MONTREAL - A family is suing a nursing home south of Montreal after they say hidden-camera footage shows a man with Parkinson's and dementia fell 45 times over a six-month period.

The alleged falls happened at the Champlain des Pommetiers residence in Beloeil, Que., a bedroom community south of Montreal. The family of Guy Courville, 68, became suspicious after they noticed several scars on his body last summer.

Not satisfied with the answers she received from the private home, his wife, Jacqueline Rioux, hid a camera in Courville's bedroom. The video showed a number of cases of alleged neglect and abuse including one time in which a staff member chastised Courville rather than help him up when he fell.

"Fall, fall, hurt yourself," the caregiver can be heard saying. "You'll go to the hospital. I'm tired of you."

The worker is also seen forcefully throwing a helmet that was meant to protect Courville's head in the event of a fall.

Rioux said she still feels shocked and angry, months after she first saw the footage.

"These people have no place in the health community," she told a news conference. "If they did that to my spouse, they must be doing it to others."

Two doctors are also named in the suit after Rioux said they made her husband susceptible to falls by misdiagnosing his epilepsy, failing to monitor him properly and prescribing the wrong medication.

The nursing home said it will launch an internal investigation into the case.

"We understand the spouse's pain and the gravity of this incident," the facility's management said in a statement. "We can never tolerate the conduct portrayed in the images that were broadcast. But, while shocking, these images should not stigmatize a profession which, in the vast majority (of cases), does its work with ethics and care."

Noted malpractice lawyer Jean-Pierre Menard, who is representing Rioux, encouraged Canadians to use hidden cameras if they suspect an elderly loved one is being mistreated.