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Carer jailed for six months after being caught on CCTV abusing dementia sufferer

Jenny Dady, 29, was caught on camera mistreating 69-year-old Liz Youngs, including forcing her to eat, pulling her hair and pulling her up by her nose. She was also verbally abusive and used her mobile phone constantly while she was meant to be caring for her patient.

Norfolk Constabulary said Youngs’ daughter Corrina Cunningham, who was living with her in Barford, Norfolk, noticed minor injuries on her mother in the summer of 2019, including bruising and blisters.

Her concerns prompted them to record footage on a CCTV camera that was already in her mother’s room.

When they viewed the distressing footage in November, it became apparent Dady had been mistreating her patient — who suffered with severe dementia and had limited mobility — and the police were contacted.

Dady, of Furze Road, Norwich, pleaded guilty to ill-treatment or neglect of a person who lacks capacity in December and was jailed for six months at Norwich Crown Court last week. She was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £122.

Detective Constable Gemma Weeks, from Norfolk Constabulary’s Adult Abuse Investigation Unit, who led the investigation, said: “Dady was in a position of trust and left to care for an extremely vulnerable woman who had no means of protecting herself or raising the alarm to relatives.

Read more: Thug coughed and spat at police officers after positive coronavirus test, telling them, 'You've got COVID now'

“She abused this trust, treating Liz with little care; handling her roughly by pushing and pulling her.

“On one occasion after a shower, Liz was left for almost 30 minutes in her wheelchair with wet hair and just a towel covering her lap.

“Many incidents were captured on CCTV which makes for very unpleasant viewing. No one would want their loved ones treated in this way, particularly those who are vulnerable and have limited capacity, which is why it’s important we seek justice in these cases for the victims and their families.”

Youngs’ daughter added: “Sadly, mum passed away during the investigation, which makes it so much harder to come to terms with, knowing that she was poorly treated in the last year of her life.

“I was mortified when I found out this had been happening. I felt guilty for not being able to protect her when she needed it and that this had happened under our own roof.

“We trusted Jenny and thought she genuinely cared for mum but she betrayed this trust in the worst possible way.

“I found it really difficult to watch the footage, it made me feel physically sick. I couldn’t bear the thought of Jenny being in a position to care for other people’s loved ones and abuse them in the way she did my mum.

“I’m glad we acted on our concerns and got the camera and I would encourage anyone in a similar position to do the same.” 

Reference: Yahoo: Ellen Manning  17 hrs ago

Grandmother, 92, dies with Covid-19 five days after her first vaccine

A great-grandmother who caught coronavirus five days after getting vaccinated against the disease has died. Mary Green, 92, received her first dose at a care home in North Tyneside on New Year's Eve, giving her family hope she would not face an infection.

But less than a week later the dementia sufferer tested positive for the virus. Doctors said she couldn't be moved to hospital because she was too frail to undergo invasive treatment and would find the change of scene confusing, meaning she had to receive care at the home. She died 12 days later of suspected sepsis, which they said was likely triggered by the virus. 

Scientists say it takes around two weeks for the vaccines to spark immunity, suggesting Mary's first dose came too late to protect her from the disease.It comes as a top scientist today defended the decision to delay the second dose of the vaccine, arguing it could lead to better protection. 

Professor Adam Finn, who helped make the priority list for jabs, said data suggests the immune response 'persists nicely' over the 12-week gap. He added studies on other vaccines show immunity 'doesn't plateau and fall in [12 weeks]' after a first dose, but is likely to persist and 'even increase'.

Britain's regulators stretched the gap between doses to 12 weeks last month, saying it would 'protect the greatest number of people at risk in the shortest possible time'. But the move has sparked concern as both the vaccines approved so far - by Oxford/AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech - rely on two doses to be most effective, with them ideally spaced three weeks apart. 

Mary's heartbroken son Chris, 52, said the family had a visit to see Mary at Charlton Court care home cancelled on January 2 due to lockdown, reports ChronicleLive.'She was a casualty of what we're going through at the moment with Covid,' he told the newspaper.

Amid mounting concern over the decision to delay the second dose Sam Monaghan, the chief executive of Britain's largest charity care home provider MHA care, said he felt residents were being 'left more vulnerable' because of the time between the first and second doses.

'[Our concern is] whether the lengthening of the gap between the two doses for such a highly vulnerable group of our society, when that seems to be against the guidance from the World Health Organization and the manufacturer’s own guidance, what the impact of that is. 

'I suppose, inevitably, it leaves you feeling that our homes and our older people are left more vulnerable because there’s a longer time that they’re unprotected from the first dose.' He added: 'It's leaving our residents with only 50 per cent or 60 per cent of the protection that they would have, and when we know that it would be around the 90-95 per cent mark if they’d had both doses.' 

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, its chair of council, called for the UK to follow 'best practice' and reduce the waiting time to six weeks on Saturday. 'Most nations in the world are facing challenges similar to the UK in having limited vaccine supply and also wanting to protect their population maximally. No other nation has adopted the UK’s approach,' Dr Nagpaul told BBC Breakfast on Saturday.

'Obviously the protection will not vanish after six weeks but what we do not know is what level of protection will be offered. We should not be extrapolating data where we don’t have it. 'I do understand the trade-off and the rationale but if that was the right thing to do then we would see other nations following suit.

