La Vida Llena was great. It felt very warm and welcoming. The residents were happy. It goes all the way from independent living to skilled nursing care. They had no openings at the time, but there was a waiting list. They had transportation to places and because it's multiple care level, it seemed like a happy place. I saw a lot of residents walking around. They had a dining room, meal plans, a separate little grill area, and a little convenience store where they had hot dogs, chips, and candy. I felt very comfortable there. If I needed a place to be as a senior, that would be a good place to go. You could stay there until your dying days.

My father was a resident of La Vida Llena. He suffered from mild dementia. When he became ill, and required hospitalization, LVL took him to the Presbyterian Hospital ER, and left him there by himself on a Saturday night. The Presbyterian Hospital ER waiting room is not a place where you leave an old defenseless person by themselves, especially on a Saturday night when the Albuquerque knife and gun club is particularly active and their hangers on crowd the waiting room. This action was just one of many gross shortcomings of LVL.

My mother stayed here for "respite care" from home hospice while I was out of town. She was on full time oxygen and completely reliant on it to live. The nurse, when I checked my mom in, said she had to give her a "room air test" to demonstrate her need for oxygen which involved taking her oxygen off for ten minutes to see how she did. I told the nurse that my mother's need was well documented through home hospice (which I could provide) and that under no circumstances could she be without oxygen for more than half a minute or so. She seemed satisfied and dropped it. The next afternoon, while I was three thousand miles away, the same nurse went into my mom's room and said she needed to take off her oxygen. My mom, terrified, protested but was told she had no choice because it was required. They made her take it off, failed to use a pulse-oximeter and left her alone in the room. Somehow she managed to call for help after eight minutes before she fainted. When they checked her, her oxygen was at 53. Most people lose consciousness at 55. After all that, which itself could have killed her, the next night, when her oxygen concentrator failed and I begged them to help her (because I could tell something was wrong based on her numbers and her audible gasping on the phone), they refused, telling me I needed to stop bothering them. I was desperate and asked a friend to go check on her. After he arrived, they checked her concentrator, realized it was broken and switched it out. This was after almost two hours of my calling and begging them to help her. When I returned from my "respite" I asked the nurse what happened that her oxygen was allowed to go down to 53. She replied, "Oh, no, it was actually 56" as if that were perfectly okay. This place is pretty and clean, but I would never leave an oxygen patient here.

We had a parent who was living at La Vida Llena in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was later moved into the "dementia wing" where we were promised full care and comfort for our parent (at a hefty price). The opposite seemed to be true. First of all, he was given extremely strong medication to keep him "calm." He was moved from room to room with various roommates which would be upsetting to people without dementia. Fortunately after much upset he finally got a room of his own. The staff didn't seem to understand how to deal with dementia patients. They were extremely impatient and even at times hostile when he lashed out at them from fear. He was often left in his room with no food or drink, and we were told they couldn't "force" him. Their efforts to feed him were minimal at best. It was a constant battle to make sure he had the basics. We had to hire outside help to make sure he was cared for. He was not given any mental stimulation at all. They would forget to bring his newspaper, which gave him some pleasure. We constantly had to remind them to bring him his paper. They would do it a few times then go back to default mode and leave it in some stack somewhere in the lobby down the hall. All this applies as well to grooming, such as bathing, trips to the bathroom etc. if we had not had outside help it would have been a catastrophe. The fault rests on the management who put on a great show and sale. Once they have lured you in they disappear and leave you to navigate the system on your own. They hire untrained and unqualified people to deal with this sensitive population. If you do have a loved one there in that particular unit be prepared to check on them often! Buyer Beware!

This assisted living provider is exceptional. There are two types of living situations - a separate apartment where nurses visit or in rooms in the complex itself. The nurses are very helpful. The staff gets the individuals to and from eating, church, activities, and anything else that might be going on. I had the opportunity to interact with patients and take them to and from their activities. They are all very loving and are kept happy by the staff. The apartments are very nice and comfy, as well as being handicapped friendly. The apartments give independence and the inpatient complex has a lot of activities to keep the individuals busy and happy. There is a little room dedicated to watching TV and mingling with each other. Patients who need help are always attended to if someone needs help, a nurse or another part of the staff is there to help them. I think this would be a great assisted nursing home to live in because of the never-ending good will of the staff and other individuals in the complex.