Dana Barker shares an update on her 85-year-old mother after she was found in critical condition at the Thomasville nursing home.
THOMASVILLE, NC — We are learning more about the Triad nursing home at the center of an SBI investigation.
Police said only three staff were caring for the 98 residents of the Pine Ridge nursing home in Thomasville.
Officers found two dead and two others in critical condition. One of them is expected to leave hospital soon. The other will need more time; Shirley Smith, 85, is at Novant Health Medical Center in Thomasville.
WFMY News 2 spoke to her daughter Dana Barker.
“I told her tonight that I loved her. She told me she loved me back. And I told her to get a good night’s sleep,” Barker said.
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“I didn’t think she was going to make it. I brought joy to my heart. And I hope it will continue. I prayed every day, every morning, every evening. And I will continue to pray that she fully recovers,” she continued.
Smith is no longer on a ventilator and is breathing on her own. Her daughter said she had only been at Pine Ridge about a month. She believes the facility was not giving her mother the care she needed.
“I was still there every night. And it was horrible. The care was horrible. Not getting his medicine. Not getting changed. Food all over the floor, sitting in a wheelchair, falling, falling off the wheelchair,” Barker said.
Barker said they would move his mother to a new facility when she recovers.
On Thursday, Gov. Roy Cooper shared his comments on the Pine Ridge investigation during a public briefing.
“It is deeply disturbing. We need to make sure that we care for people in these types of establishments and that the matter needs to be fully investigated and that is what I expect” , Cooper said.
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