COPPERAS COVE, Texas — A Central Texas woman is seeking answers regarding the conditions of a Copperas Cove nursing home after her father, a 75-year-old disabled veteran, was hospitalized and now remains unconscious on a ventilator.
Lacey Purciful said her father, Robert Turner, was a patient of Copperas Cove Nursing and Rehab, 607 W. Avenue B.
"We were in a car accident," Purciful explained. "Then, I could no longer care for him."
Turner became a patient at the facility for 18 months. Throughout that time, Purciful said she received an "endless" number of calls from her father complaining about the living conditions.
"Lacey, please try to help me," Turner could be heard in a voicemail he left for Purciful. "My call light's been on for two hours. My urinal is full of p*ss. I'm sitting in sh*t and no one's coming by. I'm all alone in this little room. I just feel so depressed."
"I have endless, and I mean endless voicemails [like that] from my father," she shared.
Purciful said Turner would call her, then in turn, she had to call the nursing home in order to make something happen.
"And that's the only way something happened," she said.
Then on Oct. 8, Purciful decided to visit the facility. She said she spent three hours with her dad, but had to clean up his room, cut his hair and his nails for him -- services that should've been provided by nursing home employees, she said.
"I'm sorry, this is just, it's just so disgusting," Purciful said. "[The facility] has 123 beds... These are people [who] can't talk. I can only imagine how they're being treated behind closed doors."
And to make matters worse, Purciful said her father was sent to the ICU from the nursing home on Oct. 10 because of septic shock.
"They performed a CT scan and it showed an enlarged left kidney on my father... They found a stent," she said.
Purciful said the nursing home never notified her about how her father was briefly discharged on Aug. 15 and sent to the emergency room. Despite the discharge paperwork detailing how the stent was placed, as well as instructions on following up with urology one week later, she said the nursing home never followed up.
"It traveled up into his kidney and... his kidney, heart and lungs are now all failing him. He's fighting for his life in ICU," she said.
Purciful said at that point, she had enough.
"I have been in contact with the state in regards to my father's personal hygiene, his overall care, the cleanliness of his room, all of these things," she said.
6 News went to the nursing home for a statement regarding Purciful's claims. Officials declined to comment and escorted our crew out of the building.
ProPublica, a non-profit organization that specializes in investigative journalism, said Copperas Cove Nursing and Rehab has penalties and is currently facing $118,000 in total fines from 2021 and 2022. ProPublica states that a nursing home receives a fine when it has a serious health citation or fails to fix a citation. Fines may be imposed once per citation or regularly until the nursing home corrects the situation.
"The nursing home is still up and running," Purciful said. "Clearly the state system is flawed. We just proved that. So who's checking the state?"
Texas Health and Human Services (THHS) confirmed to 6 News that they are actively investigating the nursing home, but did not provide details about their investigation.
"Our top priority is the health and safety of people in the facilities we regulate," said THHS' Assistant Press Officer Thomas Vazquez. "We are actively investigating this facility to assess its compliance with all relevant health and safety rules. Once our investigation work is complete, the final report for the investigation will be available to request through our open records process."
In the meantime, Purciful hopes that other families will also speak out.
"Family members need to stop tolerating this," she said. "Family members are afraid to report it due to the repercussions, and they're not wrong."
THHS provided the following resources for those who need to report any potential issues:
"If there are concerns about resident rights or a resident’s safety, including any concerns about abuse, neglect or exploitation, we urge people to immediately call HHSC’s long-term care complaint and incident intake hotline: 1-800-458-9858," Vazquez said. "Callers to our hotline can remain anonymous. We look into every complaint we receive. In any emergency or life-threatening situation, immediately call 911 or local law enforcement. Please visit our Complaint and Incident Intake website to learn more about reporting incidents."
"If your loved one is in a nursing home, please be their voice," she said. "Please check on them."