An elderly Alabama woman, Marian Leonard, has been forced to go into hospice care against her will. The state of Alabama took Marian into protective custody and assigned her a third-party guardian after falsely believing that her daughter, Nancy Scott, moved her mother to home care against the recommendation of a doctor. However, she had full permission and blessing from the doctor, and Marian is NOT terminally ill.
Marian was transferred to Diversicare of Riverchase hospice by the court-appointed guardian, against Nancy’s firm objections. The guardian has been permitted to give Marian the antipsychotic drug Haldol, even though she has no history of mental illness. Marian is not receiving sufficient food at the 2.8 out of 5 stars rated facility. In fact, reviews on Google claim the facility is incompetent, deplorable, filthy and non-responsive.
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Nancy has not been allowed to visit her mother, who has gone from being able to walk to being bedridden, for almost a year. Marian is now lethargic and plagued with bed sores. Nancy retained an attorney who finally got her restricted visitation. She is now allowed to see her mother for ninety minutes two times a month. On her last visit, Nancy said her mother begged her to take her home, saying:
“If you don’t get me out of here, they’re going to kill me.”1
One friend who visited recently told Real News Spark that Marian’s face and hair are not being washed regularly. One of her eyes has been matted shut for at least six weeks and is oozing with infection. The friend washes Marian’s face and applies warm compresses to her eye when she visits, but her eye seems to be getting worse. It was not this way as recently as March 2019. She feels that instead of caring for Marian’s wounds, the staff are giving her pain medications and psychotropic drugs. Many of these drugs put her to sleep, and others are mind-altering, making it easy to give the impression of dementia.
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Terri LaPoint, a journalist who has written extensively on medical kidnap cases, visited Marian at Diversicare recently. According to LaPoint, Marian immediately asked for Nancy, and said she does not know why she is in hospice or has been separated from her daughter. LaPoint added:
“Marian Leonard deserves to spend her last years near family and enjoy their care and company. Instead, she has been placed under the ‘protection’ of a stranger and is faring far worse under state care than she ever did with her daughter. When the state can sever deep family bonds with a stroke of a pen and place innocent people in harm’s way against their will, the state has too much power.“1
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Legal Life Defense Aid is an organization whose mission is to give innocent and helpless human beings of any age a trained and committed defense against the threat of death, and to support their advocates in the nation’s courtrooms. They are now involved in the case and are considering Nancy’s legal options. Their Executive Director, Alexandra Snyder, commented on Marian’s situation:
“We are appalled that Alabama’s Department of Human Resources would consign an elderly woman to a facility against her will and then allow her condition to deteriorate so rapidly. Life Legal will do whatever is in our power to ensure that Marian Leonard receives the care she needs, including frequent visits from her daughter.”2
