Nursing Home

Surveys find that most people would rather continue living at home than go to a nursing home. But the aversion to such a facility is so strong that a new study of seriously ill people in hospitals found that 30 percent of those surveyed said they would rather die than live permanently in a nursing home.The study was the first to ask seriously ill patients to state a preference for either living in a nursing home or dying. The findings come from the Support study, the largest investigation in the United States of decision-making at the end of life.

Helen Cruse, a retired nurse, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease Jan. 31 at the Summit Park Nursing Home. The Gwynn Oak resident was 88. Born Helen Mariano in Baltimore, she was raised on Stricker Street and attended Baltimore City public schools. She later lived with family in New York City, where she became a nurse and worked for the Veterans Administration. She then returned to Baltimore and nursed at the old Provident Hospital and at Liberty Medical Center. She also worked at the Augsburg Lutheran Nursing Home.

An elderly man living at a local nursing home had bedsores and overgrown nails when he was brought in to Howard County General Hospital late last week, prompting an emergency room nurse to report suspected physical neglect to police.As a result of the police report, state officials say, they plan to investigate the care of Vernon Brown, 75, at the Lorien Nursing Home & Rehabilitation Center in Columbia's Hickory Ridge village.But the hospital already has determined that the elderly man did not suffer from any maltreatment, said Victor Broccolino, the hospital's president and chief executive officer.

Connie and Nancy, my best friends since the seventh grade, and I were chatting on a kind of cross-country speakerphone conference call - catching up on jobs, husbands, kids and, sadly, mothers in nursing homes. Connie's mother is in terrific physical health - for 92 - but her mind has left the building. Nancy's mother's mind is still sharp, but her body has quit on her. Connie's mother doesn't know her. Nancy's mother knows very well where she is, and how unhappy she is. We changed the subject to talk about our next girlfriend getaway, but I dragged the conversation back to the tough topic of aging.

EASTON -- The state medical examiner has found traces of morphine in the remains of a 91-year-old Eastern Shore woman whose body was exhumed last week to determine whether she was given a lethal dose of a powerful painkiller at a Worcester County nursing home.According to a preliminary autopsy report released by the medical examiner's office in Baltimore and made public yesterday, toxicological tests revealed an undisclosed level of the drug in tissue samples taken from the body of Maidie Lang Shay.

I GOT A letter from a familiar address -- Niagara Falls, N.Y., the place where I grew up. The question it asked could have come from anywhere today. "A financial planner thinks I should buy a tax-deferred variable annuity. What do you think?"Salespeople are selling annuities to anyone who breathes. The reason is simple. They earn big commissions, in the 5 percent to 7 percent range.You don't notice this commission because it's not deducted up front. In fact, the annuity brochure may boast, "No initial sales charge."

Do you wonder what it would be like if your doctor had chosen to be specifically trained in geriatrics, felt proud to work with seniors and gave you the very best attention, respect and treatment? Can you imagine a hospital just for seniors? And what if this care were free or at minimal cost?The Institute of Geriatrics at the University of Montreal, Canada, has it all, which I discovered when I spent a day touring the facility. The institute is a teaching center, international interdisciplinary research center and a multicare hospital, all under one roof.

A company in Mystic, Conn., has been selected over five other bidders to acquire the former North Charles General Hospital at 2800 N. Charles St. and has until early April to move ahead with its plans for a "high-skill, high-tech" nursing home on the property.Mariner Health Systems, a company with eight other facilities containing a total of 1,000 nursing home beds, has offered to buy the vacant hospital from the Johns Hopkins Health System for $4 million, according to Hopkins spokeswoman Joann Rodgers.

With Baltimore headed for a second straight day of triple-digit temperatures, health authorities ordered that all residents be moved from a Baltimore nursing home plagued with air conditioning problems. The 150 residents of Ravenwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on West Franklin Street are being transported to new locations, said David Paulson, communications director for Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. About 40 residents were moved Tuesday — after a resident called 911 to report stifling temperatures — but conditions did not improve markedly, so officials called for the broader relocation in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday.

AS I AM NOW approaching the twilight time of life, I cannot help but wonder if I will ever be a resident in a nursing home. The people who live in nursing homes seem to be either aged, incurable convalescents, or the mentally ill and disabled, dependent on constant custodial care. Perhaps there are a few who were discarded by their families. I shudder when I think about living in a house of strangers.I live close to a nursing home and am familiar with what goes on there. Sitting in my kitchen I have often heard strange sounds coming from the rooms.

When the Obama administration recently backed off a long-term insurance program that was part of the law to overhaul health care, we all lost. The so-called CLASS Act, which even supporters acknowledge had design flaws, would have allowed workers to voluntarily buy a long-term care policy regardless of their health. The benefit wasn't huge, but it might have been enough to allow some seniors to remain in their homes. And it was better than nothing — which is what most people have now. But as it turned out, the program wasn't financially sustainable and was dropped before it ever launched.

Elizabeth S. Cissel, whose career as a private school educator spanned more than 30 years, died Tuesday at a Belfast, Maine, nursing home from complications of a fall. The former longtime Roland Park resident was 90. The daughter of an insurance executive and a homemaker, the former Elizabeth Short was born in Salisbury and raised in Ednor Gardens. She was a 1939 graduate of Notre Dame Preparatory School and Colby-Sawyer College in New London, N.H., which was then a two-year college.

Editor: On Aug. 20, 2011 at 11 a.m., several members of Ames UMC met at the church to join Pastor Thomas J. Blake for "Back to School Prayer" at several Harford County Schools. It was the vision of Rev. Alicia Blake (the late wife of Rev. Blake), thus making it an extra special blessing to be able to pray for our schools and for all involved in and around our schools as well as honor her dream!  Before leaving the church, we gathered in the church vestibule, and prayed asking for God's anointing for our first Back to School Prayer.

David Lucien Gaudreau, a retired engineer and builder, died of congestive heart failure July 12 at his Naples, Fla., home. He was 93. Born in Braintree, Mass., he was the son of architect Lucien E.D. Gaudreau, who moved to Baltimore in the 1920s as a project architect for the construction of St. Mary's Seminary in Roland Park. Mr. Gaudreau was a 1937 graduate of Calvert Hall College High School, where he earned 10 varsity letters in football, baseball, basketball and swimming.

Timonium-based Mid-Atlantic Health Care LLC, which owns and operates six senior care facilities in Maryland and one in Delaware, said Friday that it bought five skilled nursing centers in Philadelphia from the NewCourtland Network for $75 million. Mid-Atlantic officials said the acquisition includes 1,200 beds, or a quarter of the Philadelphia market, and makes Mid-Atlantic one of the largest nursing companies in the region. Mid-Atlantic plans to retain NewCourtland's 1,200 employees and honor a 3 percent pay increase workers were expecting.

What a disservice your article did to the many wonderful community colleges that were sneered at in "'Cooling out' poor, minority kids in community college" (May 9). I am sure there are millions of people who disagree with you. I know many students who attended community college and then went on to successful careers. I was talking to a young lady recently who is an aide in a nursing home. She enrolled in Cecil Community College to become a registered nurse. But she was not complaining about how the educational community is unfair to her as a poor, white woman.

With Baltimore sweating through a second straight day of triple-digit temperatures, state officials ordered the Ravenwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center to relocate all 150 patients because of problems with its air- conditioning system and began a comprehensive investigation of the facility. Throughout the day, residents in wheelchairs and on stretchers were loaded into vans and ambulances, as the West Franklin Street nursing home — where temperatures had climbed as high as 93 amid this week's heat wave — was gradually emptied.