He added: 'The concern we have if the vaccine’s efficacy is reduced then of course the risk is that we will see those who are exposed maximally to the virus may get infected. 'The other worry is that members of the population, those who are at highest risk, may not be protected.'

Almost half a million Britons have been vaccinated in a single day, official figures reveal, as the rollout continues to gather steam. Department of Health data shows a record 493,013 jabs were administered on Saturday, marking the fifth day in a row that the operation has picked up the pace.

And three quarters of Britain's over-80s have now received their first dose, according to the Health Secretary Matt Hancock, in another promising sign that the country could be on course to hit its ambitious target. Ministers are aiming to get first vaccine doses to around 15million people by February 15, targeting those who are most at risk of dying if they catch Covid-19.

These include all over-70s, people on the shielding list because of long-term illnesses, all care home residents, and frontline NHS staff and social care workers.A total of 6.35million people have been vaccinated already, meaning there are another 8.6million to reach, which will require a rate of around 393,000 per day. 

Charlton Court care home said in a statement: 'There is nothing more important to us than the health and well-being of our residents. We send our sincere condolences to the family of Mrs Green. 'Our staff started to receive their Covid vaccinations from mid-December and we were delighted when our residents began to receive their Covid vaccinations later in December 2020 as part of the first roll out of the vaccination to homes in North Tyneside. 

'Our staff team continue to adhere to strict Covid-19 preventative measures, including the use of PPE and regular testing in line with government guidelines, as they have done since the outbreak of the pandemic. We are grateful to our staff team who continue to care for all of our residents at this time.'

Blaze at facility of world's biggest vaccine maker kills 5 people

Pune's fire brigade chief Prashant Ranpise said Friday that the fire started on the second floor. As firefighters worked to put out the flames, the blaze reigned in another spot. The second fire was extinguished at 4:15 p.m. local time by 50 firefighters and personnel. Ranpise said they are still investigating the cause of the fire.

• We have learnt that there has unfortunately been some loss of life at the incident. We are deeply saddened and offer our deepest condolences to the family members of the departed," SII CEO Adar Poonawalla tweeted Thursday.

 

SII, the world's biggest vaccine maker, is in partnership with Oxford University and AstraZeneca to produce the Covishield vaccine. In December, the company said it was producing 50 to 60 million doses of Covishield per month, with production to be scaled up to 100 million doses in January or February.

• A family business started by Poonawalla's father 50 years ago to bring cheaper vaccines to the masses, the Serum Institute of India is aiming to produce hundreds of millions of coronavirus vaccines for not only India, but also other developing countries.

• In a tweet, Poonawalla said that despite a "few floors being destroyed," production of the Covishield vaccine would not be affected.

"I would like to reassure all governments and the public that there would be no loss of COVISHIELD production due to multiple production buildings that I had kept in reserve to deal with such contingencies," he said.

 

 

 

Cyrus S. Poonawalla, SII's chairman and managing director, said in a statement that the fire broke out at a facility that was under constriction in the Special Economic Zone at Manjri. He said it was an "extremely sorrowful day" and the company would offer INR 2.5 million ($34,000) to each of the victims' families.

• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his condolences Thursday: "Anguished by the loss of lives due to an unfortunate fire ... In this sad hour, my thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives. I pray that those injured recover at the earliest."
• Reference: By Manveena Suri, CNN

 

Rioters set fire to Dutch coronavirus testing centre as new curfew comes into effect

A young crowd of rioters have burnt down a coronavirus testing centre in a conservative Dutch fishing village, as the first night of a nationwide curfew was met with a largely peaceful – but occasionally incendiary – response.

The angry mob was also accused of destroying police cars and pelting officers with bricks and fireworks in Urk, situated 50 miles northeast of Amsterdam, prompting the mayor to invoke emergency powers and call for riot police – who arrived after the crowd had been tamed.

Footage showed dozens of protesters at the village’s harbour as the new 9pm curfew came into effect, some blaring car and moped horns. While several fires appeared to have been lit, the largest was the blaze at a drive-through test centre, which was reduced to a burnt-out shell. 

Local officials and police issued a statement denouncing the protest as “not only unacceptable, but also a slap in the face, especially for the local health authority staff who do all they can at the test centre to help people from Urk”, adding: “The curfew will be strictly enforced for the next week.”

Dutch police said it was “totally quiet” in most parts of the Netherlands after 9pm on Saturday, but some unrest was reported elsewhere.

Police said they handed out 3,600 fines for curfew violations and arrested 25 people who refused to go home or committed acts of violence.

More than a dozen arrests were made in the town of Stein after a group of around 100 young people refused to go home, some of whom shot fireworks at police, according to broadcaster 1Limburg. 

And in Rotterdam, 50 people were fined for protesting lockdown and the new curfew, Dutch News reported.

Meanwhile officers in Amsterdam apprehended more than 100 people at a protest at Museum Square on Sunday afternoon after mayor Femke Halsema designated the area as a "high-risk zone" to give police the power to frisk people for weapons.

Last Sunday, protesters clashed with riot police on horseback on the square, leading to the detention of 143 people.

The curfew – enforceable with €95 fine – was narrowly approved last week by Dutch politicians often swayed by assertions that the variant discovered in the UK is about to cause a new surge in cases. 

New infections in the Netherlands have generally been declining for a month, after hospitality venues shut in October and schools and non-essential shops closed in mid-December.

The last EU country to start vaccinating, only around 77,000 doctors and nurses have received a dose so far.