An 84-year-old Florida man remains hospitalized this week after his 54-year-old daughter left him sitting in a recliner for two months and hadn’t gotten him medical care since January.
Pamela Reynolds finally called 911 on July 31 because of a rapid heart rate, WEAR reported. She told investigators she hadn’t seen any of his multiple severe injuries — a sacrum injury, necrotic tissue in his hip, malnourishment, peeling skin, bruises, and bed sores — or that his injuries, beard, fingernails, and feet were covered in filth, as CrimeOnline reported.
Reynolds said that her father would “primarily sit and lie down in his recliner chair in front of the television” and that she had not moved him since early June.
“Pamela explained there were transportation difficulties, and that she attempted to take him [to the doctor] back in April, but was unsuccessful and did not attempt again until she had called 911 on July 31,” investigators noted in an arrest report.
“I will say the description of this one — in what our medical staff, the protective services individuals, and our deputies and crime scene had to see, witness and describe, what they had document in this particular case — it’s probably the worst that I can remember,” Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons told WEAR this week.
“The injuries were open sores, there was what was described as rotting flesh to include maggots in the rotting flesh, feces mixed inside there,” Simmons said. “Everything is as bad as you can imagine. In fact, it’s bad enough to read it, it’s bad enough to describe it. Imagine what it would be like to live through that when you’re the person that’s relatively incapacitated.”
The elderly man suffered from other health ailments in addition to the abuse heaped on him by the daughter, including diabetes and heart disease. Police said they spoke with him in the hospital, and he was able to confirm he’d been sitting in the recliner for months.
Reynolds pleaded not guilty to a charge of elder neglect last week. She is being held on a $10,000 bond and has been ordered to have no contact with with her father if she is released. Her next court appearance is August 22.
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[Featured image: Pamela Reynolds/Escambia County Jail]
