|
|
Shortly after her father's hospital stay ended in 1986, Gay Nell Harper and her family decided that a nursing home in Corpus Christi would be the best for him. After a six-week stay, she noticed a bruise on her father's hip, and immediately insisted on an X-ray after telling the director of nurses. Although the X-ray showed nothing was wrong with her father, the bruise grew steadily worse, covering nearly the entire left side of his body. Three days later R.D. Lane died. According to Harper, the funeral home director embalmed Harper's father without the family's permission, preventing them from getting a successful autopsy done. She said they told her the cause of death was a heart attack. By I992, after numerous state investigations, and a review of the autopsy by two forensic pathologists in Dallas and San Antonio, Harper had proof that her father would not have died with proper medical attention: the bruise was treatable. Through her efforts to substantiate her claims of nursing home negligence, Harper joined the Texas Advocates for Nursing Home Residents (TANHR), a non-profit organization committed to helping educate the families and reform nursing home negligence and abuse. Originally from Big Spring, Harper went to high school with her husband and moved to Corpus Christi where she worked as a vice president of First City Bank. A mother of two, she also spent a few years working as an interior decorator, but after her father's death her focus changed to TANHR. "I've helped so many people, I can't even begin to think of how many. They call and say (family members in nursing homes) have bruises, are lying in feces and ask me and other adovocates to help them,” Harper said. After many years of corresponding with state Sen. Judith Zaffirirn, D-Laredo, and Sen. Elliott Naishtat, D-Auslin, and helping out with TANHR's Coastal Bend Unit in Corpus Christi, Harper's determination paid off. In 1997, Senate bill 190 was signed by then Governor George W. Bush regarding nursing home care. That same year, Harper was awarded the Jefferson Medallion Award for her work with the Coastal Bend Unit. The Clear Lake resident says she enjoys and is proud of her work for the non-profit organization. She travels all over Texas and the United States, attending conferences and giving speeches, meeting with other nursing home groups such as The Association for the Protection of the Elderly and The National Citizen's Coalition for Nursing Home Reform in Washington D.C. which helps them stay in touch with the federal level. Her husband of 51 years is impressed at her strength and determination. "I'm a hundred percent behind her," Jimmie Harper said of his wife. "I help write her speeches, and now that I am retired, I go with her to Austin and Washington sometimes. She makes me proud every day doing what she does. Sitting in her home, surrounded by files from her work over the past 18 years, Harper said, “My work has been a blessing. I have never had such a proud feeling in my life than when I make a difference to help families in need. It is the most rewarding feeling. I know my father would be proud of me.” |