Hoarding Can Turn Deadly
This is a shocking, but true, story from one of our recent projects. An 82-year-old man died in his heavily hoarded home, and he lay there dead for over a week before a neighbor called the police because the man’s dog wouldn’t stop barking near his rear bedroom window, and there was a foul smell coming from his back yard into the neighbors’ yards.
It took paramedics over six hours to remove his body from his hoarded home. They had to break the front window and crawl over seven feet of debris to reach the body in the rear bedroom. On this particular project, our team pulled out approximately 37 tons of trash, gross filth (including rotted food, dead rats and mice), clothing and furniture soiled with fecal matter and urine, and tens of thousands of newspapers and magazines. The project lasted five days with a full crew. Lots of work to say the least. Don't Let Hoarding Kill Your Loved One
We urge our clients to understand that sometimes you, as the family member, may need to give “tough love.” This might mean placing a call to Adult Protection Services for a welfare check, in the event your family member refuses to let you inside the home.
The sad fact is that many elderly people with severe hoarding disorder, who are living in a cluttered, hoarded, generally degraded environment, will—whether from shame, embarrassment, or fear—not allow anyone, including family, friends, neighbors, home health workers, or even city and county officials, to see the inside of their homes. It’s critical for someone, whether family members or others, to gain access to their elderly family member’s hoarded property to see how they are living. It may even mean taking them out for lunch or dinner, or even a walk, so that someone else can see the inside of the home. Family members need to get an extra set of keys by any means possible in order to perform welfare checks. This job, and so many others reported in the news or, worse, going unreported, shows the huge risks to elderly and/or disabled seniors (or others) who live in highly hoarded or cluttered environments due to risk of falling—which can lead to serious injury or death—fire and electrical hazards, the inability of rescue workers to get through the hoard, bio-hazard issues—including human and animal feces and urine—and other health issues such as malnutrition and compromised immune systems. Call for Help
At Clutter&Hoarding Pros™, we receive dozens of calls every month outlining exactly this situation. We always hope help will arrive before such tragic deaths occur, but sadly that is not always the case. If your elderly or disabled loved one either has been rescued and removed from this situation in time, or has met a sad and lonely death due to their hoarding, please contact us through our Contact page, call Michelle Quintana (the owner) at 562-972-3180, or email us at [email protected].
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AuthorMichelle Quintana Featured Service Information
• Hoarding Clearout Saves More than "Stuff" · Why Clients Hire—and Trust— Clutter&Hoarding Pros · Levels IV & V Clear-Out · Is My Loved One a Hoarder? • After the Clean-Out • Animal Hoarding • Decluttering for the Elderly • What Is a Hoarding Clean- Out? • Hoarding vs. Clutter • Hoarding Help in Orange County • Hoarding Help in LA County • How to Choose a Hoarding Clean-Out Company • Why a Junk-Hauling Service Is NOT What You Need! • Paper, Paper, Everywhere! • Are You a Concerned Third Party? • Estate Clearing for a Loved One—You're Not Alone • Clearing a Hoarded Estate During the Holidays • Where Do You Fit In? • Deep Cleaning a Cleared Estate • "That's okay, we have insurance . . ." • Planning to Sell Your Hoarded Estate? • In-Home Assessment for Hoarding Remediation-- Second Step to Success • Is Your Relative's Home Red-Tagged? • 7 Simple Step to a Successful Estate Sale |