Wife of WWII Hero Douglas Bader Suffers Neglect from Care Home

Joan Bader, the wife of the late WWII pilot and hero Sir Douglas Bader, reportedly was left neglected by the nursing staff of the care home she was in after suffering from a stroke.

Mrs. Bader, now 92, has been in four care homes already since she became sickly and frail a few years back.

Her daughter, Wendy McCleave, claimed that in one of those four care homes she was in, the nursing staff left her alone when she collapsed following a stroke and even refused to call an ambulance for her.

She divulged this in the foreword she wrote for the book Behind Those Care Home Doors, a book about neglect authored by Adeline Dalley, a palliative nurse who also cared for Mrs. Bader.

“When my mother suffered inadequate care following a second stroke at this care home, Adeline had the courage to safeguard her against a system that is not unknown for closing ranks.

“As a result my mother was hospitalised and has almost miraculously recovered.

“Hearing how often carers see and even report ill-treatment or neglect in care homes, but still get ignored or are intimidated into silence, is frightening.

“Those with families or friends to look out for and speak for them are the lucky ones. But what of those without? Who will be their voice?” the foreword reads.

According to Miss Dalley, 34, when Lady Bader suffered a stroke, she was told to leave her “to see a GP on Monday”, an order which shocked her yet she was compelled to obey.

Sir Douglas and Lady Joan Bader (left); the book about care home neglect, Behind those Care Home Doors (right).
Sir Douglas and Lady Joan Bader (left); the book about care home neglect, Behind those Care Home Doors (right).

As she said in an interview with the Daily Mail:

“Poor Lady Bader is in her fourth home due to poor care.

“Wendy’s foreword talks a lot about how Sir Douglas would have approved of my book. I looked after Joan after she suffered a stroke but I was not allowed to act.

“So I went further to safeguard everyone at the home – although no one else would speak up. So many carers are intimidated into silence.”

Douglas Bader in 1940 during the Battle of Britain with his Hawker Hurricane.
Douglas Bader in 1940 during the Battle of Britain with his Hawker Hurricane.

Sir Douglas Bader, lady Joan Bader’s late husband, had lost both his legs in a crash yet did not allow his disability to define his flying career.

He fought during WWII as a pilot and went on to become one of the greatest heroes Britain ever had.

His disability even became an advantage in some of the troublesome circumstances involved in flying – the G-force bring faintness to healthy pilots as the blood from their heads rush to their feet, Sir Douglas Bader, who had both his legs amputated after the crash in 1931, could recover from it more speedily.

In August 1941, British ace pilot Douglas Bader had to bail out over France which was occupied at that time by the German Nazis, got captured and spent the rest of WWII as a prisoner of war. His life and war experiences were made into a book and eventually a film, Reach for the Sky, which starred Kenneth Moore.

Sir Douglas Bader died in September 1982 from sudden heart attack.

– The Telegraph reports; additional information from Wikipedia

Heziel Pitogo

Heziel Pitogo is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE