Home Health Aide Accused Of Abusing Queens Stroke Patient
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A home health aide has been accused of abusing his elderly patient and the man's family said the entire ordeal was caught on a nanny cam.
Bentsion Murakhovsky's family is filing a civil lawsuit against Ihor Krutovskyi, 38, who was arrested after they said they caught the aide abusing the 78-year-old stroke victim on a camera in their Rego Park, Queens home.
Murakhovsky's grandaughter Gabrielle said her grandfather is completely paralyzed and bed-bound.
Gabrielle told 1010 WINS' she noticed Murakhovsky was acting scared which tipped her off to look at the surveillance video.
"One day I came home and I saw a little bit of red on his nose, the capillaries on his cheek a little bit had popped," Gabrielle said. "He was really anxious and nervous, and he was shaking, and I kind of understood that something was wrong."
She said that's when she and her grandmother decided to look at the recording.
"It takes (Murakhovsky) a while to kind of swallow the food, and he was shoving one spoon after another," Gabrielle told 1010 WINS. "(Krutovskyi) grabbed his nose and shook his head. I saw on the tape he put his fist in front of (Murakhovsky's) face and was shaking his hand in front of him."
As CBS 2's Alice Gainer reported, further footage shows the aide tapping Murakhovsky's head an yelling at him.
Gabrielle said she could clearly see on the tape how upset her grandfather was.
"How he was crying and screaming and fortunately I have no audio," she said. "When I saw the video I knew how upset my grandfather was."
Krutovskyi was sent to the Murakhovskys by the Personal-Touch Home Care agency.
"He's from the same part of Russia as my grandparents. He came in as a friendly person. He's young, he's masculine," Gabrielle said.
The aid apparently knew he was being filmed. The camera is up in a corner, and prior to the incident he went behind the TV and unplugged cables, thinking that he was disabling the system, unaware that the camera works off of Bluetooth.
Murakhovsky confronted the aid when he showed up for work the next day, and said that he showed no remorse.
"I looked at him and was like 'is everything OK?' He's like 'yeah.' I said, 'Did you do something?'" she said.
Gabrielle said she doesn't want this to happen to anyone else who uses the agency.
"I wouldn't want another sick person to suffer the way my grandfather suffered," she told 1010 WINS.
Krutovskyi has been charged with endangering the welfare of an incompetent person and endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly/incompetent/disabled person.
The Murakhovskys are suing both Krutovskyi and Personal-Touch.
"To make sure they change their practices and properly train and qualify their workers," attorney Philip Monier said.
1010 WINS has reached out to Personal-Touch Home Care for comment, but has not received a response.
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