South Florida caregiver left woman alone in hot bathtub for hours, police say

Violet Green arrested after woman with dementia found on bathtub floor

Violet Green is accused of leaving a woman alone in a hot bathtub for hours.

MARGATE, Fla. – A North Lauderdale woman was arrested Friday after she left a woman suffering from dementia alone in a hot bathtub for about four hours, police said.

Violet Green, 58, faces a charge of elderly neglect or neglect of a disabled adult with great harm.

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According to a probable cause affidavit, Green was the caretaker for the Margate woman between February and September of 2016.

Margate police said Green was bathing the woman Sept. 11, 2016, when she left her in the bathtub to stir some rice that was boiling in the kitchen.

When Green returned to the bathroom, the woman was lying contorted on the bathroom floor and Green wasn't able to help her up, police said.

Green said she couldn't call 911 because her cellphone wasn't working and couldn't ask a neighbor for help because the alarm to the home was on and she didn't know how to turn it off, police said.

The woman's daughter eventually returned home and found her mother sitting on the bathtub floor. She then called 911.

Green told police the woman had been on the floor for 20 minutes, but police said she had actually been left there for about four hours.

The woman was taken to an area hospital and then transferred to the burn unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Police said she had blisters all over her legs.