Through the Garland/Richardson Association of Family Councils, which they formed the year before, they lobbied for higher state reimbursements, fixed staffing requirements and other issues that they could see were root causes of problems they saw in Garland.
"Lee was able to bring in folks who have stories to tell. She got a lot of grassroots support going across the metroplex," says Abby Sandlin, a lobbyist for Texas Watch, a consumer advocate group. In a session in which the industry pushed tort reform and consumer advocates pushed for more state money to hire staff, each got a little of what it wanted.
Peter Calvin
Garland's Silver Leaves Nursing Center, beset with staffing problems and declining state inspection scores, apparently decided the best way to deal with its pesky residents' support group was simply to get rid of it.
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Lutz says she was disappointed with the outcome: a moderate increase in state funding and mandatory insurance requirements for the homes. "We're still 47th in the nation in money spent per bed," she says.
Meanwhile, Lutz says people at Silver Leaves still call her regularly, as if she remains the place to go to lodge a complaint.
As for the remaining critics, Harris appears to have discovered a new weapon: criminal charges.
Loyd Chipman, an 85-year-old former Greyhound mechanic whose wife, Minnie, is an Alzheimer's patient at Silver Leaves, says he went to Don Harris' office in late May with a question about a bill. Chipman, who has hearing aids in both ears, was listening to Harris explain something, but he was speaking too fast. The 135-pound senior says he put two fingers on the administrator's shoulder as he leaned forward and asked him to slow down.
Harris, a robust man of at least 200 pounds, told Chipman he had just assaulted him and called the Garland police, Chipman says. An officer took a report from Harris and wrote Chipman a citation for misdemeanor assault.
He said he didn't bring the matter to the new family council because he doesn't see it standing up for people like him. "They're in there for the company," he says.
Chipman's story got back to Lutz and Carnathan, who accompanied him to court in June for a preliminary hearing, along with his son Bob. When Harris failed to appear, the judge tossed out the case.
Coincidentally, a nurse filed a similar misdemeanor charge against another family member two months before.
Marelene Shinaberry, who was active in the old council, frequently visits her 84-year-old mother, Juanita Zeller, at the home. She put her there four years ago after Juanita had a stroke, "and she never came back," says Shinaberry. Today, Juanita is bedridden, slipping steadily into dementia, increasingly dependent on others for her every need.
"Who is that?" she asked her daughter about a new visitor one recent afternoon. She napped for a few minutes, awoke and asked, "Who's that?"
Minutes later she nodded off again, her hair, face and nightgown blanched the same silver shade.
Shinaberry says she was at the home late one night in March and noticed that at least one aide in her mother's section had not shown up. She says she complained, and eventually someone came to fill the shift. A few days later, a Garland police officer came to her home and told her they'd received a complaint alleging misdemeanor assault, says Shinaberry, a longtime catalog sales representative at Neiman Marcus. The complaint was filed by a nurse to whom she had spoken one night about a shortage of help, Shinaberry says. "I never touched anyone. All I did was complain."
A municipal judge subsequently threw out the case on a technicality, and it was never refiled.
Shinaberry says now she is making plans to follow Lutz and move her mother away. "I've never liked it here," she says. Nancy Chipman, Loyd's daughter-in-law, says her family would like to vote with their feet, too, but they have no choice. Minnie Chipman needs a feeding tube and constant care, which they pay for without government aid.
"That place is a hellhole, if you ask me," Nancy Chipman says, but the nearest home that might take her is in San Angelo, 280 miles away. "We'd move her tomorrow if we could. The question is where."
Throughout the council's battles, Lutz says a few other relatives told her that if she didn't back off, Silver Leaves would be shut down and dozens would be faced with the same dilemma as the Chipmans.
"I always asked them, 'Why would I want to close the home my mother is in? At her age, a move isn't easy or good."
When they began their council, there was a lot of talk of improving the home, and they went about it with a degree of optimism. "We didn't start out to pick a fight. It isn't something we enjoyed," says Lutz. "We started out taking things to the appropriate people, the charge nurse, the unit manager, the director of nurses and up to the administrator. When they go on not feeding people, not changing their diapers, not making any changes, what can you do?"
