Stories by Tony Bartelme

Alzheimer's and violence BY  TONY BARTELME  ( CONTACT ) The Post and Courier Sunday, May 17, 2009 Dwayne Walls had been a wanderer for most of his 76 years; most journalists have this vagabond gene. And on a stormy night last September, Walls wandered down a hallway in the Veterans' Victory House, a large nursing home near Walterboro. In his fractured mind that night, Walls may have been pacing the newsroom, or heading to an interview, or driving to Charleston to coach his writing students. Maybe he was searching for his childhood home in North Carolina; it's difficult to say what really goes through a brain damaged by Alzheimer's. Sometime after 9 p.m., Walls went into another patient's room and climbed in an empty bed. Moments later, another patient walked in. Alzheimer's and violence TODAY:  The story of Dwayne Walls, his descent into Alzheimer's and how he was beaten in a local nursing home. MONDAY:  When Alzheimer's patients become combative, famili