Mike and Amy Brackett want people to know that although their mom was suffering from Alzheimer’s in an assisted living home, she was a vital, vibrant person with a family that loves and misses her.
Two caregivers at Crystal Springs Assisted Living are now facing charges after Kathryn Brackett, 85, was found dead last fall outside the facility along 68th Street in Gaines Township.
Mike Brackett said that before her death, his mom was still able to go with him and his wife to movies and on other outings and still had a sense of humor that included teasing her son.
But she was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s and had wandered away from her home a few times. That led the family to look for a facility with locked-down units where she would be accounted for.
Kathryn Brackett had last been seen around midnight Oct. 27 and had frozen to death after wandering off in the freezing rain.
The Michigan Attorney General has issued felony charges against two employees in the case: 21-year-old Yahira Zamora is charged with second-degree vulnerable adult abuse for allegedly resetting an alarm door without checking to make sure all the residents were there. Denise Filcek, 45, is charged with falsifying medical records about checking on residents.
The Brackett's think that the problems are not isolated to Crystal Springs and start with the fact that employees are underpaid, overworked and undertrained. They want things to change.
The Bracketts have also filed a lawsuit against the facility, joining the family of Marjorie Meyering, a resident who was allegedly abused by a staff member.