So Lake was shocked when she learned that her father had been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at HCA Mainland Hospital on May 16. According to Lake and Helen Marr, Minott’s ex-wife, Minott was admitted to the ICU after a social worker discovered that he had developed severe bedsores and was suffering from malnutrition. 

“The nurse said it was horrible, that he was down about 80 pounds, and he had not eaten in so long that he now could not eat, ” Marr said. “She said the bed sores were to the bone. You could see the bone,” Marr added. Upon learning that her father was in the ICU, Lake called Texas City police to conduct a wellness check at the ICU. The cop told her that Minott’s case was “the worst [they’d] ever seen,” Lake told Chron. Minott died four days after his admittance in HCA Mainland’s ICU unit.    

State and local authorities are now looking into the case: according to emails reviewed by Chron, Texas Health and Human Services investigators opened an investigation into Minottt’s case on Mar. 22 in response to a complaint filed by Lake. Texas City police also confirmed in an email reviewed by Chron that an officer conducted a “initial investigation” into Minott’s case at HCA Mainland Hospital. The email states that the case would be forwarded to the Department’s Criminal Investigations Division. Texas City Police did not respond to a request for comment made Wednesday regarding the current status of the case.

This isn’t the first time Seabreeze has been scrutinized for alleged abuse and neglect: in Oct. 2022, relatives of a 60-year-old Seabreeze resident claimed that facility staff kept the woman confined to her bed while covered in feces until she developed open sores and swelling across her body. The Texas City facility was reportedly fined more than $130,000 for multiple violations by Texas Health and Human Services in 2022 alone.

Seabreeze Nursing and Rehabilitation Center did not respond to a Thursday morning request regarding Minott’s care.