InvestigateTV+: Family demands answers from Medical Group Home
(InvestigateTV) — Allegations of neglect and abuse from the family of a developmentally disabled woman lead to more questions than answers.
In this episode of InvestigateTV+, we uncover a care industry’s systemic challenges as one family pleads for safer spaces.
Broken Trust: Family demands answers from Medical Group Home on treatment of non-verbal woman
For Brittany Bur, having her little sister Ashley Bur, 39, in their New Jersey home is both a relief and a heartbreak.
A relief, because she’s by her side.
“We can see her and we can oversee her care,” Brittany Bur said.
It was heartbreaking because Brittany and their mother, Cynthia Rowberg, felt they had no choice but to bring Ashley home.
“Have I given up on the system? Yes,” Cynthia Rowberg said. “Because there is no chain of command. There is no place to go to really answer your questions.”
Ashley is nonverbal and has been since birth.
“Can’t sit, walk, talk. Has a very, very limited language,” Rowberg said.
Because of her condition, Ashley needs around-the-clock care. However, finding that care, her family says, has sometimes felt more like a nightmare.
Over the years, Ashley’s family claims there have been mysterious injuries, unexplained bruising and medical emergencies, with little to no explanation from multiple facilities entrusted with Ashely’s well-being.
After several years of bouncing from facility to facility, Rowberg placed Ashley in a New Jersey Group home for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities just days before the pandemic began in 2020.
“And the caretakers kept saying, ‘Oh, she’s just tired. She’s tired.’ And we knew that there was something much more concerning,” Bur said.
Then, the family says they believe Ashley was given far too much sodium, which posed a threat to her life due to her medical conditions. The group home sent Ashley to the hospital in a medical transport van, with Bur and Rowberg following behind.
“The nurses couldn’t believe like her, overall mental status,” Bur said.
Our national investigative team reached out to the group home for answers. They replied that the matter had been investigated by the state and none of the allegations of neglect made by Rowberg and Bur were substantiated.
However, the family said they have no idea about the specifics of the investigation.
In an email exchange provided by the family, a representative of the New Jersey Division of Developmental Disabilities informed Cynthia that incident reports are “confidential documents that can only be released with a judicial order.”
“I feel hopeless. I feel helpless. I feel like the state of New Jersey has failed my child so miserably, that I don’t want to stay here,” Rowberg said.
As a mother, Rowberg believes she has a right to know the outcome of her daughter’s investigation.
“So, when this involves my child, why wouldn’t I be able to see it? Was there even really an investigation? Did you ask more than one or two questions?” Rowberg said.
Bur and Rowberg said they not only want accountability, they also want transparency, a better system for addressing staffers with histories of complaints and above all, they want empathy.
“You feel defeated. Like every little thing is a battle. And you feel very alone,” Bur said.
Las Vegas woman logs nearly 1,000 calls in one year to document spam problem
More than one billion scam robocalls are transmitted to U.S. phones each month, plaguing millions of Americans with unwanted calls sometimes every day.
One Las Vegas woman decided to document the problem by logging every call she received for an entire year.
Gayle Patrick, a retiree, tracked 948 calls over 365 days after she stopped answering unknown numbers in April 2024. Of those calls, only 311 were legitimate calls from people she knew, including family, friends and doctors.
“First, it started out of curiosity, then it became a mission,” Patrick said.
Patrick said she began tracking calls after receiving unwanted calls at all hours, including 4:30 a.m. and 4:59 a.m.
“In fact, when you got ahold of me, I didn’t answer the phone and you had to say, you know, this isn’t spam,” Patrick said.
CLT Social Club aims to create community, prevent loneliness
A Charlotte organization is trying to break the feeling of loneliness by getting people out to mix and mingle.
Those are both things Katey Shehan needed when she unexpectedly moved back to Charlotte from Haiti about seven years ago. She lived there while teaching English.
“I thought it was going to be, you know, that was going to be the rest of my life,” Shehan said.
However, when she returned, most of her close friends from high school had moved away and she struggled to find community.
“I was feeling very bored, very lonely, a little depressed honestly...and just felt a little lost,” Shehan said.
She started posting about where to eat, drink and hang out in Charlotte on TikTok. As people started to notice, they wanted to join her.
“I was grabbing breakfast, coffee, lunch, dinner with so many different people, one-on-one,” she said.
Shehan’s calendar filled up quickly, but she was exhausted and was spending too much money. So she started grouping people who wanted to hang out together. Then, in February 2022, she made an open invitation on TikTok for people looking for friends to get together. Fifty girls showed up. She did another invite four months later, and 500 people showed up.
Myrtle Beach restaurant celebrates decades of employee loyalty
Known for ribs, steaks, seafood, and free birthday dinners, Damon’s Grill is a Grand Strand staple where every meal comes with breathtaking ocean views.
However, it’s not just the food that leaves a tasty impression.
It’s the seasoned staff behind it.
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