A Hell Hole

On the surface, Amy's Assisted Living appears to be a great environment for a senior that has reached a stage in their life when the family is no longer equipped or able to take care of them. I placed my mother in Amy's after a long stay in various hospitals and nursing homes. My mother was at a stage when she was too well to remain in the hospital or skilled nursing, but not well enough to come home. After looking at several assisted living group homes, I selected Amy's as the home was in a good part of town, very clean, and appeared to well managed and run. Amy presented herself as having attended medical school in Romania, but for some reason was not able to become a doctor here in the United States. At first everything appeared great and Mom liked it their. After a few weeks she started complaining that every moment of her life was being controlled and manipulated by Amy. Amy would not allow residents to use the phone to call their family members and seemed to object when family members called into the home. It also seemed strange that Amy would not be at the home all day long, but as soon as we showed up to visit, she would be there and kept finding reasons to interupt our visit. She also lets her young daughter of about 11 years hold to have full run of the house and to order the residents around like they were animals. After about a month after my mother entered Amy's, I noticed that her health was starting to decline, but Amy assured me that the doctor and a nurse had examined her and their was nothing wrong. As usual my mother said she would be fine and not to worry about her. Shortly after that, I had to go out of town for a week on business. When I returned, I visited my mother and immediately knew something was wrong. I asked Amy when was the last time a doctor had examined my mother and at that time she indicated it had been several weeks. I immediately asked her to call the doctor schedule an appointment, which she did for the next day. I arrived at the home the next to be with my mother for this appointment and found my mother in bed, all but totally unconscious. I was so concerned that I attempted to take my mom to the emergency room. I was informed that the care givers at the home would not help me take my mom to the car even if it was an emergency, but Amy said she would call 911 if I insisted, which I did. This was all on the telephone, as Amy was not their. The care givers had called her when I was insisting that my mom needed to be in the hospital. When the paramedics showed up, Amy was right behind them, insisting nothing was wrong with my mother. I insisted that they take her to the hospital anyway. Mom was not in the emergency room 5 minutes when the doctor told me that she had pneumonia and that her kidneys were shutting down and that she did not have much time left. If Amy had all the medical training she represents herself as having, I do not understand why she could not tell that Mom was even sick, let alone was dying. Based on two doctors recommendations, I made the heart breaking decision to place my mother in hospice care and to let her spend her last hours in peace and out of pain. When hearing this, Amy contacted me and said that there was no reason for this and that I was making the wrong decision. I told her that I believed it to be the right decision and that mom would not be returning to her facility. I asked her to pack up moms belongings and I would pick them up in a couple of days. A couple of days after that, mom passed away. After my mom had passed, I went to Amy's to pick up my moms belonging and make arrangements to settle her account. When I placed my mom in Amy's care two months prior, I paid Amy a $3800 Deposit, a $500 deposit, and the first months rent of another $3800. This was on July 21st. Mom was taken to the hospital exactly two months to the day after arriving in Amy's home. When I went to settle my moms account, I was informed by Amy that she considered my mom a resident of her home as long as her clothes were their whether she was their or not. Based on this she informed me that she had 30 days to return my $3800 deposit and would be taking the 30 days to do so. She also informed me that in accordance with the contract, if a resident was in the home for less than 90 days, they would be required to pay the entire months rent for the month they were there. The rent was due each month on the 21st of the month. In order to ensure the rent was paid on time, I made the payment on the 20th. Mom left for the hospital the next day. Amy informed me that since moms clothes were still in the house and since she had been there less than 90 days, she would not be returning the rent for that period, even though she was not there, but a couple of hours. I admit that under the stress of ...