PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
If you are reading this about Evergreen Chalet do not even consider this place for housing anyone you love or care about.
It has been almost three years this February 23rd that my father died a slow painful unsupervised death while housed inside this facility, the things my wife and I were left to witness with our own eyes at this place will forever be etched in my mind.
My father Joseph Tuck lived a life of helping others. He was in world war II as a pilot, he went on to be a Los Angeles City fireman got in a accident and was rendered a paraplegic for almost 45 years after this. His assistance of others did not stop there.
He was a fire science teacher at local Palomar college assisting lots of young fireman to get there promotions. He was an integral part of the coalition that
created handicapped access for restaurants and sidewalks for others.
My father was also one of those rare handicapped people you see with a smile on his face every day and not look down on his own situation.
Most handicapped people tend to get grumpy or withdrawn.
During the intake process for my father the owners informed my wife and I that the Evergreen Chalet facility was equipped to handle my fathers handicap
and that the staff they had on board was certified and qualified and experienced enough to keep my father quite comfortable.
We were also assured that there was a residence doctor that stopped by to check on the tenants bi-weekly and most importantly everyone knew the importance of picking up the phone and calling 911 if the need was there.
My father required more attention than most patience because he could not get up and walk or move to get to a phone. This facility placed my father in a lower room far away from the main hub of activity and supervision upstairs.
He was not provided an alarm button to push amongst other things.
My wife, my mother and I made frequent visits to this facility and almost every time we came away with a concern or complaint. Things such as my father had a special bed that the veterans administration provided and delivered to Evergreen Chalet for his use. This bed had air chambers in it and automatically rotated so my father would not get bed sores. One day I went there and the staff
had removed part of the mattress section of this custom bed
(to make it easier for her to change my fathers diaper) .
This bed has distinct directions marked in red to not remove any
sections or pieces and also to supervise the patient at all times when
the electricity was on. I walked in the room and my dad was almost in
an upside down position sunken into the bed and almost suffocated.
I replaced the bed section (which was in the closet) and notified staff.
The Filipino attendants seemed uncaring and cold to my father the entire time.
When a doctor came by to see my father he discovered he was only
getting 70% of the oxygen he needed so my father was placed on an oxygen bottle. When my mother would come by to visit she would notice that
the filtering bulb would be totally out of water and the oxygen was not even on or working. I found this to be the case on my visits with my wife as well.
My father with his one of kind personality took all this in stride and
was always smiling and talking to the same unqualified attendants
who were serving him food I would not feed to my dog.
The ultimate crime happened one Sunday morning when the staff
went to my father's room around 7:30 and found him not eating,
euphoric, virtually having a stroke. The skeleton staff on a Sunday
morning had no supervisor onsite (she was at the Oceanside swap meet)
and the staff was unable to get ahold of her for advice to call 911.
This same staff was so unqualified that they did not call 911 when it is supposed to be part of their everyday protocol.
This staff left my father who spent his life helping others all alone in that room for an additional six (6) hours in his own feces writhing in pain without his oxygen, supervision, medical assistance or otherwise.
I in the meantime was having lunch with my mother about 5 miles away
and my mother received a call from the facility around 2:15 PM.
The caller talked to me and was not even that
concerned she said in an offhand way that my father was being
difficult with the staff and that I should come over and see him.
She did not even make it seem like a big deal.
My mother and I drove two vehicles to the facility and I thank God to this day that I got to my fathers room before she did and she never saw what my wife and I did.
I could smell my fathers feces from 100 yards away when I entered the lower level's door. I walked into my fathers room and I will never forget the
look on his face, like the hangman cut him off his noose.
It took an ambulance another 1/2 to get there by that time my father was gone.
This facility was investigated and fined for this crime but a $150 dollar fine does not replace my father read more
