Preserve Residents' Right to Sue Nursing Homes

Thanks for signing this petition and your support. Thank you for the emails to FreeDrFlege@gmail.com They mean so much. Where appropriate, I have anonymously turned over "tips" received to relevant authorities. As you may realize, POTUS is seeking to overturn a recent ruling that gives residents of nursing homes and their families the right to sue these facilities. While the perpetrators of Dr. Flege's abuse have primarily been two members of his own family, the facilities involved have failed to to take even basic measures to assure his safety. They have permitted family members to abuse him while he is in their facilities. They have permitted inappropriate prescribing of medications. They have denied him the basic rights of a resident of such a facility, including the right to have private communications, telephone and visits, from loved ones and good friends. They have been negligent. He was in one facility, #MarjoriePLee, less than 24 hours when he broke his hip. He was alone and could not summon help so he called me on his cell phone more than 2000 miles away to arrange for someone to find him and to set up care. Several months later, he was kidnapped from his home and placed in a small cell at #TheKenwoodbySeniorStar. He was duped, having been promised that he would live in a big apartment with his wife, once the final preparations had been made to move from their lovely Hyde Park home. Once he realized he had been duped, he was devastated. She had promised him repeatedly that she would never leave him, as recently as the night before his abduction. He wanted to go home. Caregivers say he made multiple calls to 911 reporting his kidnapping but the facility shoed away law enforcement. The staff repeatedly lied to Dr. Flege. Among other lies, they told him that this tiny cell on a locked unit was his home! He is a wealthy man who owned a large home 5 miles away so this was a blatant lie. He has the resources and support to afford much better than a cage at #TheKenwoodbySeniorStar. He was then reportedly prescribed medications chosen by a psychologist, with a twice a month pill pushing gig at the Kenwood. He chose not to take the medications because they made him unsteady. Staff at the Kenwood forced him to take the drugs. I warned administrators and other staff at the Kenwood, in person and in writing, that this was a dangerous situation. Who was monitoring drug response? Within a week of my warning, Dr. Flege had broken his other hip. Two broken hips at such facilities in less than a year? These weren't "accidents". They were predictable consequences of negligence. This is a greedy industry. It is doubtful they will change their behavior unless there are financial consequences to their continued abuse of residents and their negligence.