Man arrested after allegedly raping nursing home patient

Nursing home article reminds us of the failures of those protecting our elders. In a sickening incident that highlights the consistent shortcomings of assisted living facilities and nursing homes, 68-year-old Mitchell Noe has been arrested for raping a nursing home patient near the end of May.

Noe allegedly forced the vulnerable elder to perform oral sex—taking advantage of her mental and physical disabilities that left her unable to resist. While this incident took place at Chamberlin Healthcare Center in Deer Park, Ohio, it is just one example of the daily crimes that take place nationally within an industry that continues to endanger the very people it agrees to protect.

With more reports coming in everyday regarding the dangers of increasingly understaffed, isolated, and poorly monitored nursing facilities, it is no wonder Americans are growing increasingly uneasy with leaving their vulnerable loved ones in such distrustful facilities. There is no appropriate or dignified way to explain to this patient’s family why they were left alone, unsupervised, and without access to help with a threatening sex offender. Ultimately, when the average nursing home resident is known to be frail, cognitively impaired, and unable to advocate for themselves, this type of abuse is not just an unfortunate mishap—it’s a sign of an overarching failure within the institutions that claim to protect our loved ones.