Our next heroes are two employees at a now-closed assisted living facility in Castro Valley, CA: Maurice Rowland, a cook, and Miguel Alvarez, the janitor.This is not new, in fact it happened last year, but I just heard about it and it is certainly worth noting.
In October 2013, the Community Care Licensing Division of California's Department of Social Services ordered the facility shut down as the result of a laundry list of violations including handling injuries improperly and neglecting to hand out appropriate medications.
The residents were supposed to be relocated, but the department screwed up and even though most of the staff had already left, 16 residents - some of them confined to their beds - were left behind to fend for themselves.
That's when Rowland and Alvarez got together and decided they couldn't leave the residents alone. Despite their limited training, they bathed and fed the residents and doled out their medications. They worked around the clock for days - without getting paid, mind you - only taking quick breaks to shower.
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| Maurice Rowland and Miguel Alvarez |
All the residents were safely relocated and the incident lead the California state legislature to pass laws to hopefully prevent this sort of thing from ever happening again.
Which leaves only one question: Where are the medals for Maurice Rowland and Miguel Alvarez, who clearly are heroes.
Sources cited in links:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/01/valley-springs-manor-closes_n_6223160.html
http://www.npr.org/2014/11/21/365433685/if-we-left-they-wouldnt-have-nobody
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