POISON

Mom of Eight Dies After Senior Home Accidentally Serves Dementia Patients Dish Soap

Three dementia patients were hospitalized after the facility accidentally served them dishwashing soap instead of juice, the facility said.

Three residents of a San Francisco Bay area assisted living home were accidentally served dishwashing detergent instead of juice to drink over the weekend, killing one and leaving the other two hospitalized, according to the facility. San Mateo paramedics rushed to Atria Park Senior Living facility on Saturday around 8:30 a.m. to respond to the poisoned dementia patients. The woman who died, Gertrude Elizabeth Murison Maxwell, 93, was rushed to the hospital with “severe blistering of her mouth and throat and esophagus,” according to her daughter, Marcia Cutchin, who spoke to KRON4. Cutchin, one of Maxwell’s eight children, was reportedly told that her mother ingested the dish soap on her own, but she claims this would have been impossible as her mother required assistance to eat and drink. Maxwell allegedly suffered two broken hips in the past six months at Atria as well, one of which went unreported at the facility. The San Mateo Police are conducting a joint investigation with the California Department of Social Services, and the employees involved in the incident have been suspended pending its outcome, Atria Senior Living said in a statement.