The stench was the first thing Yvonne Dawson noticed when she stepped into the bedroom of 95-year-old "Auntie Em".

The second was the cockroaches scuttling across her chair and bed. Later, the nurse made the horrifying discovery of roaches crawling across the desperately frail woman's skin and over her food.

The partially-blind widow, whose identity is not being disclosed by The Royal Gazettewas sharing the property she once lived in with her loving husband with roaches, bed bugs, rats, mice and termites and an adopted daughter suspected of psychologically and emotionally abusing her."

It was what I call a human disgrace," Ms Dawson told this newspaper, her voice rising in anger as she recalled the deplorable, debris-cluttered living conditions of the woman she eventually rescued and took into her own home.

"It was unliveable," said the professional caregiver, who was recruited by the woman's nephew to care for her. "Very unhygienic. There were rats running on the floor. It seemed as if she had not been in her bath tub for ten years. Her skin was pulling off and roaches were on her. I found baby roaches in the creases in her wrists.

"Her water was contaminated with human faeces while the rest of the family drank bottled water. She had bedsores where the daughter was leaving her overnight in wet diapers. They had a bedside commode. That was another thing that was filthy."The great grandmother's physical condition had been allowed to deteriorate so badly that she eventually had to have one of her legs amputated below the knee when her foot became gangrenous. Still mentally alert but suffering from high blood pressure and in need of 24-hour care, Auntie Em is now on a general medical ward at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

To see the still-proud and articulate lady lying in a hospital bed, bewildered by what happened to her and frightened for her future, is deeply disturbing. What is worse is that no one knows where to put her next <> and she is not the only one.

Her case has prompted Ms Dawson and the nephew to press Government to pass legislation to protect and help others like her <> something Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson has long been calling for. "There are others in this situation," said the nurse.

Auntie Em's case came to light during research on seniors' issues for an RG Magazine article. Wayne Perinchief, the Minister responsible for seniors, acknowledged during an interview for that piece that adequate laws to protect seniors do not exist in Bermuda.

He has tasked civil servants with investigating the possibility of elder abuse legislation. An elder abuse registry is also being drafted.

Mr. Perinchief believes any new law should not be punitive, since family and friend caregivers perpetrating elder abuse may themselves be in need of support.

Marian Sherratt, executive director of Bermuda Council on Ageing, agrees and says alternatives to the "punitive legislative approach" could be the answer.

"We as a society have to find a way of providing support to the caregivers and the family members in these situations," she said.

Though the physical neglect and mental abuse of Auntie Em was reported to the Police by Ms Dawson, the case may never get to court because the woman does not wish to press charges against her adopted daughter, whom social workers are understood to believe could be mentally ill.

The woman still visits her mother in hospital and leaves her shaken and upset, according to Ms Dawson.Official documents from a Government investigation into the case, which have been passed to this newspaper, also reveal that psychological and emotional abuse of Auntie Em was suspected when she was still in her own home.

The daughter has refused to allow her mother to return to her home a property which environmental health officers believed should be condemned for human habitation unless substantial work was carried out.

The daughter, her husband, their two children and Auntie Em's great grandchild may still be there.

Auntie Em does not want to go into a rest home. Even if she did, there would not necessarily be a place for her.

Melvin Dickinson, manager of the National Office for Seniors and the Physically Challenged (NOSPC), revealed during an interview for the RG Magazine piece, that in a single week in July 19 geriatrics needed to be placed in residential care. "There was nowhere to place them," he admitted. "There are a number of seniors who are taking up sick beds in hospital."

Louise Jackson, the Opposition's spokeswoman on seniors, visited Auntie Em when she was still in her home.

"I have never ever walked into a situation as distressing as this situation," said the MP. "This dear lady was living in a filthy, rat-ridden, roach-ridden house. There was gross infestation. It was just horrible. There was debris and old furniture. You couldn't walk through it. There was hardly a pathway."

She claimed the woman was failed by the authorities "every step of the way" and that the case was a damning indictment of Government and its inability to cope with the Island's elderly, who make up 11 percent of the population.

"What it shows is that we do not have any legislation to protect seniors from abuse," she said. "The only protection that they have under the law is if they are actually beaten or harmed in some way."

Mrs. Jackson wants legislation to make it easier to charge and convict those guilty of elder abuse and ensure those providing care are doing so properly. She says the lack of care home places is due to a nursing shortage caused by the poor pay on offer.

Ms Dawson reported her client's predicament to the NOSPC and says the agency did try to assist but had inadequate powers to intervene. At a meeting attended by social workers and Auntie Em's family, the 40-year-old nurse agreed to take her into her own Somerset home.

She cared for her there for five months before Auntie Em moved in with a family from her church. She was later admitted to hospital.

"I was her only rescue and saviour," said Ms Dawson. "I could not allow her to be put in any more devastating situations."

Ms Dawson is still awaiting payment for some of her services as the nephew is struggling to fund his aunt's care.

Auntie Em's savings have been spent on nursing care and she survives on a Government pension. Government is funding her hospital stay.

The home was left to Auntie Em by her husband, who died in 1978. He willed the property to eventually pass to their daughter but insisted that his wife live there until her death. That now seems inconceivable.

But mother-of-two Ms Dawson, who is originally from Jamaica and trained as a nurse in the US, is determined to fight on.She visits her client each day and has called every politician, civil servant and agency she can think of her to press the woman's case.

"I want to know if we really have laws in this country to protect anyone," she said. "This is core abuse of a human being. Animals get better treatment.

"The agencies fail because the agencies only have policies and not legislation. A bill is needed to protect senior citizens from their children or anyone that they have willed their estate to. It is a country's moral duty to see to it that there are laws in place to protect human beings.

"I think the Police should have pursued charges themselves. And I want (the victim) to be able to get her home fixed and for her to return home because she has that right. Justice must be served for this woman."