Margie Wade suffered horribly for months in a fouled bedroom, unable to move or call for help.

Rajubhai Desai trusted a home health-care worker who left him bleeding and unconscious.

Both soon died.

The Belleville News-Democrat reported in a recent investigative series that the state agency charged with protecting disabled adults who live at home failed to investigate at least 53 deaths since 2003 for possible abuse and neglect, including Wade’s and Desai’s.

The agency — the Office of the Inspector General for the Illinois Department of Human Services — learned from calls to its hotline that abuse or neglect was suspected in both deaths. Instead of taking action, the OIG declared that the dead are “ineligible for services” and closed the cases.

Local police did investigate, but their probes went awry.

Now, the OIG says it will review all deaths where abuse or neglect is suspected, including the 53 cases. The reviews are the result of a recent executive order issued by Gov. Pat Quinn to revamp the agency.

Details of Desai’s and Wade’s deaths were contained in local police investigative reports. Their stories are linked below.