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'Care home left my mother looking like a concentration camp victim'
Last updated at 23:07pm on 15.02.08A tiny and almost skeletal figure slumped against the white pillow, the image is a haunting one.
Even more so because just a month before this shocking picture was taken Molly Darby, 94, walked into a care home in good physical health.
In the four weeks she spent there her condition deteriorated to such an extent that she had to be carried out by stretcher suffering from an appalling catalogue of ailments.
Mrs Darby was taken to hospital where her horrified family found her looking like a "concentration camp victim". Two-and-a-half weeks later she was dead.
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Frail: Molly Darby lies dying in her hospital bed after suffering horrific neglect at The Beeches Care Home, in Wath Upon Dearne, Rotherham, South Yorkshire,
A damning investigation has now ruled that the great-grandmother died as a result of neglect.
Yesterday her family said they believed she had died before her time as a result of her treatment at The Beeches Residential Care Home, in Wath upon Dearne, near Rotherham.
Mrs Darby, a widowed mother of six, moved into the home last year.
She suffered from dementia and had become too weak to care for herself, but was in good physical health.
Within a short period her condition deteriorated, she developed pressure sores and contracted a string of infections.
After four weeks she was admitted to Barnsley Hospital with a chest infection, pneumonia, septicaemia, a urinary infection, an ear infection as well as the pressure sores.
Healthy: Molly's family say she was physically well before she went into the home
Last night her son Ray Darby, 64, said: "We feel our mother died a few years earlier than she should have done due to neglect. She was mentally, but not physically, ill.
"She walked into The Beeches without a wheelchair, sticks or a Zimmer frame, and was quite a sprightly old lady. She'd had a hard life and did not deserve to endure the suffering and distress she did in her last days."
Mr Darby and his brother Jim, 67, took photographs of their mother close to death as evidence of the neglect that turned her from a relatively fit pensioner to a shadow of her former self.
The brothers said their mother's hair was matted into her neck so severely it had grown into her skin, and her eyelashes were so congealed she was unable to open her eyes when she arrived at hospital.
She also had bed sores. One nurse was so appalled by her condition she walked away from the bedside in tears.
Jim Darby, a retired miner who had lived with his mother in West Melton, near Rotherham, had been unable to visit her in the care home for ten days because he was ill.
Then he received a call to say his mother was unwell. He said: "She was taken to hospital from the home because she needed urgent medical attention and we got a call from the hospital soon after she was admitted.
"We were shocked at what we saw. She had gone downhill rapidly. She was in a filthy, terrible state and it took quite a while for the nurses to clean her up.
"My mother has always been slim but she looked emaciated, like someone from a concentration camp. When I saw her in hospital she looked like something out of Belsen or Auschwitz."
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Anger: Molly's son Jim at her bedside. He said his mother looked 'like a concentration camp victim'
The Beeches has been found to have been negligent by omission in its care of the pensioner after an investigation by Rotherham Council's social services.
Plans are in place to improve care at the home and it will have regular council inspections.
The council will also pass its findings to the Commission for Social Care Inspection, which is responsible for registering care homes and will decide whether further action will be taken.
The death of Mrs Darby is the latest in a string of cases to come to public attention. The Daily Mail's Dignity for the Elderly campaign has highlighted deepening fears over the quality and cost of care.
Jim Darby said he was satisfied with the outcome of the inquiry, adding: "Elderly people who have worked hard all their life should be treated with care and dignity when they go into one of these homes but unfortunately that was not the case with our mother.
A spokesman at The Beeches said: "The home continues to deny any physical neglect of Mrs Darby and believes she received the appropriate care and attention.
"A thorough and detailed investigation was undertaken by the home and this identified that improvements were required in the documentation and communication procedures and a plan of improvements was instigated."
Reader views (12)
I think we have think carefully when we make judgements of neglect. In the case of Mrs. Darby it states 'she was admitted to Barnsley Hospital with a chest infection, pneumonia, septicaemia, a urinary infection, an ear infection as well as the pressure sores'. I have been a nurse for 27yrs and have seen cases when a frail person of this age contracts a chest infection, the complications are rapid. What level of professional support they were given and when was it requested? I understand from other reports this lady's chest infection and subsequent other complications were reported to the G.P and District Nurse by the staff at Beeches. All too often, care home staff rely on the advice and response of overstretched healthcare resources which if not sufficient, results in care staff struggling to do what they can with limited knowledge and support. To compound the problem their documentation to evidence the care they are delivering is often lacking which leaves care homes at risk of accusations with no case for defence.
Care home staff receive poor public recognition for the work they do. They are some of the lowest paid in the country. Caring for the elderly frail with dementia is very hard and challenging work. To add to this public opinion of care homes is low. Is it any wonder that staff morale and recruitment is so poor.
My heart goes out to the Darby family who now face bereavement with the terrible fact that 'neglect' contributed to their mothers death
- Jackie Brown Rgn/Bsc, Southend on Sea Essex
The picture provided shows a lady who is emaciated and ill-looking. As a nurse I have taken care of large numbers of patients of this age who were getting excellent care from EVERYONE concerned, yet still looked like this. Going into hospital doesn't MAKE you better, it only ALLOWS your body to get better, with knowledgeable assistance, if it is able to. It may be that this patient is getting poor care, I don't know just from the picture. If so something definitely needs to be done about it - but don't base scathing comments on the picture alone, please. If you do, you are potentially labelling caring and conscientious nursing and ancillary staff as unfeeling and even malicious lowlifes.
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but only when in context.
- Rogan, DFW Texas
One would expect to see this in a third world country & definitely not in the UK. Surely the old ought to be treated with some dignity. Shame on those who were supposed to care for her but left her in such condition.
- Agnes, Malaysia
I understand from an interview that the son gave on GMtv this morning that during the first weeks of his mother's stay at the home he was suffering from a chest infection, so understandably stayed away to avoid passing on the infection so did not see her deterioration. One would have thought that whilst being in a "care" home, one would be receiving some care. Unfortunately, as we are all too well aware, this does not happen on many occasions and some of our elderly are treated in the most appalling way.
- Jlo, London
The shameful thing is that this will certainly not be the last case that comes to our attention. All "places" that take such patients including the elderly should have a rigorous process to ensure that patients are being given sufficient food and liquids and that they consume these, on far too many occasions the food and drinks are just left with the patient who is unable to eat or drink them because of their condition.
- Mike Melbourne, Bedford England
Add this to the list of reasons to leave Britain. It's broken, and probably beyond repair.
- Rachel, london
If the family had been paying a bit more attention to her, she never would have got that sick. Not that that excuses the care home. This is terrible. My Grandmother lives with us so that we, her family can take care of her. What happened to the days when we took care of each other?
- Amanda, Austin, USA
No one in the family cared enough to provide care and these nursing homes are just what they appear...death camps. We send the elderly there to die out of our sight. Keeping people alive like this is just a way for the "care industry" to soak up as many government dollars as possible. Modern medicine has created wards of Frankensteins and zombies all over the country that essentially rake in more cash that the greatest blue chip stock in history.
- Billy, sanity, oh
It is a measure of our feelings for the elderly and the way in which we treat them that defines whether or not the human race has developed in an ethical way. Even animals care for their elderly better than us humans. It's sickening to think that this poor old lady could be treated in such an inhumane fashion.
- Derek Hope, Sidcup, Kent
Why did none of the family say anything in the month it took for this poor lady to become so emaciated?
- Louise, Essex
What a heartbreaking story. Absolutely horrible.
- Connie, Ohio, USA
I do feel for this poor lady but can't help but ask the question "Did none of the family visit her at the home?"
- Jo, canvey island
