Abuse Reports Prompt Removal Of Seniors From Md. Group Home

A Potomac group home for elderly adults has been shut down after the state began investigating reports that residents were being mistreated.

In one instance, an employee of AAA Warmcare taped shut the mouth of a woman in her 80s with end-stage Alzheimer's disease, according a report by Maryland's Office of Health Care Quality. A witness, who is not identified in public documents, provided investigators with photographs, one showing the woman with tape over her mouth and another showing a rag being placed over her mouth.

In another case, an 88-year-old woman with dementia was repeatedly tied to her wheelchair to prevent her from scratching and biting a caregiver, according to the report. And more than once, medication was administered by uncertified employees and restraints were used without appropriate authorization, according to the report.

Acting on a complaint, Montgomery County adult protection investigators visited the facility in late July, spokeswoman Mary Anderson said. In early August, they began moving residents out of the home and were joined in the probe by state investigators and Montgomery police. By Aug. 17, all eight residents were out, Anderson said.

In a notice dated Aug. 19, Health and Mental Hygiene Secretary John M. Colmers took the first step toward revoking AAA Warmcare's license.

The closure of the facility was first reported in the Gazette.

Located in a home at 10301 Gainsborough Rd. in Potomac, AAA Warmcare was licensed to house up to eight people.

The investigation into what happened inside the group home is continuing. In addition to inquiries by state social services and the long-term care ombudsman program, police and prosecutors in Montgomery are conducting a criminal investigation, said Lt. Paul Starks, a police spokesman.

Group homes often provide senior citizens or the disabled with a smaller, less institutional alternative to nursing homes. But in Maryland, the District and elsewhere, some group homes have been perilous for residents.

AAA Warmcare is one of at least three group homes in Montgomery operated by Raju and Sreedevi Datla, according to state records. The others are Silver Spring Assisted Living Home and AAA Atrium Classic Assisted Living in Silver Spring. Both facilities have records of deficiencies, although they appear to be less serious than some of those alleged against AAA Warmcare.

The Datlas could not be reached for comment. Benjamin Vaughan, a lawyer who is reported to be representing them, did not respond to a request for comment.

When a group home is cited for violations, the operators typically have an opportunity to challenge the findings before a closure can be ordered. But officials in this case took the relatively unusual step of immediately suspending the home's license and moving the residents elsewhere.

William Askinazi, a Germantown lawyer, is representing the woman whose mouth was taped shut and her husband, who was also a resident of the home in Potomac. Askinazi said that if the allegations are true, the home was a "house of horrors."

"You can only imagine the humiliation and suffering and pain this person endured and couldn't communicate it," he said.

Even if such abuse is not typical, it is no less troubling for families who rely on such homes, Askinazi said. "When we put our elderly parents in a place to be cared for, comforted for and provided for, what is really going on in these homes?"

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.