During the meeting, board member Sam Kukich delivered a blunt message to the body: We have a fire. We have a bad fire. The house is burning down."

Kukich founded her advocacy organization Dignity for the Aged after she said her mother-in-law received inadequate care at five different facilities in the Tidewater region between 2016 and 2019.

"I had no idea that when we were paying $10,000 a month that there would be any issues with regard to basic hygiene, feeding, theft, abuse and neglect. Little did I know that the regulations and laws would be ignored and my mother-in-law would be subjected to life without proper care or dignity," she said.

When her mother eventually died in a nursing home at 1:00 in the morning, Kukich said she pushed the call light to alert staff of the death, but s

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