Elderly In Jompo Digusia Panti Until Feet Tied In Room For Years, 6 People Arrested By Bulgarian Police

Six people were arrested in the village of Bulgaria for cases of beating and giving drugs to patients in private nursing homes.

"The most frightening thing we see is people who become victims of constant physical violence - tied up, beaten, there is also evidence of administration of anesthetics," Bulgaria's Deputy Minister of Manpower and Social Affairs, Ivan Krastev, told Nova TV as reported by Reuters on Monday, June 9.

On Friday last week, police raided a nursing home with 75 residents in Yagoda village. Officers arrested five people on suspicion of mistreatment of patients and one other person on Sunday, June 8.

Eleven elderly people were taken to a nearby government hospital, while 64 others were treated by relatives or placed in government-owned facilities.

Bulgarian media reported several patients were found with bound feet, under the influence of anesthetics or locked in a bedless dirty room, without contact with a viable outside world.

"They locked us up like dogs. They gave us two slices of bread and in this hot weather they didn't open the door to let the air in, because they were afraid we would run away," 70-year-old patient Milka Raeva told BTV TV.

"It was a very difficult four years. God helped me. Many people died of hunger, without doctors, with injuries, and tied up," he said.

Bulgarian media reported that the facility charges 990 levs ($580) per room per month. Other illegal nursing homes in Govedartsi with 23 patients closed on Monday, June 9.

Like elsewhere in Europe, revenue in Bulgaria is unable to offset the increasing cost of treating the elderly. Some service providers have exploited vulnerable patients with substandard or even rough treatment rates.