Michael Volpe Investigates Podcast The Impromptu: Episode 67 an Interview with Brandee Ritsema
Brandee has been fighting the nursing home which has been treating her mom for years.
The latest guest on the podcast is Brandee Davis Ritsema.
For years, Brandee has battled the nursing home- SKLD in Wyoming, Michigan- over the care of her mother.
In 2019, she was featured in a local article about how her mother was mistreated.
Davis is going to court in September to try to get guardianship over her mom, Michele, so she can move her.
“I shouldn’t have to keep calling and reporting,” Davis said. “My mom shouldn’t have to call me, begging me to call the home because her call light has been on for two hours and nobody’s coming to her room.”
Among Davis’ complaints to the state is that SKLD workers failed to answer her mom’s call light or change her diaper for hours; ran out of appropriately-sized briefs, thus forcing her to wear too-small briefs which ripped her skin; left her in the same clothes for five days and placed an aggressive dementia patient into her room despite her inability to protect herself.
Davis’ mom fell off a horse in Hastings in 2000 at age 40. When she emerged from a multiyear coma, she was paraplegic with limited use of one arm and a traumatic brain injury that left her dependent on 24-hour care.
“They decided to place a known violent dementia patient… in a room with an incapacitated adult who can’t do anything for herself,” Davis said.
Brandee’s mom, Shelly, has needed round the clock care since a horse riding accident in 2000 left her paralyzed.
In October 2022, Brandee had a meeting with management over the continued neglect shown toward her mom. She made this video showing ants all over her floor.
{Check out this article from The Daily Caller for more examples of nursing home abuse}
Brandee told me in the interview she felt the meeting went well, but the SKLD administrator, Sue Wortman, had other plans. Days after, she called police to report Brandee for exploitation. (First two minutes of the video below}
Sue declined to comment when I reached her on her cell phone. I also left an email with the corporate office which was left unreturned.
SKLD claimed that Brandee was taking photos and videos of her mom, and she even had a CashApp link on some videos. Quite exploitative.
After the call to police, Brandee was forbidden from seeing her mom for two weeks.
Things seemed to finally come to an agreement when she was told the investigation was over, but SKLD required she have a chaperone.
When Brandee came to see her mom on her own, police were called again.
Brandee was trespassed from the facility, but the fun did not end there. The cops tried to get her identification and when she refused, she was detained for a short period.
This caught the eye of civil rights lawyer John Bryan. He runs a popular YouTube channel and he did a video on the incident.
Bryan concluded that police did not have a right to detain her or to ask for identification, but more importantly, several hundred thousand people watched the video.
Bryan released his video on January 17, 2023, on YouTube.
Within weeks, SKLD was receiving threats: threats which may have related to Brandee’s situation.
They called police again.
Remarkably, all SKLD staff told the cop that the threats were made by someone with a male voice, but they still blame Brandee.
Apparently, it’s a conspiracy. Brandee must have gotten some male goons to threaten SKLD.
Brandee denies this.
She did say that after the video went viral SKLD was much more accommodating: holding meetings and making promises to improve her mom’s living conditions.
Not everyone believes SKLD is the problem.
I spoke with Brandee’s grandmother, Violet. Violet is Brandee’s mother’s guardian.
She told me that Brandee is a troublemaker; she thinks Brandee deserves all the police attention she has received.
Furthermore, she claims that any problems in the facility- like ants- were put there by Brandee.
Brandee of course denies this.
Finally, Violet told me to speak to Brandee’s mom for the real story. So, I did.
