Nursing Home Caregiver Allegedly Beats Elderly Man, Ties Him To Wheelchair Before Death

A 68-year-old Chinese man was beaten and abused by his nursing home's caregiver prior to his death nearly a month ago, the elderly man's family claimed.

The man, who was only identified by his surname Li, had died on June 30 from unknown causes after being admitted to a long-term care facility located in Shenyang, Liaoning province around seven weeks ago due to his difficulty in walking, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported, citing Star Video under Changsha Television.

"They texted me in the early morning saying my father stopped breathing. I was really shocked, because just a couple of days before they took my father to participate in an activity, and he looked very well," the alleged victim's son was quoted as saying by the Hong Kong-based newspaper. The elderly man also did not have any chronic diseases, his son added.

Surveillance footage reportedly showed the victim had been physically abused by his caregiver leading up to his death, which included being slapped in the face and being tied to his wheelchair, the son claimed in the report.

Additionally, footage released by the son appeared to show his father being beaten by his caregiver on several occasions while in his bed and in his wheelchair, and the victim was strapped to the chair to keep him restrained.

It was unclear if the alleged abuse was linked to the elderly man's death.

The caregiver is still working as the nursing home said it did not find any issues with their employee's behavior, as per the SCMP.

"The [caregiver] might just have made some big moves, or exaggerated in the language when urging [Li] to eat and so on," the nursing home's manager, identified by his surname Song, said while denying that the elderly man had been beaten or abused.

Data collected by the World Health Organization indicated that 64.2% of staff — or around 2 out of 3 workers — in institutions such as nursing homes and long-term care facilities had reportedly perpetrated some form of elderly abuse in the past year.

The nursing home and long-term care industry in China is facing a shortage in professional caregivers, with the country's Ministry of Civil Affairs revealing that there were only 370,000 workers at the nation's nursing homes in March of last year. This would leave one person, on average, to take care of nearly 10 people, according to SCMP.

People aged 60 years or older in China numbered at around 264 million last year, which accounted for 18.4% of the country's population of 1.411 billion people, official government data showed.

A previous report by China's National Health Commission in 2019 indicated that more than 40 million senior citizens are totally or partially disabled.