Castro Valley care home patients abandoned

The front of the Valley Manor facility had a walkway to a backyard area Sunday October 27, 2013 in Castro Valley, Calif. The Valley Manor Community Care Home was shut down by the state and residents taken to local hospitals after much of the nursing staff left. less The front of the Valley Manor facility had a walkway to a backyard area Sunday October 27, 2013 in Castro Valley, Calif. The Valley Manor Community Care Home was shut down by the state and residents taken to ... more Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Castro Valley care home patients abandoned 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

Fourteen sick and elderly patients were abandoned at a Castro Valley assisted living facility when the staff apparently walked out Thursday after the state ordered the home closed, Alameda County sheriff's deputies said.

Paramedics called to Valley Manor Residential Care at 17926 Apricot Way on Saturday afternoon found a notice on the door from the state Department of Social Services ordering the site to be closed as of Oct. 24.

Inside, they found the patients, many of them bedridden, attended by only a handful of staff members.

"Thursday came around, and the majority of the staff left and the majority of the patients remained," said sheriff's Sgt. J.D. Nelson.

The staff members who stayed, including a cook, a janitor and what is believed to be a single caretaker, "stayed because they felt bad for the patients," Nelson said. "They weren't getting paid or anything."

The patients all were taken by ambulance to other centers in the county, and none seemed to be suffering additional health problems from their abandonment.

The transport wasn't easy, Nelson added.

"We had people who were bedridden, in wheelchairs, amputees and people with mental problems. It ran the gamut," he said.

Deputies are still trying to determine how many people were at the center when it closed to ensure that none of the patients had wandered off on their own, Nelson said.

As of Saturday night, sheriff's investigators had not been in touch with the center's owners or the state officials responsible for the closure.

"Right now we have a lot more questions than answers," Nelson said. "There's a question of what happens when the state closes a home, whether they send anyone in afterward to see what happened."

The incident is being treated as a criminal case, and the investigation is continuing.

"All we know is that 14 people were left here today that shouldn't have been there by themselves," Nelson said.