Michael Owens of the Bristol Herald Courier wrote an article about National HealthCare-Bristol ignoring the obvious warning signs of abuse including those acts done by James Wright who was recently convicted of sexual assaults.
The article talks about one resident who rolls into a fetal position and reaches with both hands between her legs and around her back and shifting hands from side to side along her inner thighs have left her flesh tissue thin, red and raw as if to block sexual advances. The actions are the psychological remnants of a sexual assault by former employee and convicted serial molester James Wright.
The traumatized woman is among the dozen patients that state detectives say were sexually assaulted at NHC between February 2000 and August 2007. State detectives have linked him to seven attacks. State medical licensing documents also tie Wright to a later rape at another assisted-living facility, where he took a job immediately after leaving NHC.
Somehow, the abuse continued for seven years even though there were red flags.
The first showed up in February 2000. A resident accused Wright of touching her inappropriately, and then warned him to stay out of her room. In the following years, accusations by three other patients sent officers from multiple law enforcement agencies looking for an unknown assailant.
NHC contends the attacks could have been stopped had only the abuse been reported up the chain of command to the home administrator. Employee records and witness accounts suggest that NHC-Bristol management also might have harbored concerns about Wright. Five female patients complained of being attacked in the months leading up to Wright’s departure. Three times, co-workers blamed Wright almost immediately.
However, instead of firing him or reporting him to the authorities, NHC allowed him to resign with favorable recommendations amid a crescendo of sexual assault complaints. Wright jumped to a similar job at nearby Grand Court Assisted Living immediately leaving NHC. A solid recommendation by then-NHC Director of Nursing Elizabeth Anne Franklin helped him land the job, internal Grand Court documents show. The reference-check report, penned by Grand Court recruiter Sue Huff, does not mention any warning that Wright had been the prime suspect in a sexual assault case just days before he applied for the job.
These assaults, and the manner in which the complaints were handled, illustrates the skepticism that surrounded abuse claims, and the problem of nursing homes failing to investigate or worse, covering the abuse up.
