Ohio's Esther's Law would allow families to put cameras in loved one's nursing home room

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - In 2011, Steve Piskor’s mother, Esther, was in a Cleveland-area nursing home. He says she was unable to speak and needed total care from the staff.

Piskor says he started to notice signs of abuse. The problem was his mother couldn’t tell him what was happening. So, he decided to set up a hidden camera and see what was really going on.

It was worse than Piskor could've imagined. He discovered eight aides abusing his mother.

"Abuse and neglect is just going to keep happening and there's no stopping it. There's nobody to stop it. The only way I caught [my mother's abuse] was with a camera. Otherwise, I would've never known my mother was being brutally abused," Piskor said.

Piskor initially asked about putting a camera in his mother's room, but the nursing home told him no. There was nothing in Ohio law that dealt with the situation, so Piskor put a hidden camera in his mother's room despite what the nursing home said.

"I knew the nursing home was going to fight me if I just took one incident [of abuse] and said, 'This is happening.' They would have dismissed it. Even after I took them all the videos of abuse, they still said it wasn't abuse. They weren't going to call it abuse," Piskor said. "[The aide] could've easily killed her. My mother was a small woman. She weighed 100 pounds, very frail and her legs were restricted."

Ever since, Piskor has worked to get a law that says cameras are allowed in nursing home rooms. Eventually, he got in touch with state Sen. Nickie Antonio. She sponsored Esther's Law.

"This piece of legislation, I believe, will really protect the most vulnerable Ohioans in a way that we haven't been able to do before," Antonio said.

Antonio says the proposal has had near unanimous support. The only opposition came from the nursing home lobby, but once some small changes were made -- like who could install a camera -- Antonio says the nursing homes no longer opposed the bill. After all, it could prove abuse wasn't happening too.

"I think the reasons you just mentioned are part of the reason why the nursing homes are OK with this because it can actually protect their staff and their institution," Antonio said.

"The aides could be doing their job great and maybe an accident does happen. Well, it's not their fault. So, it helps both ways," Piskor said.

Antonio hopes the law can pass both houses and be signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine by the end of the year.

"It's just heartbreaking to see all the stuff continuing to happen and there's no legislation about stopping this. Esther's Law is going to be the first legislation in Ohio that actually speaks to stopping abuse," Piskor said.