The following story was first published by the Lynchburg News and Advance: A felony charge of abuse and neglect of an incapacitated adult filed against Alexander Mikhail, 32, was certified to the grand jury Tuesday afternoon after the court heard descriptions of the filthy home where they found Mikhail’s neglected mother. The charge was filed after Lynchburg paramedics were called to Mikhail’s home in January and found his mother, 74-year-old Shirley Mikhail, covered in feces and very ill. Mikha…

A federally backed watchdog group has identified several deaths involving poor care at a troubled nursing facility for disabled children and young adults. the group has also determined that the home has been destroying evidence of medication errors. The group, Equip for Equality, found that illnesses at the facility were improperly treated, doctors failed to return pages, lab results were ignored and internal investigations into deaths were not extensive enough.

A long-term-care institution is accepting the blame for a disabled man’s death after he choked on food that was not properly prepared. The facility has apologized for how staff handled a tray of food given to a 53-year-old partially paralyzed patient who in December choked to death on brussels sprouts that had not been ground to a purée. The man’s family say that they feel the system let them down.

A community is upset after a story ran earlier last week regarding the possible demise of one state’s ombudsman program that investigates complaints about nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. The program uses 400 volunteers to look into nursing-home neglect and abuse. In one county, ombudsmen last year investigated 122 complaints about local facilities and compiled statistics that allow families of potential patients to see which homes are best.

Responding to a report we shared earlier this week that the family of a deceased former resident intends to sue over alleged abuse caught on camera, a spokesman for the nursing home said yesterday the  facility has a “zero tolerance” policy for improper treatment. The family of a former resident plans to sue based on a video of a former aide beating the paralyzed woman on Jan. 15.

Thursday, 109 nursing home residents had to be evacuated after a roof collapsed at the facility.. All of the residents were moved to other facilities. The roof in the dining area at the nursing home collapsed shortly before 10 a.m., according to an administrative assistant at the facility.  She said crews were in the process of replacing the entire roof of the facility when the collapse occurred but luckily no residents were injured.