InfoAnda - Murder case a glimpse into stresses of caretaking

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

US-ENTERTAINMENT Summary | 16 September 2009
Three actors exit Law & Order: Los Angeles series | | 13 January 2011
Online holiday sales up 15.4 percent: SpendingPulse | 24 December 2010

Egypt rescuers end search after ferries collide | 6 December 2009

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : Murder case a glimpse into stresses of caretaking

Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail More Yahoo! Services Account Options New User? Sign Up Sign In Help Yahoo! Search web search Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Africa Europe Latin America Middle East North America Murder case a glimpse into stresses of caretaking By MATT SEDENSKY,Associated Press Writer - Sunday, November 8 Send IM Story Print FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The scenes seared into the minds of those who know Bobby Yurkanin differed only in place: Whether in the pool, around the dinner table or at the bowling alley, he was the 50-something man whose life had long before been handed over to the sickness of his parents. Always his father was by his side. Yurkanin moved across the country to care for his dying mother, only to do it all over as his father sank into the fog of Alzheimer's disease. When the octogenarian grew combative, his son would calm him. When he didn't want to eat, his namesake would cajole him to take some fruit. The son assumed his caretaker role out of necessity, friends said, despite a strained family history and a less-than-perfect childhood. And those who observed him and his father together often describe the younger Yurkanin with similar adjectives of praise: Dutiful. Patient. Dedicated. Yet all of this disappears into a single scene: A beachside argument, the father's lifeless body lying in the sand, and the accusing fingers that then pointed the son's way. It disappears into the accounts of witnesses certain they saw the son drag his father into the ocean, let the waves steal his breath, then tell the 911 dispatcher called by an onlooker to turn the ambulance around. Yurkanin arrived at his lowest point following a well-worn path of the relentless, thankless, solitary task of caring for someone no longer recognizable under a mask of dementia. Millions of others know it. But Yurkanin's downward spiral ended with a charge of murder. ___ The success of Yurkanin's father as an engineer, businessman and inventor allowed a comfortable existence. The family home in New Jersey sold for nearly a million dollars, and there were two other more modest homes in Florida. But Yurkanin has told psychologists his father was an abusive alcoholic, his mother prone to psychotic episodes triggered by mental illness. He told his ex-wife that his father abused both his mother and his grandmother. For Bobby, an only child, childhood was traumatic and his family life strained, says his attorney, Michael Weinstein. Still, he went on to finish college and graduate school. He started law school but dropped out. He set up a paralegal business. And he excelled at something that would be cited when his father lay helpless on the beach. For years, he was a lifeguard, whose skill is evident in weathered newspaper clippings accounting his wins at regional competitions. In the last decade, he had stood guard within his family. He moved home to Short Hills, N.J., in the late 1990s to help care for a mother, who was struggling with cancer. It wasn't long after she died in 2001 that his father showed signs of illness, too. It became clear it was Alzheimer's. When the father resisted going in a nursing home, his son felt he had no choice but to take over his care. After Bobby Yurkanin assumed round-the-clock supervision and he and his father moved permanently to Florida, the disease progressed. And in time, the son began to show signs of losing control. At their home in Palm Coast, a neighbor, Kathy Mittelstadt, told police she once saw the father wandering the street only in a diaper. Numerous other times, she said she heard the son erupt in yelling and cursing. "I can't wait till you're no longer one of my problems," she said she heard him say. At the Playa Del Sol condominiums in Fort Lauderdale, where the father and son ultimately settled, the complaints began to amass. The father was repeatedly found wandering hallways, sometimes nude, and into others' apartments. Residents complained he dressed in front of an open door. Once, when Yurkanin was alerted his dad had been wandering again, condo employees said he went into a profane tirade in the lobby. Anna Fico, a friend who sometimes helped watch the father, says Bobby Yukanin confided that it was all too much. It's a dilemma many others have confronted, and sometimes crippling stress has led to physical abuse. People tasked with caring for a dementia-ridden spouse or parent have been accused of killing them in rage or in a warped expression of mercy