MARIETTA, Ga. — A woman hired to care for a 90-year-old hospice patient is accused of being “passed out” drunk as her patient was screaming for help after falling from her bed to the floor.
The patient, Betty Henry, is recovering in a hospital. She has lived in her home for nearly 50 years. Neighbors described her as the neighborhood’s sweetheart, everyone’s dear friend. Henry needs home hospice care, and she receives help from around-the-clock, live-in caregivers.
But last week, Henry’s daughter in Florida, Debbie Byerly, couldn’t reach her or the caregivers.
Byerly called Cobb County police requesting a welfare check. Police ended up breaking into Henry’s house. Byerly listened to it all on her phone.
“And she is screaming for help, and the alarms are going off on the bed,” Byerly said.
She said police found Henry’s caregiver, Tracy Sanders, in a back bedroom.
“And when the policeman opened the door, he went, ‘Oh my.’ He said the smell of alcohol would have knocked you down…. She was completely knocked-out drunk, stone-cold out of it.”
Police charged Sanders with a felony, neglect to the elderly, and a misdemeanor, reckless conduct.
According to the arrest warrant, Sanders “jeopardized” Henry’s health “by failing to check on Henry throughout the night, even after loud alarms continuously sounded indicating that Henry had fallen out of her bed and was disabled lying on the floor for several hours, and [Sanders] was passed out intoxicated in the residence.”
The arrest warrant also said Sanders “did not respond to calls, knocking on doors, and ringing of the doorbell multiple times, nor was awakened by forcing entry into the residence by breaking down a door.”
The document goes on to say that Sanders “did spend multiple hours at a neighbor’s house consuming alcohol and leaving Betty Henry, a bed-ridden hospice patient, alone.”
Sanders’ husband, John McClenithan, who was also working as one of Betty Henry’s live-in caregivers, was already in the Cobb County jail charged with beating Sanders earlier this month.
Neighbor Dwight Benjamin-Creel, who often checks on Henry, said he had just called Henry’s daughter to warn her about the caregivers.
“I saw a pint bottle sitting in the back pocket of the woman [Sanders],” Benjamin-Creel said, and then, “she was really slurring her words, she was really intoxicated, it was easy to tell.”
“At first they [Sanders and McClenithan] were great,” Byerly said. “But they sure scammed me. They put on a big front."
"You can’t imagine how mad I am," she said. "Unbelievable what was happening to my mother. It was horrible.”
Byerly said she thought she’d done a thorough background check on the couple before hiring them a few months ago.
For her mother’s sake, she tells everyone now, “Make 100 percent sure you know who you’re getting and where they’re from".
Betty Henry is doing better, Byerly said, and hopes to return home from the hospital soon--with her new caregiver.
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