Grieving son accuses Goshen nursing home of abuse, neglect

<p>There are new allegations of abuse and neglect from a grieving son who claims his mother died due to the lack of care at a troubled nursing home in Orange County.</p>

News 12 Staff

Mar 13, 2018, 10:19 PM

Updated 2,406 days ago

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There are new allegations of abuse and neglect from a grieving son who claims his mother died due to the lack of care at a troubled nursing home in Orange County.
Joseph Guyt’s 84-year-old mother, Lillian, died earlier this month at a hospital after being in the care of staff at Sapphire Nursing Home in Goshen.
"I believe, and the family believes, that it's a direct result of the negligence and physical abuse at Sapphire,” he says.

Guyt, who lives in Central Valley, says his mother was immobile and wheelchair-bound due to severe arthritis. He says she developed a urinary tract infection at Sapphire that spread to her kidneys, proving fatal within days.
While the family doesn't know for sure, Guyt believes it was caused by being left daily - sometimes allegedly for hours - in urine and feces by Sapphire staff.
“It's really a systemic issue. They're not isolated incidents at all. It's a horror show at Sapphire,” he says.

Guyt claims he complained about the conditions to both the facility and state over the past year, providing News 12 with documents as proof.
The allegations come on the heels of a state probe last month in which Sapphire was issued multiple violations, accusing the home of understaffing and patient neglect.
While the facility won't comment on whether Guyt was a patient due to privacy laws, it claims it is working to correct the state's violations and trying to hire more staff and bringing in temporary workers to fill in gaps.
Guyt says whatever they are doing ultimately wasn't enough for his mother. He hopes his story can make a difference for other patients while there's still time.
A Sapphire representative says they're in touch with the patient's family and are conducting an investigation into the death.
The facility has until the end of the month to correct the violations issued by the state.