This is Debora Milazzo complaint before her father, Howard Lewis, was murdered. One of the investigating officers had a relationship with the social worker who is involved with the theft of Debora’s father’s financial legacy. The City of Edinburgh Council are aware that Debora has physical evidence of this and refuse to investigate. In an attempt to silence Debora, Edinburgh City council social services have taken her son and have no documented reason.
This is not an exaggerated incident..
first email after removing my traumatiseD dad
deedee milazzo <deedeemilazzo90@gmail.com>
12/8/16
to Rick.o’Dowd
Dea Mr Odowd
I realise its been a long while since we spoke about the issues I had regarding initially the care my father received in pittendriech care home, lasswade and then the way my complaint was handled by initially Midlothian council and then by Alfie Francis.
My original complaint was that my father had fallen out of bed twice and waited helplessly on the floor until staff found him in the morning as the buzzer was on his right-hand side of him (he is totally paralyzed down that side ),
My dad had one working hearing aid on arrival and within 2 weeks was told his hearing aid was broken and from October 2015 my dad had no hearing aids at all and is deaf in both ears .
On arrival to the care home my father was able to transfer from bed to chair with the aid of an either and as nobody got him out of bed any remaining muscle he had previously had wasted and is he is now totally bed bound.
Despite repeatedly asking to leave he was told he couldn’t as there was an adult protection order on him, we still have no proof this ever existed as now we are told my father was on a protection registrar and again have been shown no proof this exists.
The room in which my father stayed had no working tv aerial, so he wasn’t able to watch anything, in Xmas day I spent with my dad and my 7 year old autistic son and I had to take a lightbulb from the hallway as my dad was in darkness when I arrived , there was no bulb in his lamp and the main bulb had blown .
I arrived one Sunday at approx. 5pm and whilst in my dads room a care assistant came in with ‘food’. 3 small triangle sandwiches and half a cup of watery soup and apologized about my dad not being washed that day but apparently, the chef didn’t work weekends and staff were to make the food.(lf that’s what you called it)
The staff were untrained in using the equipment and I was asked if I could operate the hoist and if I knew how to use the slings as they were clueless in how to do so.
On another occasion when I asked to take my dad for a walk around the grounds in his wheelchair , staff put him in his chair and I met them at the backdoor , assuming they had fastened safety belt to secure him, I started pushing him outside , only stopped as he said he was falling out, on checking the seatbelt found it was broken , I reported it to staff only to be told that they were aware his seatbelt was broken and that’s why it wasn’t fastened !
NY dad had a wheelchair specially fitted in surrey from wheelchair services but staff at home and his “social care workers ” insisted he needed to be refitted for a new chair and that my dad would have to cover the costs of this , unfortunately the wheelchair and its adaptions were too big to fit in the lift to take him downstairs , leg supports had to be removed and my dad would have to go down alone in the lift , hardly safe if there was a fire and time wasted removing the parts off the wheelchair .
At evenings there were 3 care staff to cover the care of approximately 27 residents and on one occasion only one out of 3 staff could speak and understand English.
The corridor leading to fire exit on ground floor wasn’t wide enough for my dads wheelchair to clear the (width), again a serious problem if there was a fire .
My father had no access to a vascular surgeon ( already a lower limb amputee and saw a vascular surgeon approx 6-8 weeks in surrey )
His insulin was changed as there was nobody qualified to dial up his flexipen for him to administer himself .
He saw no podiatrist in his stay either and when I took him home after having to steal him in may his fingernails were long and filthy .
After making my complaint although it was covered over by Alison McNeil and Jan Stewart from east neighbourhood office social care, the home seemed to improve considerably , seemed to be slightly more staff why had more knowledge of their job, repainted, fresh fruit available for the residents and overall they residents seemed happier and better cared for , I’d hate to think how much longer they would have had to endure the conditions they had previously had to live in.
My father was also sedated , I can count 3 times that he was incoherent as he had been drugged up as he was shouting that he wanted to leave .
So many errors in care for such vulnerable people then to be covered over by social care and Alfie Francis and then after I challenge d him over who reported back of the findings regarding my dad’s care , he was downright rude and refused to listen to me , months later I again questioned him over who wrote the report and was met with a weeks silence and then a text message telling me to contact my dad’s social worker who was in fact the person who reported my father was happy with his care.
I’m grateful that the home Wilk be investigated but has left my dad and myself with no faith at all in the care system or the complaints procedure in which we had to follow.
Midlothian council had a duty to my dad and other residents to investigate properly, they acknowledged the initial email then passed it to city of Edinburgh staff to deal with. again, totally unacceptable in our view.
Sorry its taken so king to get back to you but life is pretty hectic as I have my dad and son to care for as well as try to buy and move us all into our new home where my dad can access shower and get in and out for some fresh air as my first floor flat isn’t suitable
Should you need any further information on the problems I highlighted please feel free to get in touch ..
Carers Want Competence 