Not The Onion

12558 readers

496 users here now

Welcome

We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!

The Rules

Posts must be:

Links to news stories from...
...credible sources, with...
...their original headlines, that...
...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”

Comments must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.

And that’s basically it!

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

853

‘Missing’ GOP congresswoman not seen for six months finally found living at dementia care home (wcbm.com)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

141 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A Republican Congresswoman who has been “missing” for the past six months has finally been found.

Rep. Kay Granger has served as the representative for Texas’s 12th Congressional District since 1997.

However, she suddenly disappeared from the public eye around July this year, when she cast her final vote against an amendment to reduce the salary of Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pesticide Programs to $1.

A curious reporter at the local Dallas Express newspaper did some digging on Granger’s whereabouts and has finally been able to give her constituents some answers.
[...]

We then received a tip from a Granger constituent who shared that the Congresswoman has been residing at a local memory care and assisted living home for some time after having been found wandering lost and confused in her former Cultural District/West 7th neighborhood.

The Dallas Express team visited the facility to confirm whether Granger was residing there and to inquire about how she planned to vote on the spending bill. Upon arrival, two employees confirmed that Granger is indeed living at the facility.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

81 is current average US female life expectancy. Where would you suggest people 'get old'?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

we were talking about dementia, not "getting old". 81y life expectancy means if you look at the cohort of females born 81 years ago, about half of them will have already died, heart disease being the biggest cause. The relevant question is how many of them (both the dead and living ones) will have had bad enough dementia to have needed to be in a care home for it specifically? I don't mean for mild forgetfulness, occasional senior moments, etc.
81y (actually 80y per 2021 table, https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html ) is the life expectancy at birth. For a 80yo US female, life expectancy from the same table is 9.38y. So the ones who are still alive at 80 still have some "gas in the tank". My mom is up there in age and she needs a lot of assistance getting around etc, but it's mostly physical issues.

She is in a "adult community" (i.e. apt. complex for old folks) and I spend a lot of time there seeing her. I see tons of over-80's there. A few really do have serious dementia, but most are at other levels of independence with many rolling around in wheelchairs while still mentally present. Dementia care is a different thing and it's not that common for someone who is "only" 81 to need it.

My mom at 81 was still mentally quite sharp. She's slowed down since then but it's mostly mobility and sleeping a lot. President Biden seems to have some dementia issues but again, they aren't severe enough that he needs to be in a care home for it.

It now sounds like Kay Granger is/was in a care home but at least according to the spin, it wasn't specifically for dementia, so who knows.