Dementia

...ba href=/dementia/a/b was arrested yesterday for allegedly beating an Alzheimer's patient with a bathroom towel bar in a nursing home, causing the victim's death.

Sharon John Hawkins, 62, is charged with murder in the death Friday of Norbert Konwin, 77.

He was arrested at 12:30 p.m.

at a treatment facility at 2051 Collingwood Blvd.

and is being held without bond in the Lucas County jail pending arraignment today in Toledo Municipal Court.

Mr.

Konwin died in Foundation Park Care Center, 1621 South Byrne Rd., where the attack occurred March 10 in his room.

His daughter, Pam Rumpf, said Mr.

Hawkins was her father's roommate.

"No matter where you put your loved one, if they medically need to be somewhere, you expect them to be safe," she said.

"Who would have ever dreamed this would have happened?

" Mr.

Konwin was taken to Toledo Hospital after the attack.

Authorities said he suffered fractured ribs, a fractured nose, and a collapsed lung.

He was released four days later and returned to the care center, where his health continued to fail.

Lt.

Bill Moton said police became aware of the assault when the Lucas County coroner's office notified them of the death.

Deputy Coroner Dr.

Diane Barnett has not made a final ruling, but is treating the death as a homicide.

The assault "most likely hastened his death or contributed to his death," she said.

The Ohio Department of Health is investigating as well, spokesman Sara Morman said.

She said state investigators already were at the facility doing an ann...

...ba href=/dementia/a/b and other psychiatric diseases showed substantial increases–19 to 32 percent–in the risk of death for the partner, for both husbands and wives.” Researchers found that the period of greatest risk is within 30 days of a spouse’s hospitalization or death, where hospitalization of a spouse can confer to a partner almost as much risk of dying as the actual death of a spouse.

The study also found that specific illnesses impacted the spouse differently.

For example, if the wife were hospitalized for colon cancer, there was almost no effect on her husband’s mortality.

But, if a wife were hospitalized with heart disease, her husband’s risk of death was 12 percent higher than it would be if the wife were not sick.

If a wife were hospitalized with ba href=/dementia/a/b, her husband’s risk was 22 percent higher.

Similar effects were seen in women whose husbands were hospitalized.

Further analyses found that the death of a wife in the previous 30 days increased her husband’s risk of death 53 percent, and the death of a husband increased his wife’s risk of death 61 percent.

For women, the effect of a husband’s hospitalization increased with age and the level of poverty.

For men, the effect of a wife’s hospitalization increased only with age.

For nine years, the authors studied 518,240 couples—more than 1 million people—between the ages of 65 and 98 who were enrolled in Medicare.

This study found that the stress ef...

...ba href=/dementia/a/b but exceed or differ in characteristics from those found as a general feature of aging.

MCI is associated with increased likelihood of progressive cognitive decline to a diagnosis of ba href=/dementia/a/b within a few years.

Interest in MCI derives from the hope that early detection of what is likely to be pre-clinical a stage of Alzheimer's disease will eventually be treatable, and prevent, or at least delay, progression to clinical ba href=/dementia/a/b.

(1) Vitiello MV, et al.

GHRH Treatment Improves Cognitive Function in Healthy Older Adults.

Neurobiology of Aging 27 (2006) 318-323.

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About the National Institute on Aging The National Institute on Aging is one of 27 Institutes and Centers that constit...