Broken Trust PROTECT YOUR LOVED ONES FROM NURSING HOME ABUSE Family members take care of one another. This is what it means to be a family, whether your family members are blood relatives, family by marriage, or friends who have become like family. Unfortunately, as family members age, we aren’t always able to care for them ourselves. The physical, medical, and emotional demands of caring for elderly family members are too taxing for any person to take on alone. This is why we turn to nursing homes or assisted care facilities to care for elderly family members when we can’t take on the task ourselves. Families put a great deal of trust in nursing homes when they admit an elderly loved one. Tragically, many nursing homes are quick to break this trust. Nationwide, 1 in 20 elderly citizens will suffer from some form of negligent or abuse while in a nursing home.
Brave Little Cher Ami THEWAR PIGEONWHO SAVED THE ‘LOST BATTALION’ Long before the invention of radios and cellphones, homing pigeons were used to send messages as early as the sixth century. During World War I, war pigeons carried lifesaving messages past enemy lines for the American and French armies, often being wounded in the process. In 1918, Cher Ami, a black check hen used by the U.S. Signal Corps, became the most famous of them all. On Oct. 2, the United States 77th Infantry Division was trapped behind enemy lines in the Argonne Forest during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, a three-month push by the Allies during the final throes of World War I to force the Germans to surrender. It became the bloodiest battle in U.S. history. For six days, the encircled division endured relentless attacks and suffered heavy casualties, but their orders were clear: Don’t retreat and don’t surrender. The division dispatched two homing pigeons with requests for help, but both birds were shot down. When friendly fire began raining down on the 77th, Major Charles White Whittlesey felt he had no choice but to send the last pigeon, Cher Ami. The pigeon’s desperate note read: “We are along the road parallel to 276.4. Our own artillery is dropping a barrage directly on us. For heaven’s sake, stop it.” As Cher Ami rose from the brush, she was shot down, to the despair of the watching soldiers. However, after a few seconds, she fought her way back into the air, flew through a torrent of gunfire, and made it to division headquarters 25 miles away. She had been shot in the breast, the eye, and the leg. Because of Cher Ami’s brave flight, 194 of the original 554 men of the 77th Infantry Division survived the battle. One month later, World War I came to an end. Cher Ami survived the war as well, thanks to the surgeons who performed emergency surgery on her. One soldier even carved her a little wooden leg. She became a well-known hero to both soldiers and children in the States. For her service in Verdun, the French Army awarded her the Croix de Guerre, and she was inducted into the Racing Pigeon Hall of Fame. Cher Ami finally succumbed to her wounds in June of 1919 and is now on display in the Smithsonian alongside Sergeant Stubby, a terrier who served 18 months on the Western Front.
WHAT DOES NURSING HOME ABUSE LOOK LIKE?
Nursing home abuse can take many forms and fall under three distinct categories: physical, emotional, and financial abuse.
Uninsured& underinsured Drivers Can CostYou PROTECTYOURSELFWITH UM/UIM COVERAGE
2
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online