Elderly Woman Dies After Being Fed Heated Dog Food by Care Worker

A 96-year-old woman was fed microwaved dog food by a care worker despite being on a strict no-solid-food care plan — and her devastated daughter says the horrifying ordeal has left her unable to properly grieve.

Joyce, whose last name has been withheld at her family’s request, was receiving home care in Portsmouth, England, through provider Radis when the shocking incident occurred in 2024.

Her daughter, Justine Morrison, says she initially believed someone was playing a cruel joke when she received a phone call telling her what had happened.

“I was driving home at the time and I had to pull over,” Morrison recalled.

“They said, ‘I am really sorry, but a carer fed your mother dog food.’ I thought they were joking at first.”

But it was no joke.

Joyce had begun receiving care from Radis in August 2022 after suffering a fall. By June 2024, her health had declined and she had entered end-of-life care.

Because she was considered a choking risk, Joyce’s care instructions said she should not be given solid food and was limited to yogurts and liquids.

Yet roughly three weeks before her death, a care worker reportedly removed frozen dog food from Joyce’s freezer, heated it in the microwave and spoon-fed it to her.

The packaging was clearly labeled “for adult dogs and puppies.”

The worker nevertheless recorded the meal in Joyce’s care notes as a “lamb dinner.”

Morrison said the dog food belonged to her own pet because she spent so much time caring for her mother.

“I used to go round five times a day,” she said. “I had food for my dog there because I was there so often.”

But Morrison said there should never have been any possibility of confusing the pet food with something intended for Joyce.

“If the carer had read her care plan, she would have seen it said ‘no food,’ so there should have never been any risk of her eating it,” she said.

“She shouldn’t have been allowed to have any food, let alone dog food.”

According to Morrison, the worker heated the frozen pet food before giving it to Joyce.

“I dread to think of my mum’s face,” she said. “It must have looked and smelled disgusting.”

The family says what happened afterward was nearly as disturbing as the incident itself.

Morrison and her brother complained to Radis, but she claims a manager appeared to dismiss the seriousness of what had happened.

“The manager of the company was shocking,” Morrison said.

“She laughed and said she didn’t know what the big deal was. She said that all dog food is tested on humans so it was safe to eat.”

The family also says it was not immediately informed.

“We only found out all of this thirteen days before my mum passed,” Morrison said. “They had known about it two weeks before.”

An investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman later found serious shortcomings in Joyce’s care.

Investigators were told that after Joyce suffered a mini-stroke, arrangements had been made for her to receive only soft food.

Around that period, however, the dog food — marketed as a “fresh take on dog food” — was heated in its vacuum-sealed packaging and Joyce was reportedly given three mouthfuls.

Another worker who was present later noticed the pet-food packaging in the kitchen.

But according to the investigation, it took that employee about a week to reach a senior colleague and report what had happened.

The dog food was eventually removed from Joyce’s home.

Before another care company could take over, Joyce died in July 2024.

A coroner determined her cause of death was “frailty of old age.” There has been no finding that the dog food caused her death.

But Morrison says the incident was only one part of a much larger pattern of troubling care.

Her family had already been attempting to replace Radis when Joyce’s condition began deteriorating.

Morrison eventually installed a camera inside her mother’s home because she was increasingly concerned that workers were not providing the care Joyce was paying for.

In one case, Morrison said she bought lobster — one of Joyce’s favorite foods — and left a message instructing workers to serve it to her mother.

“I was in the salon working and I was watching the camera between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. as they were due to come in at 4 p.m. to feed her,” Morrison said.

“I did not see one person come in. The sandwich from lunchtime was still sat on the table uncovered.”

Morrison eventually went to the home herself, fed Joyce the lobster and waited for the workers to arrive.

“I had a go at them,” she said.

After she returned to her car, Morrison claims she overheard the workers telling Joyce to tell her daughter that staff had been visiting but that Joyce was refusing food.

On another occasion, a home camera allegedly captured a worker appearing to force-feed Joyce.

Morrison also said she personally had to teach two separate carers how to correctly position her mother in a hospital bed.

She claims medication was sometimes found on the floor or inside the bed, while workers occasionally failed to arrive when Joyce needed to be fed.

For Morrison, the failures were especially painful because Joyce paid for her own care.

“My mum paid for all her care herself,” she said.

“I haven’t been able to grieve yet. I was distraught at what had happened.”

“It has been an absolute battle.”

Morrison said Joyce had worked hard throughout her life and had been a hairdresser, just like her daughter.

“She was a really good mum and gave us such a good upbringing,” Morrison said. “She worked hard to save for her future.”

The family had already endured the death of Joyce’s husband just two years earlier.

“What is hard is I find it really hard to remember my mum before this all happened,” Morrison said.

The Ombudsman ultimately took the unusual step of recommending that Joyce’s estate receive a full refund of care contributions paid between April and July 2024.

The watchdog said the care was so poor that the provider had “effectively failed to deliver the service paid for.”

“We find the care was so poor that Joyce’s estate should receive a full refund of any client contributions she paid to the Council between April and July 2024,” the Ombudsman concluded.

Portsmouth City Council was also instructed to apologize to the family, refund the care fees and pay an additional £1,000 — roughly $1,300 — for the distress caused by the poor care and delays in the safeguarding investigation.

The council says it has complied with those recommendations.

Morrison, however, said she has not yet accepted any money stemming from the findings.

Instead, she is attempting to turn the nightmare into something that might help other families.

She is working toward launching a charity in her mother’s name called Joyce’s Voice.

“I have got to try and make something good out of this horrendous experience,” Morrison said.

“What we have been through as a family has shown us that there is very little help out there and I want to try and provide support to anyone else going through this.”

She said navigating the care bureaucracy left her feeling largely on her own.

“I was on my own and I now know the system inside-out,” she said.

For Morrison, the case raises questions that go well beyond one worker or one company — including whether vulnerable elderly people and their families can trust the systems meant to protect them.

“The way care workers were trained so poorly was a massive failure of the system,” she said.

“The whole care system needs a massive shake-up.”

Portsmouth City Council has acknowledged the seriousness of the case.

Councillor Matthew Winnington, the authority’s cabinet member for community wellbeing, health and care, said officials accepted the Ombudsman’s findings “in full.”

“We ended our contract with Radis early and we no longer work with, or commission services from them,” Winnington said.

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Amerdeep Clarke was equally forceful.

“This is a truly shocking case,” Clarke said.

“A vulnerable woman’s care deteriorated over many months while a statutory inquiry drifted without proper oversight.”

Radis, meanwhile, told the BBC that it “voluntarily withdrew” from its Portsmouth contract.

“The fact that dog food was mistakenly provided was wholly unacceptable,” the company said.

Portsmouth City Council also described the incident as unacceptable and acknowledged the distress suffered by Joyce’s family.

Officials said Radis had been a national provider operating numerous care schemes with good regulatory ratings when it was originally appointed.

But after concerns emerged, service quality declined and ratings worsened, the council moved to end the contract.

“Our priority is residents’ safety and wellbeing,” the council said. “We are working with new providers to ensure a smooth transition and we will continue to monitor standards rigorously.”

For Joyce’s daughter, however, the official findings and apologies cannot erase what happened during her mother’s final months — or the painful questions surrounding a care system the family believed they could trust.