WA - Maggots may have saved life of woman allegedly mistreated by caregiver daughter

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Police: Maggots may have kept rotting Auburn woman alive. (seattlepi.com)
An Auburn, Wash., woman accused of doing nothing while maggots gnawed at her elderly mother now faces a felony elder-abuse charge.
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Deputies and medics arrived to find the older woman stuck to her bedding. According to charging papers, a deputy looking into the bedroom window saw maggots crawling in a large open wound on the woman’s leg; the bed sheets were soiled with the byproducts of injury and covered in bugs.

As deputies entered the home, Sherrie Morton, 46, emerged from a rear bedroom. According to charging papers, Morton said she’d been living at the home for 13 years and claimed her mother’s injury was only a few days old.

Paramedics came to a different conclusion: The woman had been injured at least a month before, and the septic, gangrenous wound could have taken her leg.

“The maggots may have helped keep (the woman) alive due to the fact that they were eating the rotting skin that was infected and helping to slow the infection,” King County Sheriff's Det. Marylisa Priebe-Olson said.
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The detective noted large piles of garbage inside the home. Priebe-Olson noted in her report that the scent of rotting flesh, feces and ammonia was strong even through a protective mask.
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Morton has been charged with second-degree criminal mistreatment of a dependent person. She remains jailed on $150,000 bail.
much more, making for equally queasy reading, at link above
 
Maggots are sometimes used medically if the patient agrees to it. They will eat dead tissue, but leave live tissues alone. So the living tissue has a chance to grow and heal the wound.

I am curious about the 'wound' that was in her leg. How did she get a wound in her leg if she was bedridden? A bedsore I could understand, but a wound to the leg I don't.
 
Now, leeches, leeches I could take. Bring on the leeches! (Ugh.) But....maggots? (Faints.)
 
Mysteriew, a bedsore is a wound. Pressure sores (bed sores) can develop into stage 4, which is often classified by calling it a pressure wound.

Also, when one sees a significant pressure sore, one doesn't think "pressure sore". LE, EMTs don't always recognize them for what they are - highly developed pressure sores. Shoot, some Drs and RNs can't identify them either, let alone 'stage' them once they get to that stage.

Bless her heart...and hell rain on the daughter who was supposed to be caring for this lady.

Best-
Herding Cats
 
Mysteriew, a bedsore is a wound. Pressure sores (bed sores) can develop into stage 4, which is often classified by calling it a pressure wound.

Also, when one sees a significant pressure sore, one doesn't think "pressure sore". LE, EMTs don't always recognize them for what they are - highly developed pressure sores. Shoot, some Drs and RNs can't identify them either, let alone 'stage' them once they get to that stage.

Bless her heart...and hell rain on the daughter who was supposed to be caring for this lady.

Best-
Herding Cats

Yeah I've seen them. But not usually on the leg. Shoulders, hips yes. But not the legs. (Though in a real heavy person which I guess she was I guess it is possible.) Bedsores or pressure sores usually happen from lying on the spot for too long. But most people can move their legs at least a little.
 
So sad this woman was mistreated like that.
 

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