In the previous post I mentioned that we were going to fly my mother out to the Dallas area so she could spend Thanksgiving with my brother Miguel and I. She neve liked flying and it made her very anxious and she was really hemming and hawing about coming out. We decided not to push it and not to add any stress to her and agreed that it was best for her not to travel at that time.
What happened on Thanksgiving is again one of those story’s that are stranger than fiction as is most of what I have talked about in this blog. Irma spent Thanksgiving at my brother a Sam and Christina’s (The Financial Abusers) house. That evening my mother Irma fell and broke her leg on my brothers driveway. She was startled when my brother Sam opened the automatic side door to his van and she fell breaking her Femur. I always ask people when I tell this story, “What would you do if this happened to your 86 year old mother who suffers from Osteoporosis?” 100% of the responses have been either call 911 or take her to the hospital. That did not happen! She was in pain and they helped her back into their house and had her lay down on their couch for the evening!
We do not know or understand why they did not do the common sense and safe thing to take care of this emergency. The feeling we have is that it was an inconvenience and they couldn’t be bothered with dealing with the issue. If the injury had been more severe she could have died on that couch. I cannot imagine the pain she must have been in.
The next morning they finally decided to take her to the emergency room where they found out she had broken her leg. Sam called my brother Miguel who was visiting me in Dallas and explained what had happened. We were in such utter shock and disbelief at his utter shallow disregard to our mothers well being. I wish I would of thought to ask her why she wasn’t taken to the hospital that night.
The next day Irma had surgery to repair her leg and when she had recovered enough she was sent to a rehab facility for physical therapy. There was no way that she would be going back to her apartment as it was up a flight of stairs and really needed to go somewhere where she could be taken care of. She did not have the insurance to go to a proper facility and we couldn’t afford to put her up in one. She had cancelled her long term disability which would have covered her to be in a facility. She cancelled it because all of her money was being taken by Sam and Christina. Irma was going to have to stay with Sam and Christina as she had nowhere else to go. We were not comfortable with this but it was what needed to happen.
In true form and in an attempt to try to get money, Sam called my brother Miguel asking if he could have $400 (from my mothers bank account) to get a mattress topper from Costco. He said he needed it for the futon my mother was going to be sleeping on. At one point in my career I had worked for a bedding company and knew that a topper did not cost this much as a matter of fact you could buy a whole mattress set for that amount. We told him to get the mattress from my mothers apartment as it was the same size as the futon. He refused to do that as it would be an inconvenience to him, it turns out the mattress topper he was wanting to get was just under $100 at Costco. We could not believe the lengths Sam would go to to try to get money from his injured and frail mother.
Irma started to improve and was going to physical therapy and was getting around with a walker. What we discovered and happened in the next two months rocked our world and to this day we are in disbelief of the depths of what our Elder Abuser brother Sam Hornedo did along with his wife and it even turned out that he had gotten his kids involved in the abuse.
Financial Elder Abuse 