to end their misery. Caregivers have ended up in prison. "The demands on caregivers are almost unfathomable," said Dr. Gail Gazelle, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School who works as a patient advocate for people with Alzheimer's and their families. "The anger, guilt, and shame that caregivers experience is intense." No one accused Yurkanin of abuse, Weinstein says. For all the unraveling that now seems apparent in Yurkanin's life, many who observed him with his father say they saw a son who, yes, would grow frustrated by his dad and sometimes raise his voice, but whose care was undeniably loving. Kenneth Wayne Carter, an old friend of Yurkanin, said he observed his law school buddy with his father during several visits of two to three weeks. He described both men as alcoholics, but said he was impressed with the way his friend cared for his father. The old man, Carter said, would suddenly stand at attention to recite the Gettysburg Address or sing the Penn State fight song or "The Star-Spangled Banner." He would take off his shorts and scamper down the street. His mood could change at any moment, and he would kick and scream, become combative and pick fights. "Bobby would always come to Bob's rescue," Carter wrote after Yurkanin's arrest, "and all would be forgiven." ___ It is Friday. Yurkanin needs to give his father a shower and a shave, but his friend, Fico, calls and asks them to join her down at the beach. Yurkanin decides they will. It's about 5 p.m. Not long after they arrive, the father pulls down his swimsuit and stands on the sand exposed. "Bob! Bob!" Fico shouts. "Bob, your father took off his clothes." Exactly what happens next varies according to different witness accounts. Yurkanin begins to swear at his father, according to a couple who were lying nearby. Then, with the father resisting, the son takes the old man into the water. Onlookers use the word "drag," and so does Fico. It's the only way his father will learn, the only way he'll listen, one witness quotes Yurkanin as saying in a declaration mixed with profanity. In roughly waist-deep waters, Yurkanin removes his father's shorts and diaper as Fico helps hold him up. The son goes ashore to throw out the diaper, returns to the water, and dives underneath to try to put the shorts back on. It isn't working; some say the father continues to fight his son. "I don't want my shorts on," Fico remembers him saying. "I don't want." Some witnesses say Yurkanin pulled his father's ankles upward to put the shorts back on and insist the old man's head went underwater. But Weinstein, the defense attorney, says it's not clear the father's head ever was submerged. Whatever happened, it becomes clear to many who are watching that the father is in distress. Joanne Turing watched through binoculars from her balcony. She says she could see the man's face changing color. "This guy's dying," Turing anxiously tells a friend. After Yurkanin struggles to bring his father ashore, some witnesses describe being puzzled by his actions. He places him so close to the water that waves continue to wash over his face, some say; others don't understand why the son goes back into the water briefly, or why it seems to take so long before he begins CPR. Some question how long he continues the life-saving technique; some claim he never performed it at all. Three witnesses call 911. In one call, Yurkanin's agitated voice can be heard in the background. No ambulance is needed, he tells the caller. "Oh sir, you're kidding," she says. "I'm his son!" he shouts, then later: "Get out of here! Don't send any ambulance. I don't want any ambulance." The caller pleads with the operator: "Help! Help! Help! Help! Help!" And then Yurkanin is heard taking the phone, talking directly to the dispatcher: "Forget it! Don't you come! If you come, I'm not releasing this patient." Another man gets on the phone, asking the operator to send help despite the son's pleas. "Does anybody here have CPR training?" the other man asks those around him. Paramedics arrive as the 911 call is still under way. As they load the elder Yurkanin for transport to Holy Cross Hospital, where he'll arrive in critical condition, the son wants to ride along. Instead, he is told to wait for police. Several witnesses claim Yurkanin shuffles his feet along the sand where he allegedly dragged his father. When a detective arrives, he asks Yurkanin why he forced his father in the water. "He smelled bad," he says. Weinstein, the defense attorney, says Yurkanin's response was the culmination of "deep-rooted psychological issues," not of any malice. Psychologists hired by Weinstein have noted Yurkanin had long felt helpless and hopeless, and said the intense load of caring for two chronically ill parents over many years resulted in post-traumatic stress disorder. The lawyer recognizes the way it all may look, but says there are reasons for each decision his client made. He brought his father in the water, he says, to quickly cover his naked