TOWN AND COUNTRY, Mo. — Melissa Smith, Teresa Bomkamp, Michelle Gralnick and Norm Polsky belong to a club they wish they weren't a part of: All four have loved ones who died in the care of Delmar Gardens West.
“I think they're happy we are gone and thought we'd keep our mouths shut,” Smith said.
Smith and Bomkamp, who are twins, contacted the I-Team in 2023 after their 54-year-old brother, Dennis Price, died from what they believe was neglect.
A state investigator concluded: "I was unable to verify a regulatory violation had occurred … based on the lack of sufficient evidence."
Since then, about a dozen people contacted the I-Team or the twins, sharing their allegations of mistreatment at the Town and Country facility.
“I've had residents call me and I hear aides in the hallway with loud music, dancing and laughing while residents are yelling for help,” Smith said. “And that is just since the story came out.”
Delmar Gardens West sent a two-page response to the allegations the families made to the I-Team.
It stated the facility’s staffing levels are above average and invited an I-Team reporter to visit the skilled nursing facility. The facility’s leadership did not allow cameras inside the building, citing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPPA, which protects patient’s medical records.
The statement also noted how the twins and Gralnick thanked the facility for the care their loved ones received in obituaries and funeral services.
The twins and Gralnick said those messages of gratitude were for the few staff members who they believed cared for their loved ones properly and for the fellow residents who became like family.
The facility’s leadership also alleged Polsky never filed any complaints about his mother’s care with the state and that there were no grievances in her file.
“The dear mother of (alleged complainant) lived at Delmar Gardens West from 2015 through her passing in June of 2023; she was 105 years old!" the statement said. "There are no grievances noted in her file for her entire stay. The family did not file any complaints with the State agency for the alleged ‘horrible care’ she received."
Polsky said his mother was actually 104 years old when she died and added “I’m not making this up,” in response to the facility's statement.
His mother, Hilda Polsky, spent her last six years at Delmar Gardens West.
He contacted the twins with allegations about his mother’s care there following the I-Team's coverage. Now that she has died, he said he feels “safer” coming forward knowing nothing could worsen his mother’s care.
“There's no repercussions,” he said.
He described his mother as a “spitfire,” who offered to feed anyone who came to visit her, even in her later years. He’s now haunted by how she spent the last years of her life, alleging the facility was too short-staffed to ensure patients who needed help with eating received it.
“Most of them were in wheelchairs, and they were supposed to help the people eating,” Polsky said. “And I didn't see that going on, especially with my mom.”
He said one visit drove him to call a state hotline.
“We heard her screaming in pain, and we went in, and we said, ‘Mom, are you okay?’” he said. “And she said, ‘No, I'm really in pain.’ And so I said, ‘Why don't you call the nurse?’ And she said, ‘I've been calling the nurse for half an hour, and nobody has come in the room.' We heard her from the hallway, surely someone must have heard her.”
He said his daughter, who is a police officer, also called the Department of Health and Senior Services hotline following a similar encounter.
“I think it just got to the point where we couldn't take it anymore,” he said. “They did come out, but they said everything was fine.”
He said he didn’t keep the reports.
“It was a joke, it was a joke,” he said.
Gralnick knows the feeling. Her parents died in Delmar Gardens West care three years ago. Her mother had multiple sclerosis, which left her paralyzed.
“There were actually incidences where the call lights and the telephones were physically moved out of my mom's reach so that she could not communicate because she was told she was asking for too much," she said.
Gralnick had medical records showing her mother went septic multiple times from pressure wounds that develop when a patient isn’t moved enough.
“There were times when she did have a phone and she would try to call the nurse's station, and the phone would be answered ‘Domino's’ or ‘Burger King,’ trying to make her think that she had dialed the wrong number,” Gralnick said.
The experience changed the course of Gralnick's life. She’s now a resident rights advocate for people living in nursing homes.
“I also recognize that if this was happening to my parents, who had three adult children in town all looking out for them, then what would be happening to those residents who didn't have loved ones who were there alone and isolated who didn't have the capacity to communicate, who had dementia or other concerns?” she said. “And that just fueled me.”
In its statement, Delmar Gardens acknowledged one of Gralnick's complaints was substantiated by the state.
The I-Team found 17 complaints that the Department of Health and Senior Services investigated at the facility since 2016. The most recent happened in June 2023, the same month Polsky’s mother died.
It found the facility failed to:
- Ensure three residents didn’t run out of their medications.
- Notify the patients' families about the medication issue.
- Ensure one resident had a device they needed to exercise their lungs.
The records show the most recent complaint was corrected as of July 25, 2023.
The twins weren't surprised.
“We really thought by coming forward after our brother died, there would be a difference," Bomkamp said.
Considering a skilled nursing facility for your loved one? Click here to read state inspection reports about them.
Read the full statement from Delmar Gardens below or by clicking here:
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