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A KFF Health News investigation details how the sons of Marjorie Tingley resisted pressure to sedate their 85-year-old mother with antipsychotics at a Michigan memory care facility, and how she was sent to the ER eight times and evicted before dying in January 2025. Their lawsuit alleging retaliation goes to trial next year if mediation fails.
The family of an 85-year-old Michigan woman with dementia is suing her former memory care facility, alleging it sent her to the emergency room eight times and then evicted her in retaliation for the family’s refusal to consent to antipsychotic sedation, according to a KFF Health News investigation. Marjorie Tingley died at another facility in January 2025; her sons’ remaining claims are scheduled for trial early next year if mediation fails.
In December 2024, according to the report, Tingley’s adult sons received an urgent email from the dementia care unit at Vista Grande Villa, a senior living community in Michigan, saying their mother posed a safety threat. Facility behavior logs recorded that on at least 10 days in the prior month she had hit, kicked, or elbowed aides during help with dressing, bathing, and toileting. The facility sought permission to sedate her.
As the family alternately acquiesced to and resisted the facility’s insistence on medication, administrators began calling 911 after altercations, according to ambulance and police dispatch records. After four ER trips, Vista Grande issued a 30-day eviction notice and sent her to the hospital four more times while the family arranged new placement, medical records show. “I want her out of here,” a flustered administrator told an ambulance crew, one entry shows.
The lawsuit accuses Vista Grande and its then-director of negligence, emotional distress, and wrongful eviction, and asserts the ER trips were retaliatory. Vista Grande and the director have denied the allegations; their attorneys did not respond to requests for comment. In a legal filing, Vista Grande called the recommended drugs “routine medication” and said it hospitalized Tingley “because of her family’s refusal to allow Ms. Tingley to be treated on site.” A judge has dismissed the negligence claim on legal grounds.
Why Families Face a Wrenching Choice
The case illustrates a dilemma confronting families across the country. More than 5 million Medicare beneficiaries have a dementia diagnosis, and a JAMA study estimated that 1 in 4 Medicare beneficiaries with dementia are potentially inappropriately prescribed antipsychotics and other brain-altering medications. The FDA requires warnings that these drugs increase the risk of death in older people with Alzheimer’s and similar diseases, and they can cause delirium, falls, and hospitalizations.
Families with misgivings must choose between consenting to medications they fear, or risking eviction from a facility. “They just wanted to have her drugged up,” David Tingley, one of her five sons, told KFF Health News. “It’s a lot easier to take care of someone who’s just out of it.”
Decades of Failed Fixes on Sedation
Congress has raised alarms about sedation in long-term care for half a century; a 1975 Senate report described “an ugly pattern of prescription drug misuse, with harsh consequences to patients” in nursing homes. In 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services launched the Partnership to Improve Dementia Care to curb overprescribing. Despite some progress, antipsychotics — which the FDA has approved primarily for schizophrenia — were still given to 1 in 7 nursing home residents in 2025, excluding patients with schizophrenia.
Dementia damages brain regions regulating impulse control and perception, and aggression can stem from fear, pain, or unmet needs that patients cannot otherwise communicate. KFF Health News previously found federal inspectors cited nursing homes more often for resident-to-resident abuse than any other type of abuse, neglect, or exploitation. Memory care facilities such as Vista Grande, one of more than 6,000 nationwide specializing in dementia care, typically charge more than standard assisted living.
“They just wanted to have her drugged up. It’s a lot easier to take care of someone who’s just out of it.”
— David Tingley, son of Marjorie Tingley
What the Lawsuit Has Not Settled
The core allegations remain legally unresolved. Vista Grande and its former director deny wrongdoing, and a Michigan Circuit Court judge has already dismissed the negligence claim on legal grounds. The remaining claims — emotional distress, wrongful eviction, and alleged retaliatory hospital transports — have not been adjudicated. Otterbein SeniorLife, which acquired the facility and renamed it Otterbein Jackson SeniorLife Community, is not named in the lawsuit and did not respond to requests for comment; its position on the events is unknown. Whether the ER trips were medically necessary or retaliatory is disputed and may be determined only at trial.
Mediation and the Path to Trial
The remaining claims are set for a trial in early 2026 if mediation fails, according to the report. The outcome could clarify how much leverage memory care facilities have over families who decline psychotropic medications. Broader scrutiny continues: the CMS campaign against overprescribing remains active, and the case adds to pressure on the more than 6,000 dementia-care facilities nationally to manage aggression without resorting to drugs that regulators warn can be deadly for these patients.
Key Questions
Why are antipsychotics risky for dementia patients?
The FDA requires warnings that antipsychotics increase the risk of death in older people with Alzheimer’s and similar diseases. They can also cause delirium, falls, and hospitalizations, according to a JAMA study cited in the report.
How common is antipsychotic use in dementia care?
A JAMA study estimated 1 in 4 Medicare beneficiaries with dementia are potentially inappropriately prescribed antipsychotics or other brain-altering drugs. In nursing homes, antipsychotics were given to 1 in 7 residents in 2025, excluding schizophrenia patients.
What does the Tingley family allege?
The lawsuit alleges negligence, emotional distress, and wrongful eviction, and claims the facility initiated eight ER trips in retaliation for the family’s refusal to consent to medication. Vista Grande denies the allegations; the negligence claim has been dismissed on legal grounds.
Can a memory care facility evict a resident?
Yes — facilities can issue eviction notices, and families who refuse medications they fear face that risk. That dynamic, described in the report as “consent to drugging loved ones or risk eviction,” is central to the case.
What has the government done about overprescribing?
CMS launched the Partnership to Improve Dementia Care in 2012, a 14-year campaign that has reduced antipsychotic use in nursing homes, though roughly 1 in 7 residents still receive them.
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