body. When his father lay lifeless, he says, the son was so troubled he thought the man would eventually wake up. And in trying to refuse the ambulance, Weinstein says, Yurkanin was simply hoping to keep his father from possibly being agitated even more. If Yurkanin were to kill his father, he asks, why would he do it in broad daylight, in the middle of a public beach? Why would he have spent years caring for him and never shown signs of abuse? "He lost it, he absolutely lost it," Weinstein says. "But he would never, ever have killed his father." ___ The next day, at 11:01 a.m., the father dies. The body is taken to the medical examiner. Sand is still in the man's gray hair. Weinstein insists there is no way to know precisely what killed the 84-year-old man, that he could have gone at any time. But the autopsy concludes he died of "complications of near drowning." The medical examiner says dysrhythmia could have been triggered by swallowing saltwater or simply by being submerged. The report says the patient had mild hypertension. It also notes he was well nourished. The death is ruled a homicide. Two weeks later, Yurkanin is arrested on a charge of first-degree murder. He makes a jailhouse phone call to Cesar Navarette, a friend who would watch college football with Yurkanin and his father. Yurkanin is sobbing. "I know you loved your dad," Navarette tells him. Yurkanin is now free on bond while awaiting trial scheduled for January; the terms of his release mostly limit his movements to visits to doctors, lawyers and church. If convicted, the 53-year-old could be sentenced to life in prison, though there are murmurs there may be a plea deal instead. Only in retrospect has he become aware how overwhelmed he was as a caretaker, his lawyer says. Under the circumstances, he adds, Yurkanin feels no burden lifted. Recommend Send IM Story Print Related Articles Swiss open probe of al-Qaida nuke physicist case AP - 1 hour 8 minutes ago Hurricane watch issued for coastal La., Miss. AP - 1 hour 13 minutes ago Casey says war in Afghanistan needs more US troops AP - 1 hour 16 minutes ago Government: 40 dead in El Salvador flooding AP - 1 hour 31 minutes ago Casey: Shootings leading to a hard look at Army AP - 1 hour 36 minutes ago News Search Top Stories Japan eyes solar station in space Advertisers face resistance to on-line tracking IMF says stimulus needed to aid 'nascent' recovery Obama to push lawmakers on health care vote Opel chief quits after GM decides to keep European unit More Top Stories » ADVERTISEMENT Most Popular Most Viewed Most Recommended Gold price hits record after 'Sri Lanka purchase' US grieves after Muslim doctor kills 13 on army base Obesity causes 100,000 US cancers every year: study Opel chief quits after GM decides to keep European unit 10 percent jobless rate adds to pressure on Obama More Most Viewed » Somali centenarian weds 17-year-old Mobile phone giant Nokia sues Apple over patents Fibre may keep asthma, diabetes at bay, study finds More Most Recommended » Elsewhere on Yahoo! Financial news on Yahoo! Finance Stars and latest movies Best travel destinations More on Yahoo! News Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Subscribe to our news feeds Top StoriesMy Yahoo!RSS » More news feeds | What are news feeds? Also on Yahoo Answers Groups Mail Messenger Mobile Travel Finance Movies Sports Games » All Yahoo! Services Site Highlights Singapore Full Coverage Most Popular Asia Entertainment Photos Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte. Ltd. (Co. Reg. No. 199700735D). All Rights Reserved. Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Community | Intellectual Property Rights Policy | Help

Other News on Sunday, 8 November 2009
Two Britons Win $149 Million Lottery Jackpot
Escaped Circus Elephant Sideswipes Car
The Sky Is Falling: Mysterious Ice Chunks Hit Chicago Home
Japanese Gangster Opens Fire On Three Debt Collectors, Then Commits Suicide
New Mom Sarah Jessica Parker Relishes The Smell Of Dirty Diapers
Dartmouth Scientist Uses Modern Technology To Authenticate Iconic Oswald Photo
Atlanta Man Rescues One Dog, Ends Up With Ten
Iran to reject UN-brokered nuclear plan: leading MP
G20 wants 'ambitious' Copenhagen talks
G20 'agrees timetable' for monitoring economic policy
Obama to push lawmakers on health care vote
Lebanon's Hariri set to form government with Hezbollah
Honduran rivals signal new bid to solve crisis | International |
Study shows high cost of German reunification: report | International |
Iran releases 3 journalists jailed during rallies
British man provides photo for his own wanted poster | International |
Shortage of military therapists creates strain
China PM reaches out to Muslims in Cairo speech
Fort victims had different reasons for enlisting
To defang Taliban, some look to private schools
Pelosi: Obama visit inspired Democrats
Thousands throng Indian town for Dalai Lama visit
George W. Bush visits Fort Hood, wounded soldiers
Lawyer: Fla. office shooting suspect mentally ill
