SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Avoidable deaths, patient-on-patient sexual abuse, and staff neglect: these are the realities for many seniors living in nursing homes in our community.

These are realities for many seniors living in nursing homes in our community.

Georgia Department of Community Health records show since the beginning of 2024 alone, Savannah-area nursing homes have received at least 120 citations.

Read: Over half of Savannah-area nursing homes are rated below average or much below average by CMS

Thunderbolt Health and Rehab Center received 25. It was shut down in the beginning of July after losing Medicare and Medicaid eligibility.

Before the facility shut down, resident Barbara Butler died following a roughly nine month stay.

“They’re sitting up there urinating, doing a number two, no one had helped them,” says Butler’s son, Jimmy Haynes, of his experience while visiting his mother.

“I don’t think she ever got therapy,” says Keith Lester, another of Butler’s sons.

“She had a roommate, that could talk very well and she told us one day, she said, ‘I just want to tell you, they don’t take care of her,” says Brenda Thornton, Butler’s sister.

Butler was originally admitted to Thunderbolt Care Center to receive therapy in order to rehab a leg injury. Instead, she lost her life just months before the lights at the facility were shut off for good.

Read: Thunderbolt nursing home received citations for patient death, failure to prevent spread of infections prior to closure announcement

Like 60,000 other patients each year, she died as a direct result of an infected bedsore.

“All down throughout the whole medical report, it mentions, ‘Sepsis, sepsis, sepsis,’ throughout the whole thing,” Thornton says.

Butler’s family believe her injury was entirely preventable. Most clinical guidelines recommend bedridden patients be turned every two hours to prevent the sores from developing.

Brian Krapf, a Savannah attorney specializing in nursing home abuse, says he sees cases related to sores, and other types of neglect, all the time.

“The facilities simply do not have the number of employees necessary to adequately provide care and oversight to all residents as they should,” says Krapf. “That is not a local problem. That is a problem with the corporations that run these places.”

Georgia Department of Community Health records show Thunderbolt Care Center changed owners five times in the last nine years.

A former nurse and eventual Director of Nursing at the facility, who spoke to WTOC Investigates anonymously as she still works in the field, says it didn’t matter who the owner was: staffing was a problem. And it could be one that even clashed with medical ethics.

“Staffing was always number one with me,” says the former Director of Nursing.

Federal regulations mandate each patient in a nursing home receives 3.48 hours of care from a nurse every single day. WTOC Investigates has found nursing homes in Georgia barely cross that threshold. On average, they provide 3.53 hours of care each day.

According to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), that’s the 4th worst staffing rate in the nation. It’s a statistic Krapf says he’s not shocked by.

“Not at all. Because we see it so frequently. Let me give you an example: I took the deposition of the administrator of a local nursing home. She told me, under oath, on record, that when it rains, she knows she’s goanna be understaffed because the employees don’t want to drive in the rain to go to work,” says Krapf.

“I had a lot of good employees and, that was one reason that they would leave, was pay. We just did not get a lot of applicants,” says the former Director of Nursing. “When you don’t have a lot to choose from, you’re kind of stuck.”

“They have less employee benefits than a hotel maid, and they make the same money as a Burger King fry chef,” says Krapf.

The family of Barbara Butler says it’s a situation she was all too familiar with, having worked most of her own career as a CNA at a local nursing home.

“She never wanted to go into a nursing home. Her and my mother, because she didn’t like the way some of the staff treated patients so she just never wanted to go there,” says Thornton.

“Hiring more staff and having more corporate oversight that’s not money focused [would fix the situation]. Care about the people,” says Krapf.

“No one should suffer like that. Not my mother, no one should go through those trials and tribulations in this life. Only thing they’re doing is collecting money. That’s why they’re closed today,” says Haynes.

Butler’s family has hired a the Savage & Turner law firm to investigate her death.

WTOC Investigates: Before you choose a nursing home

If you’re considering putting your loved one in a nursing home, there are several things Krapf says you should do before deciding.

His number one tip is to tour the facility unannounced so you can see what it’s really like.

You should also head to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid website and use the “Care Compare” function. There, you can see how many “stars” a facility has, and check to see whether they have a history of violations. A five-star rating is the best rating a facility can have.

Inspection reports for Georgia nursing homes are also available on the Georgia Department of Community Health website.

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