The following comes from a Nov. 27 story on Breakpoint.org.
Miguel Alvarez is a 33-year-old father who took a job as a janitor at the Valley Springs Manor Nursing Home in Castro Valley, California. A stay-at-home dad, Miguel accepted the low-wage job on October the seventh so he could buy Christmas presents for his kids. His friend, Maurice Rowland, a cook at Valley Springs Manor, helped him get the job.
Well, on October the twenty-fourth, the state suspended the facility’s operating license for a range of violations. The owner, in response, just walked out and was last seen at a train station. All the other employees left, too—except for Miguel and Maurice. They stayed to help the residents left behind. It was chaos, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which reported, “Alvarez found himself changing diapers, bathing, spoon-feeding, and otherwise comforting more than a dozen seniors who had been abandoned there.”
Alvarez told the Chronicle, “I’m a janitor—I didn’t know what I was doing. I just tried the best I could.” He was more than a janitor, of course. Miguel was a Good Samaritan.
Alone, Miguel and Maurice stayed at the Valley Springs Manor for two days, 24 hours a day. The Chronicle says that Miguel, in recounting what happened, “cried as he described a nightmarish scene of confused seniors shouting for help, some becoming weak and ‘zombie-like’ because they hadn’t received medication in several days, and others trying to escape.”
“I’d never want to see my parents or grandparents go through anything like that,” the paper reported this eight-dollar-an-hour janitor as saying. “I liked these people. And I wanted to treat them well….”
To read the original story, click here.
Another side of the Culture of Death. Were there no chaplains or visiting clergy to this home who would surely have reported this outrage? And will anyone go to jail over it?
This man and his friend are hero’s. God bless them. I hope they get the support they need since they didn’t get paid at all. Its sad to learn that this is something that is truly happening here in the USA. This shows how little respect there is for our elders, but praise God for good Samaritans.
The owner of the nursing facility who abandoned the patients should be prosecuted severely. Any of those patients could have died. I hope health authorities placed them in safe and comfortable nursing homes. Those nursing homes are expensive, what did the owner do with all the money?
This man is made of the stuff of Saints. God bless him!
Helen, “What have we become?” is contained in WE HAVE ABANDONED GOD, as a people and as a country. Without God bad things will happen.
As a nation founded under God we opened ourselves to happenings like this when we are no longer under Gods’ protection. Our moral standards cannot replace our Creators moral standards. PRAY FOR US ALL!!@
Miguel and Maurice will get their reward in heaven. God Bless all the good Samaritans. You are the heart, hands, and feet of Jesus.
This was a rescue mission, and Miguel and Maurice are heroes! This was a much more difficult endeavor than finding a lost hiker, with the aid of a band of brothers, dogs, helicopters and modern day surveillance gear. These men had to eat and sleep at some point, and they were surrounded by a living nightmare, with their own safety a concern. They deserve a reward from society as well as recognition and honors from the local community leaders and even the State, which in fact played a role in precipitating this crisis, unavoidable though it may have been.
Having cared for an ill and disoriented elderly person myself, I can report that it is much more exhausting than caring for an infant, and often more dangerous as you don’t know what someone whose faculties are diminished will do next. It is impossible to imagine how terrifying this must have been for every human being within those walls. The abandoning owner of this home needs to be prosecuted, and these young men deserve great thanks, honor and tangible reward.
The Lord will reward them greatly in His own time, as we trust through faith, but their need is in this moment, the proof of which is the very type of employment they accepted, perhaps now without pay. There is no compensation too high for the remarkable service these good men provided. Their actions are exactly the type of charity that Christ asks us to provide, a caring based on compassion and goodness of heart. Hats off to these men!
Excellent post Maryanne Leonard! May God bless and richly reward Maurice and Miguel for their compassion.
“I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it. I would hope to
act with compassion without thinking of personal gain.” ― St. Thomas Aquinas
Not long ago walking out on vulnerable elderly patients would have been unthinkable by the staff. So what are people inside their hearts these days that, knowing the care these elderly people needed, they just walked out? Nurses and health care workers? No one said, well, lets call their families so they can be moved, or lets call the state to find out how we can transition them to other facilities, or have a temporary take-over by the state until the people could be moved. Not one doctor, or nurse, or health care worker thought of this? Not one secretary or other administrative person, if the owner was going to just walk away? People imagine without God in our society, everything will remain “good” but without all those nasty “thou shall not’s.” But they are mistaken. THIS is the kind of thing that happens when God is removed from society.
I agree Bee bee…its terrible how they decided to walk out especially since there were innocent helpless people who are dependent on them.
What I can tell you is that there are no doctors, registered nurses, even LPNs or CNAs at these “facilities”. The reason the lousy owner was probably being shut down was because of lack of even a semblance of an adequate staff to begin with. But not even the best of these places have any real medical personnel; Our state laws allow owners to “train” anyone off the street to become a “med aide” or “caregiver”. Most people who accept these positions are the good and caring folks like these two gentlemen; but if not, it doesn’t matter to the owners, they will take any warm body. There is no such thing a medical education regarding care for residents in these type of places.
Medication errors, or medications not given, missed reporting a new serious symptoms, disrespect, terrible food and no help for those who need to be fed, improper wound care or lack of cleanliness are common in these facilities. Unfortunately even the ones that families pay thousands a month for care are not managed properly and if families are not vigilant their loved one will perish.
Rarely are these places even shut down, but it must have been really bad for that to happen. So minus medical personnel, that leaves the office staff or other “caregivers” to step up when this happens and it clearly wasn’t important enough for anyone else but Miguel and Maurice. God bless them both.
I’m sure the “owner” just moved down the road and opened another “care” facility. Our society shows no reverence for life on either end of the spectrum.
Does anyone know if there is a fun set up to give this man’s children some Christmas presents?
Oh, no!! I honestly had no idea the staff in these places were not trained certified and licensed medical personnel, given the cost of these places. I bet many people assume they are, as I did. The people then are really not much better off than when they were “abandoned.” My mother had a stroke that incapacitated her 14 years ago. When she was ready to be released from the facility she was in, they strongly tried to persuade us to admit her there. We decided to bring her home, since I saw the substandard care she received in each of three places she had been in. I figured we’d do better hiring someone to help care for her, who we could oversee. It took much sacrifice, but we (my brother and I) have been caring for her for the last 14 years. She is completely left side paralyzed, unable to walk or even turn over in bed. She can talk, and regained her ability to swallow, so she can eat normally. In any case, as difficult as our lives are, I now see if she were not at home, she would not be alive. Thank you for your comment. It sure opened my eyes!
I certainly hope the staff is held accountable for their actions. Appropriate and fitting action would be to make sure that none of the staff ever holds a caregiver position again for the rest of their lives.
When we have no respect for those in the womb, of course there will not respect for those out of the womb…..especially the vulnerable!!!
This sickens me to no end.
These men deserve a medal.
Then well paying jobs. :-)