Afghan ministry: NATO strike kills Afghan soldiers
France asks Sri Lanka to end emergency laws
Another attack leaves US Muslims fearing backlash
Japan urges Myanmar to release Suu Kyi before poll
Ministry: NATO airstrike kills Afghan soldiers
Colo. man who threatened Obama makes weapons plea
Japan to increase aid to Myanmar: PM
Navy ship built with WTC steel goes into service
Prized mushroom collection returns to China
Muslim leader had troubling talks with suspect
Pohang beat Al Ittihad to win AFC Champions League
Obama to push lawmakers on health care vote
Police: LA celebrity burglaries led by 19-year-old
A Prophet nominated for six European film awards | Entertainment |
Sri Lanka buying gold 'to diversify reserves'
Police: LA celebrity burglaries led by 19-year-old
Advertisers face resistance to on-line tracking
In eastern Europe, people pine for socialism | International |
Advertisers face resistance to on-line tracking
IMF says stimulus needed to aid 'nascent' recovery
"Modern Warfare 2" strikes on Tuesday
Iran releases 3 journalists jailed during rallies
Award-winning Cuban blogger says she was beaten, detained
Dalai Lama begins visit to disputed India state | International |
Brazil blackouts result of cyber hacking: report
Families hold Rio memorial for doomed Air France flight
Market attack in NW Pakistan kills at least 8 | International |
Yushchenko to blame for Russia-Ukraine spat: Medvedev
Saudi Arabia says regains area seized by Yemen rebels | International |
Haiti's new prime minister wins confirmation | International |
China's Wen seeks to boost blossoming Africa ties | International |
House Roll Call: How they voted on abortion issue
Dalai Lama visits town near Tibet, angering China
Market attack in NW Pakistan kills at least 8
Clinton leaves for Europe, Asia
Japanese FM says no base deal during Obama visit
House passes health care bill on close vote
Funeral services held for slain New Mexico nun
Police: Suicide bomb in northwest Pakistan kills 8
Report: NKorea's Kim Jong Il fires top TV official
US ship built from twin tower steel commissioned
Weather forecast for the Asia-Pacific region
US is helping Guyana track terror suspect: US official
Malaysia to charge Japanese woman over drug haul
House passes resolution honoring Fort Hood victims
Deans's joy as rugby slam bid starts with England win
Japanese protest over US base before Obama visit
U.S. House approves sweeping healthcare overhaul
Obama wraps up Afghan review, eyes final options
China's new Nasdaq-style board sees wild start
India's fast-growing telecom sector hits trouble
iPhone disappoints in China launch: analysts
SKorean workers march against labour law plan
Chinese premier: Africa trade push is 'selfless'
An east German stockbroker wrestles with his fate
Taiwan breeders see big profits in rare shrimps
Nepal emerges as 'poacher's paradise'
Hopper: All's 'good right now' despite cancer
Guests for the Sunday TV news shows
Japanese cellist wins world's top competition
Swiss less wary of foreigners than a decade ago: survey
Pope a fan of sports -- but not doping athletes
"A Prophet" nominated for six European film awards
Nabokov's unfinished -- and unburned -- novel reappears
Taiwan court to scrap 'unfair' law on prostitutes
European Court Ruling Against Classroom Crucifix Stirs Italy, Prompts Appeal
Netanyahu's Washington trip clouded by Abbas threat
Japan eyes solar station in space
Saudis claim gains from Yemen rebels
NATO, Afghanistan probe deadly 'friendly' strike
Thousands in West Bank urge Abbas not to quit | International |
Russia must keep promise to supply missiles: Iran | International |
17 rebels killed in Afghan battle: ministry
China to boost aid to Africa as ties blossom | International |
War support flagging as Britain remembers fallen
Hurricane Ida strengthens, 42 dead in Salvador | International |
Women fight new battle in Iraq's insurgent corner | International |
Congolese forces arrest 100 over police deaths | International |
AP NewsAlert
Police: 1 killed, 3 injured in shooting near Vail
Dalai Lama visits Indian state disputed by China
China to boost aid to Africa as ties blossom
Chinese premier pledges funds, aid to Africa
Murder case a glimpse into stresses of caretaking
Thaksin to visit Cambodia this week: PM
Malaysian lawmakers put marriages on line in oath
Fuel convoy hit in eastern Afghanistan
British soldier killed in southern Afghanistan
Jimmy Cobb still 'Kind of Blue' after 50 years
Communist consumer goods make comeback
US Bordeaux prices at risk of 'bloodbath', experts say
Kosher comics prove hit with Israel's Haredi Jews
India PM invites world to invest in economy
Football fever transforms 'Carmen' in SAfrica
Shakespeare's MacBeth meets Africa in Botswana's opera
Indian PM hopes for 7 percent growth next year
Taiwan, China to sign financial agreement: report
Nobel laureate says global crisis a chance to change
Hundreds join anti-corruption rally in Indonesia
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph		BlogMeter 1.01