Fort Tryon Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing — Attraction in New York

This will be the longest essay you've ever read about a place. I truly didn't know elder care was this dreadful and can't fathom how anyone gave this place anything over 1 star.

I fear for the care of all the patients in this facility. If you have any shred of compassion, do not put your loved one here. I''m surprised there's not a class action considering what I saw in the time my father stayed there.

The ground floor was remodeled, but don't let the shiny chandelier fool you. Step into the elevator, to the second floor, and see what the center is truly like. Mid-day, the halls were dark, dingy, and honestly like a scary movie— flickering lights, complete with decrepit, old, metal beds.

Things are hazardous. I mean, just the AC was coated in a dirty black grime between the grill's crevices. I can't imagine grime filled ACs are good for sickly patients. The AC's perimeter was taped down, and leaking fluid all over the floors. I arrived to visit my father to find pools of water on the floor. The water had been there since morning as when I cleaned it up, the vinyl was stained.

My father had a chronic disease and had recently had a pacemaker installed, and had multiple other procedures. For the fourth time that week his blood pressure dropped to 88/70. His blood sugar was out of control (to which I informed the nurse was out of the norm). He had been vomiting (I wont even get to the terrible service when I ran to the nurse telling her he was going to vomit. They didn't even have emesis bags)

The nurse didn't want to call the ambulance. His blood pressure was taken at 11am and he didn't get to the hospital until 4pm. Even before everything that happened my dad would tell me that his morning medications wouldn't be given until noon or 1pm.

You'll see all the nurses at the desk ignoring the help bell. The second time my dad's blood pressure dropped he was feeling very dizzy and sweating cold. I rang the help bell myself and waited half an hour and then just ended up grabbing one of them from the desk. They were just sitting there at the desk.

The nurse I spoke to was trying to disregard his symptoms. I told her to take his blood pressure and it was in fact low. I asked "at what point will you be alarmed?" She said, "Mm, 70." "Systolic or diastolic", I asked She laughed and said, "In general"

What is "in general"? The interaction made me even more concerned as this was not a laughing matter.

I can go on and on. I won't even get started on the food and how they disregard dietary restrictions. If you've had experiences as such please contact me. I feel heartbroken for the patients that remain there that have no family to fight for them.

RESPONSE TO OWNERS RESPONSE:

First of all, I informed staff of every single thing I’ve mentioned here. Nothing was done.

You’ve chosen to focus on the AC as a minuscule complaint instead of acknowledging the broader significance— carelessness.

Instead of giving my father diabetic friendly food he was pricked with more and more insulin. When I mentioned the dangerous puddle of water I was given a rag (not even a mop). When I complained about his food, I was told to bring him my own food if I had a problem with it.

Every time I mentioned ANYTHING to anyone they’d brush it off, be passive aggressive, or direct me to “the social worker”. I put it in quotes because who ever this illusive social worker is, he/she is NEVER reachable and has yet to return my calls. Something as simple as picking up my father’s belongings has also been an impossibility.

No, your facility is NOT 5 stars— saying it over and over won’t make it true. Repeating it like a mantra to those who tell you the truth about your center should not be validation enough for you.

My complaints aren’t coming from skewed expectations of perfection and you know it. This center is an entity bigger than yourself. You’re in the care industry. The bare minimum is compassion, if not...

