Poor conditions found at Letcher County personal-care home

State inspectors found pitiable conditions when they visited Golden Years Rest Home, right, in Letcher County in December, the Lexington Herald-Leader's Beth Musgrave and Valarie Honeycutt-Spears report.

Kool-Aid dripping on insulin bottles, expired medications and a hallway smelling of urine and feces were among the conditions found at the personal-care home in December. Inspectors also learned the home's 35 residents could only bathe every other day because of a lack of linens, and there was no milk because the bill hadn't been paid in a month.

"Quite frankly, if children were living in the same conditions that are found at some, but not all, personal care homes, we would never tolerate it," Marsha Hockensmith, state director of protection and advocacy, told the Herald-Leader. The sub-standard conditions found at Golden Years are the latest to be discovered in personal-care homes in the state. (Read more)