LINO LAKES, Minn. – Two aides at an assisted living facility are responsible for emotional and physical abuse after berating and threatening a woman with dementia, according to state regulators.
The abuse at Lino Lakes Assisted Living and Memory Care lasted for three to four hours, investigators found.
KARE 11 first told you about the case earlier this month. Secretly recorded cell phone video appears to show the two women taunting and abusing Suzanne Edwards, a 70-year-old dementia patient.
In one video, they can be heard chanting, “I’m going to live longer than you,” and “I can wipe my own ass.” In others, the aides scream at Suzanne, telling her she smells and mocking her for not wearing underwear.
Investigators from the Minnesota Department of Health also found that Hampton and Mills forcibly confined Edwards to a chair, threatened to burn her with a cigarette lighter, and humiliated her by “exposing the client’s bare buttocks by lifting the client’s garment.”
Edwards’ son, Kent Edwards, is horrified by the details of what allegedly happened to his mother.
“Pinned down, harassed, and mocked about her body,” he said. “It made me sick to my stomach.”
He believes more could have been done to protect his mother. But state investigators found the facility was not responsible for the abuse because they had policies in place to prevent abuse and had given the two aides a handbook, which indicated abuse was unacceptable.
The findings of maltreatment will trigger state action that could bar Hampton and Mills from working with any vulnerable adults again. They will also be unable to work at federally licensed nursing homes.
The two aides are facing criminal charges of Stalking and Criminal Abuse of a Vulnerable Adult. They have pleaded not guilty.
Both women declined to comment when KARE 11 reached them at a court appearance.