Roanoke Personal Injury Lawyer - Elopement

Elopement Dangers and Nursing Homes: Is Your Love One Safe?

Dan Frith — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:05:30 GMT

Elopement Dangers and Nursing Homes: Is Your Loved One Safe?

When it comes to assisted living facilities and nursing homes we expect our loved ones to be cared for properly. Unfortunately, these facilities often neglect the ones they are paid to provide care for. Nursing home residents with dementia, as well as those with limited physical capabilities can endanger themselves if they manage to leave the facility unattended.

When nursing homes fail to have proper procedures in place or fail to adhere to procedure they may be liable for the injuries or wrongful deaths that result. A recent occurrence highlights this neglect and takes it to a whole new level. A North Carolina nursing home has just been sued on the grounds that they allowed an 85-year-old woman to wander away from the facility. The woman became disoriented and later died from a head injury after she fell into a nearby ravine. This kind of occurrence is typically referred to as “nursing home elopement”.

Although death is the most serious consequence which can result from elopement, other injuries include fractures, heat stroke, and hypothermia. Obviously, nursing homes take preventative measures to reduce these types of situations. For example, nursing homes train staff members, determine who high risk for wandering is, and install door alarms as well as cameras in order to monitor residents. Nonetheless, 10% of all lawsuits against nursing homes involve cases of wandering patients or residents. Elopements present a serious issue that can have devastating effects upon families, residents, and nursing home facilities.

This case highlights the importance of doing your due diligence when you enroll your loved one into the care of an organized facility. After the resident's death, the Department of Social Services penalized the facility (named “Primrose”) by levying fines against them for several safety violations. Among these fines, one is for improper supervision of residents in a situation that can lead to severe injury.

When you are looking to place a loved one into supervised or assisted care make sure that you research whether the facility has any prior violations. Ask the facility Administrator and check with the state agency which has oversight responsibility for nursing homes or assisted living facilities. If the facility has experienced problems with elopement, find out what measures they have taken to prevent these situations from happening again. If your loved one has special needs or suffers certain ailments that make him/her prone to wandering then you should inform the facility of this so that they can ensure proper care. These facilities are paid to provide care to the residents and should be held accountable for their negligence in failing to doing so.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Dan Frith

Death in a West Virginia Nursing Home

Dan Frith — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:40:01 GMT

The family of a man who was hit and killed by a train last month after he wandered off from a Kanawha City (WV) nursing home filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the facility. The lawsuit, filed by the family in Kanawha Circuit Court, alleges that Heartland of Charleston, a subsidiary of Health Care and Retirement Corp. of America, LLC, failed to properly monitor the 73-year-old resident.

King suffered from dementia and required daily assistance. He could not care for himself or be allowed to walk outside the facility and the staff of the facility at Heartland of Charleston was aware of this fact, according to the lawsuit.

Workers at the home reported King missing on Oct. 25. Police later found his body near the train tracks that run through Kanawha City.

My Take: This is a preventable tragedy. Where were the door alarms? Where were the chair and bed alarms? Where were the staff members who had responsibility for Mr.King?

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Dan Frith

National Citizen's Coalition for Nursing Home Reform

Dan Frith — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:46:50 GMT

I am writing today to "toot the horn" of the National Citizen's Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (NCCNHR). NCCNHR was formed because of public concern about substandard care in nursing homes. Today, NCCNHR's ongoing work addresses issues such as:

	Inadequate staffing in nursing homes, particularly all levels of nursing staff
	Poor working conditions, salaries and benefits for long-term care workers
	Maintenance of residents' rights and empowerment of residents
	Support for family members and development of family councils
	Development and support for the long-term care ombudsman program
	Minimizing the use of physical and chemical restraints
	The high cost of poor care, such as pressure sores, dehydration, incontinence, and contracture of residents' muscles
	Accountability to taxpayers for nursing home expenditures and failure to fulfill government contracts It is a fantastic organization which makes a difference in the lives of America's elderly. Membership is open and the costs is minimal (Resident's $2/year, 65 and over pay $25/year, and all others pay $40/year. Check out their web site.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Dan Frith

Tragedy and Death at a Virginia Nursing Home

Dan Frith — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:19:55 GMT

What a sad story! The body of a 71-year-old man missing from Bowling Green Healthcare Center (Caroline County, Virginia) nursing home since August 3 has been found. Robertson suffered from dementia. The resident, Richard Eddie Robertson, had been missing for 12 days.

How does a nursing home lose a resident? Do you think this facility had secure exterior doors with alarms? I don't and this type of tragedy, called an elopement, happens more than you can possibly believe...or accept.

It will be interesting to see if the facility is held accountable for this preventable and unnecessary death!

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Dan Frith

Elopement in Minnesota

Dan Frith — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:07:39 GMT

Why does this tragedy repeated happen? An individual is placed in a nursing home due to advancing dementia or Alzheimer's disease. The family is worried that dad or mom will become disoriented and leave their home and wander into traffic or otherwise harm themselves. The family travels to several nursing homes, advising the Director of Nursing and Admissions personnel that the facility needs to monitor their loved one and are assured that all exterior doors are continuously monitored or have door alarms. The family relies on these assurances, moves their family member into the facility, and the inevitable occurs! The resident elopes and is killed or seriously injured!

We have handled several of these cases in Virginia and now here is another report from Minnesota. Roger Allan Bentrup, 56, suffers from dementia and is a diabetic. He wandered away from the Talahi Care Center in St. Cloud and police are asking for the public's help in finding him.

I hope the police find Mr. Bentrup before he is seriously injured. How could he have left the facility unnoticed? Someone was not doing their job!

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Dan Frith