91-Year-Old Woman Clinging To Life As Son Faces Neglect Charges

GLENVIEW, IL — The elderly mother of a Glenview man charged with felony abuse remains unconscious and in critical condition at a local hospital after police and paramedics were called to her apartment last week, authorities said. When they arrived, the 91-year-old woman was in cardiac arrest, suffering from severe bedsores and insect bites. When paramedics tried to perform CPR on her, they noted bedbugs hopping off her body and "in the folds of the victim's skin," prosecutors said at a bond hearing Wednesday in Skokie, Pioneer Press reported.

Robert Liss, 60, of the 4200 block of West Lake Avenue, Glenview, was arrested at 6:41 p.m. on March 17 by officers called to assist the Glenview Fire Department in the 300 block of Shermer Road with an elder neglect investigation, police said. Prosecutors approved a felony charge of criminal abuse and neglect of an elderly person.

Pioneer Press reported prosecutors said the woman was found covered in feces on sheets that had not been washed in months. Many rooms were filled with garbage, there was no running water and mold was present throughout the home. The woman, whose son was her lone caregiver, had not been to a doctor for up to four years and weighed less than 70 pounds, according to prosecutors.

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