Officials said Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, died of natural causes. But Arakawa died first, leaving Hackman, 95 years old with advanced Alzheimer’s, alone in the house for days. She had been his sole caregiver.
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Who says nobody attempted. Also keep in mind he's been in decline for a very long time, lives in a different state, and his children were from previous wives.
My dad is an ahole magat, who called my sister fat, and was never a good dad. Maybe put yourself in other people’s shoes - you don’t know what those kids went thru.
This is what happens when you segregate old people from the rest of the family. Everybody complains about kids who won't move out, but multi-generational family living together is the norm for humans.
Way to make the poor woman look like she abandoned her post when she really just died of hantavirus. Damn. She was young and her death is also a tragedy.
I don't understand why they were not receiving outside help. No nurse? He's got advanced dementia and she was very ill, shouldn't someone have been helping them? It's so tragic.
Situations like this highlight the importance of having a strong support system in place, especially for elderly couples. It might have been beneficial if they had additional help.. perhaps a part-time nurse, or even a medical alert system to ensure immediate assistance in emergencies.
Seems like a confluence of circumstances that would have been nearly impossible to predict. She dies of a rare but deadly virus, and he's left alone unable to care for himself. No regular check-in with a someone because Arakawa was the the primary caregiver and apparently in good health.
Two daughters, one son. In their sixties. Lived out of state. But we all have cell phones, don't we. I read a few days after it happened a daughter was interviewed (but not sure when it took place), and said she hadn't talked to them for a couple of months. And that her dad was in good health. So..
Could be that the parents were assholes but there is always a way to keep tabs on them especially knowing they were at a vulnerable stage of life. Maybe assholes beget assholes.
Even families that get along just fine don’t necessarily talk all that often. My entire family doesn’t think anything of it if people haven’t contacted each other in a couple weeks.
Five minutes of every hour of TV news time has been wasted on this story for a week now. A million things are more important right now that are getting zero minutes.
Fair, but this story is eating an ever shrinking amount of national television news coverage. And if people aren't informed about the dangers confronting us, there will be a lot more stories to be told about people dying.
It's not like I'm offended by the story, I just don't think it should be occupying the nation's very limited attention span. Shit like this is why the majority of Americans can name more Kardashians than SCOTUS justices.
HE HAD THREE...COUNT 'EM..............THREE KIDS.............AND NOT ONE CHECKED UP ON THEM EVERYDAY????????
95 WITH ALZHEIMERS????????? WTF???
DISGUSTING PIECES OF SHIT...WALLOWING IN MILLIONS......
I'm a compassionate person but when people make their own decisions, and something goes south, that compassion is tempered. No one wants bad outcomes but they had a choice. Unlike most, they had the money to hire someone. They didn't because they didn't want to. I respect that. This was their call.
Definitely not natural causes but thanks for the peice on rubio. He is trying to start ww3 or nuclear war by sending weapons to hamas all for the pride of Florida. Let's see how the voters of de mantis react when they get that I am the one preventing future pandemics after covid ruined thier lives
What I haven't seen discussed is that she was running around to stores and leaving him alone apparently. Advanced dementia? He could have turned on the stove and burned the house down. Or if there was a burglar, he was helpless. Or if he fell while she was out. Dementia patients wander outside.
This is devastating. Chances are he had repeated episodes finding her over and again until his heart gave out. I’m not big on the water works but I had a pretty hard cry about this last night.
For a 65-year-old woman with her own health problems to care for a 95-year-old dementia patient with no help is a recipe for disaster. What a shame there was no one to step in and see that they both had the care and support they needed.
There was no mention of an aide to stay with Gene on the day Betsy was last seen out food shopping...which means Gene was left alone. Also, was that big house devoid of cleaning staff? If so, it may explain the rats. At 90+, a care infrastructure is mandatory. Presumably he had money. So disturbing.
I know, and it's an airborne disease. However, as the sole live-in caretaker of a 95 year old, I can assure you the work to keep a home clean - even just the (likely) limited # of rooms in which he frequented - is not an easy task. External help is essential, especially if the caretaker is also >60.
I find it all perplexing. Caregiving is very hard work. Even if you don’t want a caregiver/housekeeper there all the time, you’d at least get one of those around-your-neck monitors in case of a fall, no?
Only thing more tragic and sad is the number of people who seem to be more interested in the dogs than the fact a man in serious cognitive decline spent his last days alone and confused with his deceased spouse.
The one that past was in a crate. She had taken it to a vet a few days prior which is probably why it was in the crate while the others were loose. So it probably died of dehydration and starvation. Omg this whole thing is just tragic.
People don't seem to get, that he had a much younger healthy wife caring for him 24x7. Her death from that incredibly rare but horrible disease would have been fast and unexpected.
I wonder why his Gene's full-grown children didn't check with his wife to see how he was doing? I can't imagine not hearing from family for two weeks, no matter how "private" you are. Especially now that they're claiming how heartbroken they are and how dear he was to them.
They wouldn't have been concerned that she didn't respond to them on a bi-weekly or daily basis? If you care about your family, you stay in touch enough to know something is up if they go silent. If you're estranged, you find a way. Especially if you know their mental capacity is diminished.
I don't get this at all. Hackman has 3 children. Why were they not in constant touch with their father & his wife? What was wrong with this lady that she couldn't hire help-they were not without financial resources. Had to be something going on with her mentally too.
This shows the importance of supporting family caregivers. Many feel guilt when taking care of themselves & get no help. They tend to be more unhealthy, have more chronic conditions than non-caregivers. Maybe this could've been avoided with support systems in place. We need to educate caregivers.