Do not take your loved ones here. Everyone’s attitude was great but their care towards patients, specifically my grandfather was awful! My grandfather arrived on Monday night. Entering the facility, the first floor is very clean and receptionist is very nice but once you take the elevator to the 2nd floor where my grandpa’s room was, it smelled awful and the walls were all yellow with patches of wallpaper sheets coverings any rips in the wall and it was super hot. In the room where he was staying the floors were super dirty! On Wednesday while my family and I were at work, they sat my grandpa on the wheelchair for over 2hrs by himself while they “cleaned the bed & room” they told him. My grandpa being a very patient, very nice and shy elderly person he sat there waiting for someone to come and waited so long that he went number 2 on himself in the chair. They “wiped” him down and threw him back on the bed. Later on when my mother arrived around 6:30pm she goes to fix my grandfathers blanket and tuck him in better and that’s when she noticed my grandfather had a black garbage bag under him. Yes… one of those. And under the bag were chucks. My mom is a home attendant so she sure knows that that isnt okay and she immediately took it out from under him. She said when she pulled it out from under him, the bag was soaked in sweat and had feces on it. She rushed over to the nurses station and demanded to speak to the nurse who did that. This nurse by the name of mineira excuse was “it’s so he wont dirty the bed and then I have to clean it, I was trying to prevent the bed from getting dirty” At this point we were trying to control ourselves and we just ignored her and my mom filed a complaint downstairs. She also made a complaint about how dirty and smelly the room was along with the wheelchair that my grandpa went on and wasn’t cleaned. There’s a pad on the wheelchair and when we lifted that, it was full of feces. They urged us that maintenance would come up and clean the room. I as well, very civilized told the nurse at the desk that this was unacceptable and that I understand it is not his job to clean up and I know it wasn’t him who placed the bag but I expressed how bad that made me feel and I also told him that my grandfather is an alert human being & that he doesn’t deserve this and it’s totally unfair. I told him this not so he can do it but so that he can please get me someone that can. And when my mom came in this morning, it was in the same condition. Unfortunately, my mom didn’t take a picture of the bag under my grandfather as proof to help future patients because she was too furious to even think about that. We are a very attentive family, my sister, brother, and mother take turns and go at different times every single day during visiting hours so that my grandpa doesn’t feel alone. They did all this in the couple of days my grandpa was there while we went to visit him everyday. Imagine how negligent they are to patients whose family is smaller than mine and are very busy. I urge people to visit facilities first and do thorough research because no one should watch their loved one get treated like this and no person deserves...

My mother passed away here on Jan. 28th, 2025. Save for 3 night shirts all her clothes were gone. Over the years I had brought a good portion of her clothes here. She had a very nice wardrobe but they have all been stolen. What was in her closet were cheap tee shirts and shirts with the facilities name on them and other ugly shirts and pants. The bras I had brought her had the hooks absolutely destroyed making them completely unusable. More than even this a few years ago I found a beautiful black and white picture of my mother dancing at Carnegie Hall. She had been a dancer back then and she was absolutely beautiful! I brought it to her during the end of Covid but I couldn't visit her on the floor so it was brought to her. I was told that she had long forgotten about the pic and was overwhelmed with joy in seeing it. EVERYBODY admired the picture and told her how beautiful she was. Well now the picture can't be found and they say that no one on the staff remembers the picture. I wanted this picture more than anything else but it was probably thrown out, never to be seen again. Also now the facility refuses to give me any financial account information or the balance after deductions for her final funeral arrangements. DO NOT SEND your family here if you love them. If you take them clothes or mementos take pics of whatever you brought them and check their closet when you visit them.` The food is slop and practically inedible. At one point mice were so prevalent that I had to bring hard plastic containers to put her snacks in just to keep them from being devoured by the mice. When she was first admitted it was to only be for rehab and a wait to be approved for 24hr nursing care at home. I had told my mother NOT to sign anything without my being there. Within a few days of her first being admitted there I got a phone call from Mr. Micheal Karash saying that she had signed papers saying that she wanted to stay there instead of going home. There is no doubt in my mind that he badgered, cajoled, and pestered her into staying there. And then he diverted her pension and SSI to his facility, all without telling me which led her to lose her co-op where she had lived for 56yrs. Now I have to stop them from still collecting her SSI and pension even though she has passed away. Again, DO NOT SEND anyone you love here. I'm sorry that I was never able to get her to a decent facility where at the least her clothes would still be with her and cherished mementos would be kept safe with the patients and family. If anybody knows of a good lawyer please...