this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2024
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A Republican Congresswoman who has been “missing” for the past six months has finally been found.

Rep. Kay Granger has served as the representative for Texas’s 12th Congressional District since 1997.

However, she suddenly disappeared from the public eye around July this year, when she cast her final vote against an amendment to reduce the salary of Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pesticide Programs to $1.

A curious reporter at the local Dallas Express newspaper did some digging on Granger’s whereabouts and has finally been able to give her constituents some answers.
[...]

We then received a tip from a Granger constituent who shared that the Congresswoman has been residing at a local memory care and assisted living home for some time after having been found wandering lost and confused in her former Cultural District/West 7th neighborhood.

The Dallas Express team visited the facility to confirm whether Granger was residing there and to inquire about how she planned to vote on the spending bill. Upon arrival, two employees confirmed that Granger is indeed living at the facility.

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[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 153 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Shouldn't something like that be reported when it happens? She's an elected official. Her seat has effectively been empty for at least six months now.

It's a small shit in the toilet-tub that is the current political state, but come on.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Overall, some has to sign off on her going into the facility. Assuming it's one of those locked in so they don't wander out type places. You would have to make that person some sort of mandatory reporter. Which I guess you could, but you would then essentialy require them to dig into a person's past, when currently thier job is just to ascertain the person's current mental state. Really this is the job of the legislature to track if she is showing up for work and declare her chair empty if not. Oregon has a rule that if you miss ten days of session in a row, you can't run again. This was to prevent walk outs. But it would also serve your purpose. But state legislatures aren't in session most of the time. So you would still get a big gap. But if it is not in session, the person's absence doesn't really matter.

[–] zephorah@lemm.ee 17 points 2 days ago (3 children)

To be fair, much patient care happens without knowing what the patient actually does or did for a living. Sometimes it comes up organically, sometimes doctors, nurses, caregivers ask, and sometimes it never comes up.

If the patient is what we would call a “poor historian” which is a typical thing that is found with dementia care patients (do you know where you are right now? And they really don’t, so deep dives don’t occur past the how oriented to present reality is this patient, beyond those generic determination questions, when they fail.)

So let’s say she has no family. Shows up in hospital, doctors determine dementia, she’s stable and it’s time to go, physical and occupational therapy in conjunction with the MD determine a lack of safety to going home alone so it’s now decided for this patient to go to a care home, and she goes to a care home. Who then, inside the care home, says: oh, maybe I should call the Texas legislature about this random patient of whom I know nothing personal, never mind HIPAA.

How would they know? How could they talk if they did, given HIPAA?

Or there is a relative making decisions by phone who never thinks, oh, maybe I should call her boss and tell them. They just miss that part in the midst of everything else.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 43 points 2 days ago

She has staff. Anyone with dementia bad enough to be in a care facility would have been showing clear signs for a while. At no point did the staff think to check or do anything for the past 6 months? What have they been doing while she's been in there?

SOMEONE knew she was there and has been actively hiding that fact for 6 months.

[–] ChaosCoati@midwest.social 19 points 2 days ago

True when it comes to the facility staff. But Congresspeople also have Congressional staff. Those people should’ve reported it, and should be held accountable for not. Which isn’t a law that I know of and of course won’t happen, but it should.

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 14 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Sure, absolutely that can and does happen.

But this is not a hypothetical situation. She has family. She has friends. She had an entire staff that worked for her. She is not only a public figure she is a part of the US government. She represents a portion of the US population. Everyone that knew her all decided not to tell anyone what was going on, for a very long time.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Her family probably wanted that nice, fat congressional salary to keep rolling in.

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 3 points 2 days ago

I definitely believe that could be part of it.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Edit: this is completely wrong, I misunderstood her position. This is insane.

~~It should be noted that she is not a part of the US government, she is part of the Texas government. They are separate things.~~

[–] Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Does delaying the announcement that she is vacating at all increase the chance that another GOP follows her? Cuz then, that would be why. If not, then probably just covering an embarrassing secret.