Attorney reveals suspect's diagnosis
Last week, an 85-year-old man was arrested for killing his 86-year-old wife. Today, his attorney revealed that he's got Alzheimer's disease.
I'm not going to say much about this article, but I have one comment to make, about the statement at the end.
Some experts say it is rare for Alzheimer's patients to erupt into violence.
I worked in nursing homes for several years, and a good portion of that was in the lockdown unit where the Alzheimer's patients stayed. The reason for keeping in the lockdown was twofold: first, they were a flight risk--not in the traditional sense that a prisoner is a flight risk, but they were just simply absentminded enough to go wandering. Secondly, however, was for the protection of the other patients in the facility.
In my experience with Alzheimer's, it's actually *not* that rare for patients to erupt into violence. Some of them swing their fists or kick without realizing what they're doing. Some of them swing their fists out of sheer frustration--they're trying to communicate, they know it's not working, and they so they do what they know will work. As good at ducking as we got, it was never good enough, and not a day went by that someone didn't get hit or kicked.
Rare for them to erupt into violence, huh? Tell that to all the people who regularly worked that unit. The rare thing? For any of us to be unbruised.
All part of the job.
Posted by Liz at November 6, 2003 03:53 PM