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Who Is Robert Blakely Inhumane

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After nearly a century of housing thousands of people with mental and physical disabilities, “The Hospital for the Mentally Insane” located in Gardington, West Virginia has been shut down. The patients who were formerly housed in the institution are being de-institutionalized, rehabilitated and reintegrated into society. Meanwhile, further research of the treatment methods of patient care are being investigated by authorities. “The horrors of this institution are indescribable.” Officer Bart Steinberg reports. “These people were treated with such appalling neglect and inhumane practices, it makes me sick just thinking about it.” Steinberg explained. “The first thing I noticed walking into the institution was the smell. The overpowering …show more content…

Blakely is undoubtedly one of our most severe cases of patient neglect. His parents left him at the institution as an infant because he was born blind. As a result, Blakely was subjected to the maltreatment and severe neglect of the facility for the next 45 years of his life. For the majority of the day, he was chained to his bed, only being moved to a sitting position to be fed. In addition to being blind, he developed a multitude of other disabilities because of the neglect he experienced. Limited human interaction caused him to fail to thrive. Muscular dystrophy of his entire body was the result of never leaving his bed. He never learned to walk, never learned to talk and had never experienced anything outside the confines of the life he had known in …show more content…

When Robert first came here, he was withdrawn and completely overstimulated by everything. The patterns of his behavior were very subdued and we were unable to communicate with him at all. He couldn’t understand anything that was going on. Even the feeling of the breeze on his skin would startle him. He had never known anything outside the walls of the institution. We have been working with him on a daily basis, and he has gradually come out of his shell. We’re finding out that he has quite the personality and he even has started to try communicating with us! I tell ya, this man is incredibly strong to have made it this far. His recovery has been a combined effort of therapists, doctors, caretakers and friends. It’s been a long road to undo the damage that was caused, but for him to have gotten this far into recovery is truly a

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