Woman Says Health Care Not Providing Service

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A woman said she is starving, and she said she's doing it at the tax-payer's expense. Dorothy Bradley, a Tenn-Care patient, said that her home health care nurse, whose salary is paid for by tax dollars, seldom shows up at her house.

"They just stopped showing up, you know," Bradley said.

Bradley said her illness has nearly robbed her of her voice, but she said she still wants her story to be heard.

She claimed she hasn't eaten since Thursday night, which is when her feeding tube shut down.

Bradley said she had been in a hospital for several months, but she came home three weeks ago. She said her apartment looks like a hospital room.

She said she relies on her feeding tube.

"I got it on, but it would just beep and say, 'Error,' so she's just been without," Bradley's husband, Joe Bradley, said.

Joe said Dorothy qualified for a home health nurse seven days a week for 12 hours a day under the Tenn-Care coverage.

A company called Home Health Care, of middle Tennessee, was supposed to provide the nurse, but Joe claimed in nearly three weeks, their nurse has only showed up three times.

Without the nurse present, Joe said he has had to call 911 a couple of times for help.

"She had trouble with a catheter," Joe Bradley said. "They were not allowed to fix it, so we had to take her to the emergency room."

After the Bradleys called Home Health Care, the company told them they were not supposed to have another visit until Wednesday, even though tax dollars should provide Dorothy Bradley with service seven days a week.

Channel Four's Chris Tatum contacted the company, and a woman form the company admitted that Dorothy Bradley's nurse did not show up for work on Friday. She also said the company was short-staffed on the weekends, but she claimed that her supervisor checked Dorothy Bradley's feeding tube on Saturday.

The Bradleys said no one has been to their house since Thursday.

The person with whom Tatum spoke said she would personally visit the Bradley's home Monday to check the feeding tube.

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