchical system. It is at the root of so much that ails the world.

[WhiteTara]

7. It's only been a bit over a hundred years since it was

preached to beat your wife "for the good of her moral soul." Look at slavery and racism, it's ingrained.

[Mz Pip]

2. Wow

That takes slut shaming to a whole new level.

[DURHAM D]

4. I want to know why that the State has not closed that facility and

why the supervisor still has a job?

[ismnotwasm]

6. That

Is an excellent question

[DURHAM D]

11. My Mother spent the last two years of her life in a Memory Unit.

They would not even allow my father to walk her to his apartment in the same building because they thought he might take advantage of her. They had been married for 67 years and it was a good and very loving marriage. This was upsetting for my father because he thought she needed to get out of the unit and get some exercise, plus he really wanted to feed her lunch because she was not eating well. After lunch he wanted to take a short nap with her, something they had done every day for 30 years.

When the situation first developed us kids thought it was kind of amusing given the nature of their relationship so all of us talked to management and tried to convince them that he would be responsible and careful. Given that Alzheimer's patients sort of forget backwards we laughed to ourselves that if "it" happened it might transport her/them back in time and be a pleasant experience.

Eventually we (the kids) signed a written agreement that the facility would not be held responsible if something happened. My father was legally in charge (and wrote the big fat check every month) but they would not accept a hold harmless agreement from him because he was older than my mother.

We came to understand and appreciate the basic position of the facility which is that a patient with dementia can not give consent.

[ismnotwasm]

13. We used to allow couples to bring in their own bed

If it was a reasonable size. The mattresses had to be on the floor, because of fall risks, but it was sweet.


Also, by law-- we don't assume LTC residents and not sexual beings and if they both are able to consent, and it was a safe situation, we were supposed to provide privacy.

On the other hand one of our residents had a "boyfriend" who was caught taking advantage of her-- it's a rather ugly story.

It wasn't just the elderly either. In our rehab unit there was a young woman with a shattered shattered pelvis from a car accident and we caught her husband right on top of her and those broken bones. Had to call the police.

It's been years since I worked in LTC-- but boy I got stories

[Tuesday Afternoon]

22. We try to keep married couples together. The dimentia adds another element to that.

The locked Alzheimer unit is single bed/room unit. These are residents/patients who are in the end stages or the very late middle stage of the disease.


Also, by law-- we don't assume LTC residents and not sexual beings and if they both are able to consent, and it was a safe situation, we were supposed to provide privacy.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

5. ...

[Tuesday Afternoon]

8. I do not understand this sentence:

The woman said that Merzwski had entered her room as she preparing for bed. After she invited him to watch a movie, he started taking off his clothes.

Regardless of why she would invite him to watch a movie how does an employee have the time to watch one?

[ismnotwasm]

12. The elderly are often lonely in LTC,

And he was was a rapist slacker

[Tuesday Afternoon]

20. I am not excusing. I just thought the sentence was phrased very badly. Horrible sentence.

I understand they are lonely. I work with them.

Seems he spent some time building up trust with this woman.

We have a lot of elderly women who will Not allow men aides in their room at all either, because of modesty or because of past trauma from the hands of a man/men.

[ismnotwasm]

23. Oh I know you weren't excusing

And elderly rape in LTC is more common than people think. Think one is dramatic. So it got picked up by news agencies. Plus the response of the facility was particularly vile.


We quite often have requests in the hospital for no males for the same reasons , occasionally no females, but they are SoL there usually

[Tuesday Afternoon]

24. yes. and LoL on the SoL. We have that sometimes too. Very old school attittude but, then we are

dealing with "old school" people. so, duh and derp.

[WinkyDink]

15. One-to-one assignment. My husband has one.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

21. could be.

[sheshe2]

9. WTF!

[shenmue]

10. I can't believe this

The attacker should get life without parole.

[TDale313]

14. Sentenced to 53 months.

Also, the victim was held on a 72 hour psych hold after reporting this, and was not given medical treatment for her injuries until after that ended, even though the rapist had admitted it.

[tclambert]

16. Yeah, but what was she wearing?

[iandhr]

17. To steal a line from Airplane!

"surely you can't be serious."

[marble falls]

18. Another example of how treatment of women is getting worse.

[AnnieBW]

19. OMG!

My mom is in assisted living. People have to realize that a lot of times, Alzheimer's patients will revert to a younger state of being. This woman was probably "flirty" because she was mentally a teenager. However, the staff should be trained to recognize this behavior and defuse it. NOT to take advantage of it!