Death Without Dignity: The Story of the First Nursing Home Corporation Indicted for Murder

by Steven Long

This is the gripping account of the heartbreaking story of the patients who lived out their last days in misery and fear at the Autumn Hills convalescent centers. Case in point 1985, State of Texas v Autumn Hills Convalescent Centers, Inc., where the corporation and five of its executives were accused of murder.

Death Without Dignity should shock all readers with the reality about what can happen to their parents or themselves as patients in a nursing home.

Steven Long presents a horrifying account of conditions that can exist when the profit motive takes precedence over healing and compassionate care.

These conditions of abuse and neglect--which could happen anywhere--clearly demonstrate the need for radical reform. It is time for all Americans to demand a national comprehensive healthcare program that will assure the highest possible quality nursing home care.

280 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1987

About the author

Steven Long is a triple threat. He is an editor, journalist, and humanitarian most famous for his books on some of the most sensational true crime events in the nation. He has spent more than 2,000 hours in the courtroom, more time than most practicing lawyers spend there in a lifetime. He has covered some of the most important cases of the last two decades. Few can capture the drama of lawyer vs. lawyer quite like him.

Now he takes his immense talent for narrative to the pages of fiction with his new novel Ruby's Passing, a worthy successor to his bestsellers, Death Without Dignity, Out of Control, and Every Woman's Nightmare.

Long began his career in radio but quickly moved to print. For most of 11 years, he served as editor and publisher of Galveston's In Between Magazine, an award-winning alternative weekly famed for its gritty investigative work. His first freelance piece appeared in the respected Texas Observer.

In the 1982 Texas election for governor, Steven Long asked the incumbent, Bill Clements, a question that changed the state's history. "Would you appoint a consumer, for example, a housewife, to the Texas Public Utilities Commission?" The governor blundered and answered, "There isn't a housewife in Texas qualified to serve on the PUC." He lost the election.

After closing In Between, Steven Long carved out a career as a feature writer with the Houston Chronicle. One article resulted in the indictment, conviction and disbarment of the late Houston adoption lawyer Leslie Thacker for buying and selling crack babies in several Texas county jails. Another series of investigative stories ultimately resulted in the indictment and conviction of the head librarian of the oldest medical school west of the Mississippi for stealing rare and historic medical texts, some dating to the sixteenth century. He exposed the Texas prison system's wholesale practice of allowing the use of inmates as subjects for medical residents to hone their skills in cosmetic surgery at a state teaching hospital.

Steven Long covered the Andrea Yates murder case for the New York Post from the scene to conviction. For the same paper, he located rogue CEO Ken Lay who hid for ten days when the Enron scandal broke. He covered the lengthy and complex trial of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm for Agence France Presse, as well as Crain's Chicago Business.

An avid horseman, he has been a contributor to Western Horseman magazine. He secured one of the last, if not the final interview with the late actor Tony Curtis for Cowboys and Indians Magazine

Steven Long is currently writing the prequel to Ruby's Passing. It too is set in the storied badlands of Texas' Big Bend country. The working title of the book, set in the 1883 Old West, is Sauceda.

Steven and Vicki Long, a fiction writer, live in Houston, Texas. He serves as Vice President of The Greater Houston Horse Council. The two own Horseback Magazine and Horseback Online, the nation's leading online newspaper covering the equine world.

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Reviews

[Karen Shilvock-Cinefro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of the Autumn Hills nursing home in Texas that was indicted on charges of abuse, neglect and the death of residents. The details in this book are so sad yet I believe very true. As a social worker for over 40 years, I have seen many forms of abuse and neglect in nursing facilities. Thank goodness for the Ombudsman program and many other regulations that exist today, yet don’t be naive, abuse still happens today. The suffering and violations of dignity can never be repaid enough by a court of law.

[Judith Hall Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I became aware of this book while writing my own book on the neglect and abuse my father encountered in two nursing homes (http://www.amazon.com/Before-Door-Clo...). But it was not until a year after that publication that I built up enough emotional reserve to read Death Without Dignity. This is a hard book to digest, especially if you have ever had a loved one go through similar mistreatment in a nursing facility. Although there was a thirty-year lapse between the victims involved in the court case and my father, the neglect and abuse were eerily the same.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never read this book, have no idea how it ends or starts. Not sure why GR said I read this book.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a well-written book.

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