Family claims Northern Colorado senior care facility neglected woman with dementia, falsified records

A Loveland senior care facility is facing serious allegations after a health department investigation substantiated a family's complaints about the care of a 75-year-old resident who died days after suffering a fall.

The family of Jacqueline "Jackie" Bronson says records from Bethesda Gardens of Loveland raised questions about whether staff properly monitored her after a fall — whether her condition was accurately documented and whether she received the care she needed.

For Bronson's family, the allegations are especially painful because of who Jackie was to them.

"She was really funny," said Lisa Wagner, Bronson's daughter.

"She was funny," said Lacii Wagner, Bronson's granddaughter. "She had a really good sense of humor."

The family said they wanted to make sure Jackie was well cared for, since she lived with Alzheimer's disease. They hired a senior care referral company to help them find what they believed was the best facility for her.

They ultimately chose Bethesda Gardens of Loveland.

"It was clean. They were friendly. They were engaging," Lisa said.

At the time, the family said, they believed they had made the right choice.

"It just all seemed right," Lisa said. "We felt confident that she would be cared for, and that that they would deliver what they promised."

The Wagner's said they felt they did their homework before moving Jackie into Bethesda, but said their feelings changed after they believed the facility's staff failed them.

On Feb. 2, Bethesda staff reported that Bronson fell out of bed while trying to adjust her thermostat, according to records provided to CBS Colorado by the family.

The family says she hit her shoulder, back and head. The 911 calls obtained by CBS Colorado confirmed the staff reported a similar description to first responders as well. 

"I got a call right away. She had fallen," Lisa said.

Lisa and Lacii spoke with paramedics about Bronson's condition over the phone. Lisa told CBS Colorado, in reflection, she felt she wasn't given the full extent of the injuries during the phone calls with first responders and staff at Bethesda. 

"They never told me my mom had a contusion on her head," Lisa said.

Bethesda records provided by the family show Bronson requested to be left alone shortly after first responders arrived. The same notes also suggested Jackie was refusing her medications after the fall. 

The family said, based on what they were being told by everyone at the facility, they chose not to send Jackie to the hospital. 

The next evening, Lacii stopped by for her daily visit with her grandmother. However, she said she felt things were off the second she walked in. 

"When I walked in, the room was dark. The TV was off, which is totally not her. Her food trays were stacked on top of each other, which I thought was kind of weird," Lacii said.

It was when Lacii tried to wake Bronson that she said she realized how serious the situation was.

"She was unresponsive. At one point, her eyes rolled back into her head, and she reached for me," Lacii said.

"It was really hard. It was really was really hard," said Lacii, describing what it was like to see her grandmother in that condition. 

After speaking with her mother over the phone about the situation, Lacii demanded that staff call 911. 

The second 911 call obtained by CBS Colorado confirmed that. In the recording, the staff member who called told dispatch the family asked them to call 911 again because Jackie was "... not acting normal, to their normal state for her."

Bronson was taken to Medical Center of the Rockies. Shortly after arriving she was placed on hospice. Six days after her fall, Jackie died from a heart attack, according to her family.

After Bronson's death, her family began looking for answers about what happened in the hours following her fall.

A personal security camera the family had installed in Bronson's room had stopped working weeks before the fall, they told CBS Colorado. The family then requested Bethesda's internal records and filed a complaint with the health department.

One document in particular caught their attention — a head-injury checklist completed by Bethesda staff.

The checklist included nine questions that were supposed to be answered with either "yes" or "no," including whether Bronson could state her name, whether she had slurred speech and whether she had vomited.

The staff marked "no" in every category across the documented intervals, according to the records provided by the family.

But another internal patient observation record told a different story.

That record said Bronson complained of significant pain and told staff she needed to vomit. It also says staff helped her with a trash can.

The family said that directly conflicts with the head-injury checklist, which states in bold at the bottom that if any answer is yes, staff should call 911 immediately.

"It was infuriating, absolutely infuriating. I am so angry," Lisa said.

"How could they just let her lay there?" Lacii said.

The state's health department found the family's complaints to be substantiated, according to documents provided by the family.

The health department also discovered that a staff member who filled out the head-injury checklist with "no" in every category was not on shift during some of the times the form indicated Bronson had been checked by them.

During interviews with investigators, one employee told investigators the staff could have documented the checks by mistake, according to the health department findings provided by the family.

Lisa said the family believes the records raise serious concerns about the care her mother received.

"They're lying. (Bethesda created) falsified documents. How? How is that okay? They need to be held accountable," Lisa said.

CBS Colorado emailed and called Bethesda Gardens of Loveland multiple times over a period of a week and a half seeking comment on the allegations and the health department findings. CBS Colorado also contacted Bethesda's parent company in Colorado Springs multiple times. No one responded to the requests for comment from either Bethesda entity.

The family says the allegations have made it difficult to move forward following Bronson's death.

"I haven't even been able to bury her ashes because when I think about it, I just get angry," Lisa said.

Lacii Wagner said her grandmother deserved better.

"(Bethesda) provided her no dignity, no compassion. (They) just let her lay there," Lacii said.