Daniel Bethencourt

Detroit Free Press

A senior living center in Livonia became a scene of turmoil Wednesday as state health officials abruptly suspended the home’s license to operate two of its buildings and essentially evicted several senior citizens with just hours’ notice.

The cause of the emergency suspension, according to claims in a state order taped to the door: Ashley Court of Livonia, which specializes in Alzheimer’s disease and specialty care, failed to protect its residents and properly maintain the premises.

It’s not clear how many were affected.

The order was issued so quickly that Livonia Mayor Dennis Wright said he only found out at 3 p.m., just before the facility’s suspension began at 6 p.m. He said he raced over to find that even Livonia police were having trouble locating the facility’s owner. The owner still could not be located by about 5 p.m. Wednesday, and no staff members at the facility could be reached for comment.

"We've definitely got some problems here," Wright told the Free Press while standing bewildered in the front parking lot, as a couple dozen family members frantically escorted their loved ones away from the building at 32406 Seven Mile Road. He added: "We're trying to get people out as fast as we can."

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Ashley Court had been the subject of scrutiny for some months, according to the order, which was issued by a bureau of the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA).

Starting in December, a state fire marshal inspector cited the facility with 25 deficiencies and allowed for time to fix them. The order does not say what the deficiencies are.

Then in February, an 86-year-old woman fell in her bedroom around midnight and was on the floor for six hours before staff noticed her. When she was taken to a hospital, she had suffered circulation and kidney problems and bruising to her face, among other injuries.

It turned out that the staff not only failed to check on the residents or change their undergarments that night, but falsified reports saying they had checked, the order states.

Later in March, another fire marshal inspection still found 13 deficiencies, followed by another report of 12 deficiencies in May.

And between the dates of those inspections, an 88-year-old woman “was dropped, causing her to hit her face on an end table,” the order says without further details. The order notes that there were reports of residents’ undergarments not being changed frequently.

“Due to the serious nature of the above violations and the potential risk they represents (sic) to vulnerable adults in the (facility’s) care, emergency action is required,” the order says.

It’s not clear what time the emergency order was officially issued — the document lists the date of signing as Wednesday — but relatives and family began finding out just a couple hours before the cutoff time of 6 p.m., when the care facility was officially no longer operating two of its buildings and residents needed to be off the premises.

Nicki Brackett of Livonia said she learned of the closure through her mother who had been watching the news at around 4:30 p.m. That came as a came as a shock since her grandfather, Ed, is a resident and has Alzheimer’s disease.

The family immediately mobilized to help pack his belongings into suitcases.

“It seemed OK,” Brackett said of the care center.

Another patient's relative, Linda Fambrough of Brighton, got a call about 3 p.m. that her 91-year-old mother, Ruth, who has Alzheimer’s disease, would need to leave as well.

Fambrough was at a doctor’s appointment, but she rushed to the scene with her two brothers.

“This is just terrible,” Fambrough said. “These people with Alzheimer’s and dementia — they don't know what's going on. This is just the worst.”

“As you can tell I'm very upset about it.”

Contact Daniel Bethencourt: dbethencourt@freepress.com