Not necessarily. I'm a geriatric social worker and sometimes my clients can get enough services put in place at home. Sometimes not. Either way people need support to make an educated decision.
Agree. It wouldn't have. But placement it's not always necessary. I've had clients with dementia stay at home until the day they die. But they need the proper services I've had others who couldn't. Unfortunately, it usually has to do with how much money the client has. You have to pay for 24/7 care.
They're quoting the official statement. Also, they want people to click and read the article. If the reason is in the headline, no one will bother to go read further.
In reading all the comments it’s obvious that we all want the answers and causes of things that happen to ourselves and other people in life. In my opinion we all assume how our lives will play out when in fact we really don’t know. The lesson here is; enjoy life and let it be. 🙏
How sad, he must have been so confused. Have multiple members of family with Alzheimers and they need to be cared for like children. They can't feed or dress themselves and live completely in the past.
I know they chose to live very privately and isolated. In healthier times, that was peaceful for them. But somebody should have called or visited occasionally to check on them.
She’s 66 from all accounts was healthy until she caught hantavirus… she probably didn’t think she’ll die like that and haven’t planned for Gene’s care.
Those "officials" are dumbasses. Death by Hantavirus is *not* a "natural cause". These are the same people that blew the Alec Baldwin case...and many others. 😁
what a tragic way to go, how horrific too bad they suffered poor Gene being by himself good thing he didn't wonder off out at night looking for Betsy. How tragic, confusing and sad that his children never checked on him those 17 days+ knowing he had Alzheimer's disease. That's the ticker wow?
If the daughter hadn't seen him in over a year, and he had advanced Alzheimer's, makes me wonder why? Was she kept away by his wife? Something isn't right about leaving the man alone, no caretaker while she ran around to the stores and running errands. Could have afforded to pay one.
...as well as the dog, that had just had surgery and was in a crate, it probably starved to death, with no food and water or pain meds. It is all so very sad.
Because it's classified as such. Natural means she wasn't killed or died through an accident or any other means. Natural in this sense means that she was ill and died that way.
She was only 65. Depending on Hackman’s ability to manage basic personal care like hygiene, it might very well have been a situation she decided to manage, herself.
Yeah, that isn't a particularly unusual situation for a younger but still healthy senior to care for an older senior, whether spouse, parent, or so on.
And ironically their wealth might have been why they weren't tapped in with the local Elder Services, as those are seen as low-income resources.
There's also a real social and sometimes even legal barrier between "caregiver" and "person who needs care", where even if a caregiver is themselves suffering from major health issues they're not seen as qualifying for care themselves.
(No I don't speak from frustrating experience, why do you ask.)
TL;DR: Hindsight is 20/20, but I think this was just bad luck, not any particularly unusual or foolhardy choices on the Hackmans' part, as it's in line with what I see a lot of elderly people do and choose.
Was talking about this with a friend yesterday and we decided a life alert could've prevented this, and we should all get one well before we think we need it.
Especially if kids aren’t calling In regularly. Even when I was caring for my terminally ill mother for a short time by myself, I worried constantly about, “What if something happens to me?”
My dad lived with me the last 5 years of his life (d. at 96). Didn’t have Alzheimers, but had medical/mobility issues.
I could not have taken good care of him alone. We were very fortunate to have help.
I'm reading through the comments and seeing a lot of judgements. No one knows what Mr. Hackman and his wife decided BEFORE his illness got to the stage it was. Many couples make decisions about how they want to live out the rest of their days. #MayTheyRestInPeace
But being very wealthy, why didn't she have back-up daily or thrice weekly support for a spouse with advanced dementia? No one person can tend a 95 year old dementia patient day in, day out. Tragically, she made a judgment error.
Probably, but maybe she wanted to shield him from public knowledge of the indignity caused by that horrible disease. It’s such an intimate and debilitating horror that a lot of people don’t want to share it with strangers. In a way, Alzheimer’s killed her too.
Shielding a loved one from fear of embarrassment in these circumstances is out-dated thinking and can lead to this sort of tragedy. She wasn't thinking straight.
She was also a victim of sorts, having married him at age 25 when he was 55. She basically spent her life as his servant.
You are making a lot of assumptions, here. I would challenge anyone to think straight under the strain of caring for a loved one dying of Alzheimer's. Anyway, they are both beyond caring for either our praise or condemnation. So....
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For example, months would go by where he wouldn't speak with his daughter.
Such a sad tale that Hackman and his Wife passed but the kids didn't check on them
I literally talk to my mom everyday. This world is just going to shit with family values.
We love you #GeneHackman #AgingWithDignity https://americorps.gov/serve/americorps-seniors/americorps-seniors-senior-companion-program
95 WITH ALZHEIMERS????????? WTF???
DISGUSTING PIECES OF SHIT...WALLOWING IN MILLIONS......
https://japan-forward.com/worlds-first-sensor-that-predicts-movements-keeps-elderly-safe-by-alerting-caregivers/
#dogs
Just noting that the focus in light of the rather horrifying circumstances of how two people lost their lives is unseemly, at best.
Two were found alive and taken into a neighbor’s care.
Really?
What a shame they couldn't be watch out for him while he was alive .
https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/about/index.html
And ironically their wealth might have been why they weren't tapped in with the local Elder Services, as those are seen as low-income resources.
(No I don't speak from frustrating experience, why do you ask.)
I could not have taken good care of him alone. We were very fortunate to have help.
'Communist' countries less so...they have stronger social networks.
These are not natural causes. Solitude isn't natural.
She was also a victim of sorts, having married him at age 25 when he was 55. She basically spent her life as his servant.