Caught on camera: Nursing home employee charged with assaulting resident

An employee at a Durham nursing home at the center of a WRAL investigation last month was convicted of assaulting a resident.

After the initial story aired in September, WRAL Investigates reporter Sarah Krueger heard from more than two dozen people with connections to Carver Living Center, sharing various concerns.

Among them was the widow of a man who was assaulted by a staff member while staying at Carver Living Center.

The man's family, concerned about his treatment at the facility, placed a camera in his room. There, they recorded a man identified by court records as Rodney Wynn roughly handling their loved one, who was in the facility's care due to dementia and broken ribs.

The video shows Wynn grabbing the patient's arms and forcefully turning his body during a diaper change, then covering his head in sheets as he changed the linens and forcibly pushing him to the side as he clings to the bed's railings.

The family pursued criminal charges. Court records show Wynn was convicted in 2022 of assaulting an individual with a disability. He was sentenced to a minimum of 60 days in jail and one year of unsupervised probation. Wynn was instructed not to work as a certified nursing assistant (CNA) again.

The patient's family did not want to talk for this story and asked WRAL not to identify them, but they shared the video with WRAL News hoping it will inspire positive changes at the facility.

Several others did want to speak to WRAL News about conditions at Carver Living Center, including a former manager who asked to remain anonymous.

"This has been the worst facility that I have ever seen in North Carolina," the former manager said. "They don't bathe them, they don't tend to them, the staff yells at them very aggressively."

Resident Brenda Cox described falling in her room and said she was unable to get help for more than an hour.

"I scraped my arm and my leg and I was bleeding," Cox said. "I kept trying to get the CNA, kept trying to get the CNA, nobody came."

Claims from other people who spoke to WRAL News are plentiful, including meals that were inedible and a resident who said a staff member made a sexual advance on her.

Brooke Walker, a healthcare professional who used to work in a nursing home herself, was shocked when she saw what her mom was exposed to at Carver Living Center.

She said, when she went to visit her mother, she was covered in so much urine that it had soaked through her mattress and was dripping to the floor.

"The first two days I cried after I left just because of the conditions," Walker recalled. "It is what you fear when you place your loved one in a nursing home."

She is among two families who told WRAL News they filed formal complaints with the state in recent months. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services would not confirm active investigations.

The owner of Carver Living, CCH Healthcare, owns 15 facilities in North Carolina and 16 in Ohio, according to its website.

Over weeks, WRAL Investigates has received no response from Carver's on-site management or CCH Healthcare despite numerous attempts by phone, by email and in-person.

Residents and former staff members describe Carver as a "last resort" facility. Many patients there do not have the financial means to go elsewhere, and moving is further complicated because open beds in other facilities are scarce.

The more than two dozen people who spoke to WRAL Investigates believe the facility needs a major overhaul, or more.

"I think it needs to be shut down by the state," the former manager said.