Overcrowding, Illegal Restraints Alleged by State Agents at Rest Home Hearing

During a surprise inspection by state agents last February, three elderly residents of an El Toro convalescent home were discovered jammed illegally into a room, with one of them naked and tied to her bed, a state licensing analyst testified Friday.

Fran Guest, an analyst for the California Department of Social Services, testified on the fifth day of hearings involving the department’s allegations of brutality, neglect and illegal management against the owners of the Love Haven I and II convalescent homes. The Bark Street homes, owned by Ingrid Henshall, her son Mike Cabael and his wife Karen Cabael, were closed by the state April 6.

Further accusations of cruelty and coercion emerged during Friday’s testimony, which largely centered around alleged licensing and fire code violations.

When Guest and Social Services Special Investigator John Davidson arrived at Love Haven II at 7 a.m. last Feb. 23, owner Mike Cabael asked them from his upstairs room to come back later, Guest testified. After they insisted on going inside, Cabael told them to wait. Three minutes later, she said, he opened the door, saying his wife was asleep. Guest said she went directly to the first residents’ room, where she ran into Karen Cabael.

Guest said that Karen Cabael told her that the residents were asleep, but that she pushed her way inside. The three residents were awake, she testified: two in single beds, and one in a pull-out couch which touched the foot of the beds and blocked access to the exit. According to state law, only two people are allowed per room, unless special permission is given, Guest said, adding that the blocked access was a fire hazard.

Resident Maria, whose last name was withheld, was strapped naked to the bed with a soft, white tie around her waist, Guest said. She added that on her bed and in her hands were the tattered remains of her sheets. Guest said supportive restraints which, for instance, may promote the healing of broken bones, are allowed in convalescent homes if permission is granted by the state. But, she said, behavioral restraints are “absolutely not” permitted.

Echoing allegations leveled Thursday by former Love Haven employee Lisa DeGross, investigator Davidson charged during Friday’s hearing that guns belonging to Mike Cabael were kept within reach of the residents. During a visit last March 17, Davidson said he found a BB handgun lying on a barbecue just outside the patio door. Residents were often taken for walks around that patio but none was present at the time, he said.

Last April, an Orange County sheriff’s deputy removed two rifles, a pistol and the BB gun from the premises until other investigators were able to leave, Davidson testified.

During Davidson’s testimony, Love Haven’s Henshall repeatedly shook her head, grimaced and at one point left the room. Following advice from counsel, she and her son refused to comment on the case, but after the hearing recessed, Henshall said she was “ready to throw up.”

“I have 50 years of geriatric experience,” she said. “Three years at Beverly Manor (Convalescent Hospital), private duty at Mercy Hospital, and in 1976 I started my (own) home.”

“I challenge you to find anyone who could spend 10 years, 24 hours a day, with geriatrics,” Henshall shouted at a reporter.

Karen Cabael did not attend Friday’s session.

Hearings are scheduled to end next Friday. Administrative Law Judge John A. Willd said he will probably make a recommendation to the Department of Social Services within 20 days of the hearing’s conclusion. A final decision by the state whether to keep the homes closed will be ready in six weeks, officials said.

Most of Friday’s session focused on whether Love Haven II was operating in violation of license restrictions. The license allows the facility to have four residents who can move about on their own and two who require assistance. All six of the residents Guest visited were deemed “nonambulatory” or in need of assistance because of physical or mental limitations that do not allow them to “get out of (their rooms), jump into the car and go home,” Guest said.

She also charged that both homes were caring for patients who require medical care that the facilities are not licensed to provide.

Attorney Steven B. Fishman will begin his defense of the homes when the hearing resumes on Wednesday in Harbor Municipal Court in Newport Beach.

Fishman called a witness out of turn on Friday because the witness is scheduled to be out of town next week.

Mary Hall, conservator and nurse of a woman identified only as Ruth R., one of Henshall’s former residents, testified that while in Henshall’s care in 1986, the woman regained some of the use of her left arm, which had been paralyzed by a stroke. Responding to state allegations that Henshall force-fed Ruth R., Hall explained that the woman often clamped her mouth shut and refused to eat.

“Sometimes you have to pry her mouth open with a utensil,” Hall testified. “I’ve done it myself. I don’t call that force-feeding.”