f you love your family member, please think very carefully before placing them at Wright…read moreRehabilitation.
What my uncle experienced there during the final days of his life has left our family devastated, traumatized, and carrying pain we will never fully forget.
Most of our family lived out of state while my uncle lived in Ohio with his longtime girlfriend, which made it difficult for family members to be physically present every day. We trusted that he would be treated with compassion, dignity, and humanity while under professional care.
Instead, my uncle repeatedly called family members begging for help and describing how he felt ignored for hours when using his call light. He told us staff would sometimes speak negatively about him in the hallways where he could still hear them. Over time, he became emotionally defeated and hopeless.
One of the hardest things our family has ever witnessed was seeing a staff member angrily yelling at him and aggressively throwing items around his room while he lay weak, frightened, and unable to defend himself in bed. This is not rumor or hearsay. Because of growing concerns, our family installed a camera in his room, and portions of this behavior were captured on video.
No human being should spend their final days living in fear while completely dependent on others for care.
Watching a once strong man slowly lose hope and say things like:"Why do I want to keep living if this is what I have to look forward to every day?"is something that will haunt our family forever.
My uncle was not just another patient in a room. He was a proud union tradesman, one of the first Black sheet metal workers in Alaska, a mentor, a teacher, and a man who spent his life helping others. In the end, all he needed was dignity, compassion, responsiveness, and humanity.
Instead, our family often felt we had to constantly fight just to make sure he was acknowledged, cleaned, comforted, and treated with basic respect.
Before we could get medical approval to move him somewhere else, my uncle passed away.
We understand healthcare workers are under stress and that not every employee is the same. But no family should ever have to wonder whether their loved one is suffering emotionally and mentally while under professional care.
Please, if you place someone you love here:visit constantly,advocate relentlessly,ask questions,document everything,and never assume your loved one is being treated with compassion simply because they are in a facility.
We would never want another family to experience the heartbreak ours now carries.