The "incomprehensible" death of Dona Rosa in a public residence

Rosa García believed she was prepared to receive the sad news of the death of her elderly mother.

"That by law of life he had to die?

Clear.

But I thought it would be a normal death. "

Almost three years ago, his 96-year-old mother left the public residence where she lived alone, in a small town 60 kilometers west of the capital Madrid, Villa del Prado. Despite the fact that her fragile arms prevented her from moving her wheelchair on her own, Doña Rosa Rodríguez crossed the automatic glass doors, walked a 20-meter landing, fell down a steep ramp and collided with a concrete wall. This happened at lunchtime, while the caregivers moved the elderly from the bedrooms to the dining room. Supposedly, Doña Rosa made that trip alone and without anyone intercepting her, despite the fact that the follow-up reports that the specialists of the residence filled out for years indicate that she was unable to “self-propel” the chair.

The medical attention in the hospital was of no use.

Doña Rosa lost her life just over 24 hours after being admitted.

It was April 10, 2019, a symbolic date because that same day a case of abuse came to light in a residence in the capital, Los Nogales Hortaleza, thanks to the fact that a man recorded with a hidden camera the harassment and physical attacks he suffered. his mother.

That news shocked Spain and sparked a debate on the quality of care in nursing homes, a very lucrative sector that has a very delicate task on its hands.

However, this other event in Villa del Prado has been unknown by public opinion until today.

Five caregivers are being investigated in the examining court number 4 of Navalcarnero in a case in which the Madrid Prosecutor's Office is present.

Doña Rosa's daughter has agreed to speak to this newspaper about what happened because her stomach turns over every time she sees news about injustices in nursing homes.

Remembering her mother's accident during a meeting in a bar in Móstoles, this 63-year-old woman breaks down in tears: “You can't imagine how it hurts to see a person you love like this.

A doctor at the hospital told me that they receive elderly people from nursing homes with incomprehensible accidents, but what happened to my mother was not normal.

He told me 'report this.'

Rosa García kisses her mother Rosa Rodríguez in a photo provided by the family.

Despite the tragic death of his mother, nothing has changed in this residence owned by the Community of Madrid and managed since 2012 by a business giant, the construction company Sacyr, which has a subsidiary dedicated to the care of the elderly, Sacyr Social. The Community is aware of the facts investigated, but in April last year it renewed the contract with Sacyr for 5.4 million euros that will be paid to the company until April 2023. Sacyr has not adopted any disciplinary measure against the workers either.

Surprisingly, the Community has renewed its trust in Sacyr despite the fact that very shortly before Doña Rosa's death it detected that there were workers missing from that residence, according to sanction files to which EL PAÍS has had access. Only 14 days before the event, on March 27, 2019, one of the inspectors from the Ministry of Social Policy had discovered that this 120-bed residence did not comply with what was agreed in the contract regarding the number of employees. And on another visit on December 18, 2018 they had also detected the same problem. The company was fined to pay more than 7,000 euros.

On the fateful day, Rosa was told by phone that her mother had fallen, but they did not give any further details.

She was resting in her country house in Almorox, 15 minutes away, and immediately got into her car.

He arrived at the residence just as the ambulance was leaving the door.

He got into the medical vehicle and saw his mother's bloody face.

The nurses revealed what had happened.

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Recording of the section that Rosa Rodríguez traveled in the wheelchair

The red arrow shows the path that Doña Rosa Rodríguez traveled in her wheelchair when she left the Villa del Prado residence.

In the ambulance, holding his mother's hand, he knew that he was not going to survive. Rosa has been a nurse for almost 40 years and rightly deduced that her mother was suffering from a brain hemorrhage. The mother was still conscious. He no longer spoke, but with his right hand he tried to remove the tape from his nose and forehead.

After several weeks of pain and after discussing it with their three children, they decided to file a complaint for reckless homicide. They thought about revealing it to the press, but ultimately decided they wouldn't. Rosa was tempted to see the telephones for complaints from morning programs on TV. "I thought about it, but I didn't know what treatment they were going to give the subject." Unfortunately, the perception that many citizens have that the press is partisan also influenced: “If you are from a medium that understands that this can attack [President Isabel Díaz] Ayuso, then maybe you shut up. And if you are from the other side, then maybe you will enlarge it ”.

As it was, everything was silent.

Neither the Prosecutor's Office nor the Community of Madrid revealed anything.

In the town of Villa del Prado, of just over 6,600 inhabitants, the rumor spread but no one was sure.

They say that the residence is a hermetic and mysterious world.

Those who know what happened are silent because it is convenient for them: the workers to keep their jobs and the relatives so as not to harm their elders.

In addition, many did not even know.

As in the vast majority of residences, in the Villa del Prado home for the elderly there is no user council, a body demanded by the Madrid association of Pladigmare families to improve transparency.

Company offer

A little over a year ago, Rosa's lawyer, Sergio Mellado, informed him that Sacyr had contacted him to offer the family of the deceased a compensation of almost 100,000 euros on condition that they withdraw the complaint. The first thing Rosa did was reject the offer, because she wanted justice. His mother had not died a dignified death. But the lawyer warned him that they could lose their minds and be left with nothing. She also thought about how sorry she was for the caregivers. “My lawyer told me that the workers could spend up to three years in jail and that threw me back, especially because of the person at the reception. How am I going to send that little creature to jail? "

Rosa does not blame the workers, but the company and the director, Begoña Hinojosa.

“I have been working for 40 years in a public hospital and I know that they are giving everything, because they have people in their hands and not objects.

I know well what it is to work with limited resources and with the pressure to do your job well ”.

Hinojosa has not responded to an interview request.

After the agreement, the relatives withdrew from the complaint and the workers' lawyer requested the dismissal of the case, but the Prosecutor's Office objected, so the process continues its course.

Sacyr carried out its own investigation of the events, but did not sanction the workers, considering that it could not be proven that they had incurred any responsibility, according to a spokesperson responding by email.

"Following its internal compliance regulations, depending on how the judicial process develops, the company will or will not make new decisions on this case," he adds.

A man outside the residence for the elderly in Villa del Prado.DAVID EXPOSITO

The Community of Madrid explains that it renewed Sacyr's indirect management contract, because during 2020 and 2021 the Ministry of Social Policy has extended a large part of the concessions of this type. In total, there are 18 public residences managed by private companies in a region where at the end of 2021 there were 473 households with higher assets. This group of residences under this indirect management model are seen as the black sheep of the sector because they accumulate a high number of sanctions. Critics denounce that short-term concessions discourage winning companies from making long-term investments to improve care.

The Ministry spokesperson considers that Sacyr Social was doing an optimal job, despite the tragic death of Doña Rosa and the sanctions that her Government imposed on the company due to a shortage of workers: “The logical thing was to extend a contract that not only it could be extended but, in addition, it worked and works relatively well ”.

This spokesperson adds that "the service cannot be penalized for a fact that has not been tried."

Rosa has been thinking about this tragedy for almost three years.

She knows the residence well, because she visited her mother very often since she entered there in 2016 after breaking her hip.

Inside there, he remembers, many irregularities happened: his mother's clothes disappeared and sometimes they were parked in an armchair, isolated.

There were hardly any workers for so many residents.

Neighbors of the town spoke of grandparents with Alzheimer's who left the residence and wandered lost in the streets.

It makes him angry that he couldn't be there that day at lunchtime.

Her mother was probably dazzled by the sun, sad and lonely: "I had not seen her for three days and she would be looking for me."

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