A West Virginia wife is accused of leaving her ailing husband on the toilet for 19 hours, allowing his condition to worsen before he ultimately died a week later.
Margaret Rog, 75, was arrested Tuesday after allegedly leaving her 76-year-old husband, who suffered from dementia, Alzheimers and legal blindness, on the toilet overnight.
Her husband reportedly went to the bathroom around 3 p.m. on August 20, but couldn’t stand. When Rog was also unable to help him up, she left him alone on the toilet without food, water or his medications, according to a criminal complaint obtained by The Independent.
Rog watched her elderly husband – identified in the complaint only as M.S.R. – groaning in pain for 19 hours, and recognized that he “needed assistance and did not call anyone,” prosecutors said in the complaint.
He reportedly remained stuck on the toilet until about 10 a.m. the next day, when his speech therapist arrived for an in-home visit and found him unresponsive.
An ambulance rushed the sickened man to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with heart failure, respiratory failure, pulmonary embolism, hypernatremia, sepsis and rhabdomyolysis.
He was also found with wounds to his backside and an “altered mental status,” according to prosecutors, who said that based on his condition, there was a noted “risk of death.”
He died at the hospital 10 days later, and investigators determined that his condition and the injuries he sustained from being left on the toilet were “significant contributing factors” to his death.
Rog allegedly made numerous self-incriminating statements to law enforcement, adult protective services and family members during their investigation.
These statements made authorities believe that she knew her husband needed help — but purposefully withheld it, according to court documents.
Rog was arrested Tuesday on charges of abuse or neglect of an incapacitated adult, according to the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Office.
She pleaded not guilty and posted a $75,000 bond, online court records show.
