An elderly man suffering from dementia endured excruciating pain after falling in a Georgia care facility, as a female caregiver allegedly mocked him. The worker is now in custody facing abuse charges.
Ann Cowan, aged 63, reportedly recorded a video of the 83-year-old patient as he tumbled from his chair and struck his head at the Corinth Road Personal Care Home in Newnan, located approximately 40 miles south of Atlanta.
The video surfaced after being shared by the patient’s daughter, Danielle Slappey. She expressed her concerns to the Newnan Times-Herald, stating that her legally blind father, who requires dementia-related care, needed attentive supervision.
In the disturbing video, Cowan is heard taunting the man as he precariously sits on the edge of his chair, asking if he was about to “slide off.”
When the man ultimately falls and hits his head against a bed, Cowan moves closer to capture the incident on camera.
“I just needed this video so your nurse knows what’s going on,” Cowan is heard saying in the footage. “Thank you, love.”
The elderly patient writhed in pain on the floor as Cowan filmed but failed to offer him assistance.
Cowan was arrested last Friday and charged with two counts of exploitation and intimidation of disabled adults, elder persons and residents related to incidents at the care home.
Ann Cowan, who worked for the Corinth Road Personal Care Home, captured video of an 83-year-old patient as he slipped off his chair and hit his head
Cowan, 63, was arrested last Friday and charged with two counts of exploitation and intimidation of disabled adults, elder persons and residents
Slappey said she had cared for her dad for seven years before he was admitted into the care home on April 25.
The facility quickly put him into a wheelchair after staff became concerned that he was a fall risk.
Slappey claimed that her dad was either forced to use the wheelchair or restrained in a geriatric chair, even though he could use a walker or even hold onto someone’s arm.
‘They have taken his ability to be mobile away,’ she wrote on Facebook on May 26.
Slappey claimed her dad was rushed to the hospital after being found unresponsive less than one week after his admission into the home.
From that point on, Slappey said it seemed he was in a rapid physical decline.
She alleged she was sent photographs of her dad’s bloodied hands and bruises, and that it gradually became harder to reach him at the facility.
Cowan is believed to have been a co-owner of the care home, according to Coweta County authorities.
She was no longer employed there as of Tuesday, facility employees told the Newnan Times-Herald.
Cowan seemingly did not tend to the patient after he fell and whacked his head on the side of the bed
Brittney McPhail, who has previously worked with Cowan, said she did not realize how ‘hateful’ she was
On May 26, Slappey wrote on Facebook that she could not ‘stress enough my level of disgust’ for the care home, adding that she had removed her dad from the facility that day.
‘The owner is completely negligent,’ she said. ‘Please, [p]lease do not send anyone you know to this place!!’
Slappey added: ‘It is awful. It deserves less than a zero score.’
The distraught daughter admitted that she initially did not want to believe her dad when he told her how ‘mean’ Cowan was.
Slappey also claimed she had ‘found out from multiple people’ that Cowan had already been repeatedly reported, seemingly without suffering any consequences.
‘This HAS to stop y’all!!! She HAS to be stopped from operating!!!’ she wrote.
A former coworker of Cowan’s, Brittney McPhail, alleged she had previously seen Cowan attack a man in his 80s with dementia.
‘He went to reach for her chest, and I’m not saying what he did wasn’t wrong, but she grabbed his wrist and bent it back and threatened to “break his effing wrist” if he ever tried to touch her again,’ McPhail told WSB-TV.
‘I knew that she was hateful, but I never realized she was that hateful,’ she added.
As of Tuesday, employees at the care home said that Cowan was no longer employed at the facility
Cowan’s alleged elder abuse was reported to the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office one day after Slappey’s initial post.
Authorities reviewed several reports of Cowan’s alleged abuse before charging her, including photographs that showed medication being placed in a location that couldn’t be accessed by a patient in a wheelchair.
On Tuesday, Slappey expressed her joy at Cowan being charged.
‘Thanking the Good Lord!!!’ she posted on Facebook.
She has also filed complaints with Georgia’s Adult Protective Services (APS) regarding Cowan’s alleged abuse.
Cowan remains in custody at the Coweta County Jail on a $10,300 bond, according to WSB-TV.
Meanwhile, Slappey’s dad has since been moved to a different facility in Columbus ‘to receive the best care possible.’
She said he was no longer wheelchair-bound and starting to move around relatively better.
The Daily Mail reached out to the Corinth Road Personal Care Home, Danielle Slappey, the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office and Georgia APS for comment.
