A Dearborn family is suing a Michigan nursing home after a secret video showed nurses abusing and yelling at an 89-year-old wheelchair-bound patient.
A Dearborn family is suing a Michigan nursing home after a secret video showed nurses abusing and yelling at an 89-year-old wheelchair-bound patient.
Nursing home employees at a Michigan facility are accused of abusing an elderly wheelchair-bound man who was recovering from surgery after video captured the nurses slapping the patient on his head, violently throwing him on his bed and using racial epithets.
Salim Younes, 51, and his five siblings filed a civil lawsuit in September 2016 against Autumnwood of Livonia alleging that their 89-year-old father Hussein Younes was grossly mistreated during his brief stay at the nursing home.
According to the suit, Younes was admitted to Autumnwood in May 2015 after undergoing abdominal surgery, the Daily Mail reported.
A few weeks into his stay at the facility Younes, who is wheelchair-bound and had previously suffered a stroke leaving one side of his body weak, started complaining to his children that he was being abused.
The family contacted the nursing home who investigated and assured them that Younes' claims were untrue, Michigan Live reports.
Younes, however, continued to complain and the children began to notice bruises and cuts on their father's head.
A Dearborn family is suing a Michigan nursing home after a secret video showed nurses abusing and yelling at an 89-year-old wheelchair-bound patient.
Salim also stated in the lawsuit that his father had lost a significant amount of weight while at the facility and was having "anxiety attacks causing him to shake, quiver, grunt and yell".
The family placed a secret camera in Younes' room and uncovered what Salim called "unspeakable horrors".
Over the course of two days the family recorded more than 100 video clips of Younes' caregivers screaming at him, hitting him and throwing him in his wheelchair and bed.
The family's attorney Jonathan Marko told Hometown Life on Monday that Younes was abused because he's of Middle Eastern descent.
Marko said one of the clips shows Younes' caregiver praising president Donald Trump for his efforts to deport Arab Americans.
At one point in the video, a nurse roughly picks up Hussein Younes from his wheelchair and throws him in his bed.
"They come over here and just get everything. I'm just like Trump. I agree with him," the caregiver says. "They come over here and set up shop. Look how they set up Dearborn and Dearborn Heights so fast. You would have never saw that in a homeland security state."
Later in the video, the caregiver says she "can't stand this A-rab and all he does is 'f***ing hollar". Another caregiver in the room then roughly picks up Younes from his bed and tosses him in his wheelchair.
The caregivers, who have not been identified by Autumnwood, are seen several more times violently throwing Younes in his bed and wheelchair.
At one point, the man grunts loudly and the caregiver shakes his head and curses at him.
"I'm sick of your stupid a**. Get you're a** up in here. F***ing b****," she says angrily.
The caregiver is also seen smacking Younes on the head because he won't stop grunting and making noises.
The nurses are seen several times in the video throwing Younes on his bed. The patient was admitted to the facility weeks after having abdominal surgery
According to the family, Younes was denied water and had his 'call button' taken away from him so he couldn't request assistance. The lawsuit also states that the caregivers falsely claimed Younes was combative to try and get him kicked out of the nursing home.
Younes was removed from the facility in December 2015 and transferred to a local hospital then to another nursing home.
Autumnwood said the employees in the video were fired and said the caregivers' actions do not illustrate the quality of care the facility provides to their patients.
"When Autumnwood received this new information and video, another internal investigation was immediately launched, and the new information provided by the Younes' attorney, five months after the alleged incident, was turned over by Autumnwood to the state agency and law enforcement," a statement read.
Salim said he and his family came forward with their story to shed light on what Autumnwood did to Younes.
"I'm here to tell the story to the media, because what happened to me and my dad and my family, what we've been through, is unbearable,' he told Hometown Life. "The purpose that I'm here (for) is to let the world know that this place is no good. I don't advise anybody to put their family over there."
