JACKSON - Queenola Smith was in five different nursing homes over a two-year period. Her daughter, Lilly Lavallais, said she was always trying to find better care for her mother.
Smith, who was 97 and suffered from Alzheimer's disease, eventually developed gangrene in both feet. She underwent surgery and died last July after suffering a seizure.
Lavallais of Indianola believes improper care at a nursing home contributed to her mother's death.
On Tuesday, Lavallais joined Attorney General Jim Hood at a news conference to support pending legislation aimed at better protecting vulnerable adults.
Hood said a Senate bill creates the felony offenses of sexual battery and fondling of a vulnerable adult by employees or those in authority at the facilities.
During the news conference, Hood was flanked by more than a dozen people who said their relatives had been abused at nursing homes. Many of them held photographs of the victims.
Nancy Yentzen of Pass Christian said she drove up from the Gulf Coast to show her support. Yentzen said a lawsuit was pending in the case involving her mother and a nursing home. She declined to elaborate because of the lawsuit.
However, Yentzen said officials need to enforce the state's current laws. "We reported things, and nothing was done," she said.
Hood said enforcement of the cases is sometimes hampered by the difficulty untrained law enforcement officers have in detecting neglect and abuse.
Hood is hoping lawmakers revive a bill that would require care facilities to provide residents and their families with contact information to report suspected abuse or neglect. Under the bill, fines collected from facilities that violate the law would go to train law enforcement officers about vulnerable adults.
"I think we'll be able to breathe life back into it," Hood said.
Hood said there's also an appropriations bill that would provide funding to keep his office's Vulnerable Adults unit operating.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
