When 75-year-old Joseph Madison returned to his senior living facility on Sept. 19 after spending the day at the Keswick Multi-Care Center, he had a bag tied around his neck full of vomit.
“I thought, ?We don?t handle seniors this way,? ” said Michelle Wike, the nursing director at All Together, an assisted living facility in northeast Baltimore where Madison lives.
Madison, a frail senior citizen, said he was scared and felt “weak.”
Philip Smith, 57, a resident of All Together, who was in the van with Madison when they returned to their senior home, said his head was falling into the bag of vomit. “I don?t think it was intentional, but they could have handled it better,” he said.
Wike said she filed a police report, along with a complaint with Baltimore?s Commission on Aging and Retirement. Madison was admitted at St. Joseph Hospital and stayed two days in intensive care.
Libby Bowerman, CEO of Keswick Multi-Care Center, said her organization provides good care. “We take good care of all our participants when they are in our care. Our staff takes all the actions necessary toprovide excellent quality care,” she said. She declined to comment on the incident with Madison.
Wike?s facility, which houses seven elderly patients, has become the subject of a series of inspections.
“They are targeting me,” she said. “They wanted me to send him back to Keswick.” She has refused.
Several state inspectors arrived at Wike?s facility on Friday for a second inspection in a week. Inspectors refused to be interviewed by The Examiner.
Wike said city officials told her that she was being “audited.”
“They didn?t offer much explanation,” she said.
Karen Black, spokeswoman for the state department of health and hygiene, said the inspection was routine.
“We do random quality assurance inspections,” she said.
