A West Valley assisted living home is under fire for the second time in several months.
Glencroft Senior Living in Glendale was caught neglecting an elderly woman last fall, and now one family claims the facility mistreated their loved one too.
The Ezell family said 92-year-old Doris Ezell had been an independent living resident at Glencroft since 2012 with no problems.
Last fall, Doris had a close call and needed assisted living. Her son, Bill Ezell, said the price nearly tripled from $1,200 to $3,900 per month and the Ezells wanted to know options.
Instead, Bill said they were asked to sign a nearly blank service contract that didn't include many specifics of care or living arrangements. Bill said the price was only added to the contract after he pointed out it was missing in the first draft.
"We were told you don't need to know the options until we know where your mother is going to be and we're the ones to make that decision, not you," said Bill Ezell. "I was told we are not going to alter it, we're not going to discuss it, it's not modifiable. We just want you to sign it and your mother isn't going anywhere until you do... It was essentially an old rental agreement that was boilerplate that had been hacked up to include a little bit of assisted living."
But the care, he said, didn't triple with the price.
According to Doris' daughter, Donna David, a career nurse, the facility failed to do fundamental items of care and forgot to hook up Doris' oxygen on several occasions.
"I get a call from my mother, 'I'm back in my room. They haven't hooked up my oxygen," said David. "I called security he said, 'I'll call the nurse, they'll go right over.' Five minutes later, 10 minutes go by; my mom's on the phone - nobody came. So I call security, and he said, 'I'll send someone over.' No one came. I called again and said I'm calling 9-1-1... it wasn't the only time it happened either."
Glencroft told ABC15 that's not the full story.
A spokesperson said Doris had a history of taking her oxygen off because it bothered her nose. Glencroft also said the Ezell family selected the lowest level care package and at one point stopped paying the bills.
Spokesperson Millie Oakeson said, "...we by all accounts did exactly what we were supposed to do. Our attorney had to get involved at one point when bills didn’t get paid."
The family doesn't disagree they got stingy with money.
"I was trying to figure out what does assisted living mean on a big 40-acre campus. There has gotta be a lot of choices. Is it this choice, or that choice? What services are available? How does this work? And we never got answers to that," said Bill.
These are not the first allegations of neglect against Glencroft.
Last Fall, ABC15 broke the story, and three employees were fired for posting a demeaning video onlineof nurses mocking an elderly woman asking for help.
Eventually, the Ezells pulled Doris out of Glencroft. She died on January 11th, 50 days after being moved to a new facility where the family said she was finally happy.
"If nothing else you just want people at that age to get up and have a wonderful day," said Bill.
Glencroft turned down an on-camera interview and said the entire situation is still under investigation.
