JINHA

BURSA – Reports of neglect and inhumane treatment of children and elderly patients have emerged from a nursing facility in the Marmara region city of Bursa, in northwestern Turkey.

According to the newspaper Radikal, three nurses at the Bursa İbn-I Sina private nursing facility for those with mental illness have reported that children in the facility were handcuffed and denied food and that seven patients lost their lives as a result of not being given adequate medical treatment. The nurses are providing photographic proof of the abuse to the local prosecutor.

Nurse S.D. reports that when she asked management why a teenage child was locked in a room and bound with ropes, management said that the child was “attacking.” On one occasion, employees handcuffed a child from behind and pushed the child towards a chair. The employees told S.D., “Ms. S, don’t be nice to them. You’ve got to behave this way so that they know you’re strong.” The nurses report that hitting children was widespread in the facility.

Nurse K.M. reports that at least two patients were not taken to the hospital and their attacks of vomiting were left untreated, resulting in several deaths by neglect.

Facility director İbrahim Halil Divli has responded that “one child was handcuffed on doctors’ orders,” but has denied the other charges.

(fk/cm)