The shame of elder abuse

Agencies report rates of neglect, mistreatment are on the rise Agencies report rates of neglect, mistreatment are on the rise
By Rita Savard, rsavard@lowellsun.com
Updated: 06/09/2009 08:22:50 AM EDT
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San Ou, who escaped the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, has allegedly been a victim of elder abuse in Lowell from her own stepson. She is holding an old photograph of her mother and father. SUN/David H. Brow
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LOWELL -- Sitting in her warm, dark living room, the woman thumbs through old photographs.
It's a long way from Lowell to Cambodia. When she stops at a black-and-white picture of her parents, San Ou seems to feel the distance.
A wisp of a thing at 5 feet, 100 pounds, it's hard to imagine Ou hovering on the knife's edge between life and death more than once -- and surviving. But the nightmares she has lived through have taught her something no one can take away from her.
"Life is a gift," she says.
After surviving genocide in her native Cambodia, Ou, 64, eventually settled in Lowell, where she again became a victim of abuse. This time, it was at the hands of a family member.
Last month, elder-abuse reports ...

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