A Sydney family is demanding action after an elderly woman was bashed to death in a “hideous” nursing home attack.
Joan Hobbs, 89, was beaten “black and blue” with a walking frame, wielded by a male resident, on July 17 at Kirrawee’s IRT Thomas Holt Aged Care Centre.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Family’s call for action after elderly woman fatally bashed inside nursing home.
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The 86-year-old fellow dementia patient entered Joan’s private room and bashed her in a “horrendous” ordeal her family believes could have been prevented if the centre had been staffed properly.
Joan’s daughter Erin Mulholland said she had cared for her mother for six years and never wanted her to end up in a nursing home. But as her m’s dementia worsened, doctors advised the family the 89-year-old needed full-time care.
“Eight weeks later, she’s dead,” Mulholland told 7NEWS.
Mulholland and sister Terri Hobbs never imagined another dementia patient would kill their mother in a place meant to keep them safe.
The family woke to a text from staff and rushed to Sutherland Hospital, where they were confronted with the “devastating” reality of Joan’s condition.
Joan suffered severe injuries in the attack that left her “black and blue”, including serious bruising to her face and bones “shattered all the way down” one arm.
“When I saw the physical condition she was in, the injuries, I just, you know, fell apart,” Hobbs said.
“Her left eye was swollen shut, you could see wounds on her arms, like defence wounds.”
Mulholland said they had no choice but to “sit with her and wait until she died because nothing else was going to happen”.
“I’m just mortified, absolutely stunned that something like this could happen,” she said.
“She wouldn’t understand what was happening, how frightened she must have been, terrified in those final moments.”
Hobbs added: “I wouldn’t wish this upon my worst enemy, to see your mum hurt like that.”
Joan Hobbs, 89, was beaten to death with a walking frame by another resident at Kirrawee’s IRT Thomas Holt Aged Care Centre. Credit: 7NEWS
‘How many more?
7NEWS can reveal the elderly man who attacked Joan had only been at the centre for two days, admitted as a respite patient in a locked dementia ward.