South Carolina Nursing Home Lawyer & Attorney : Poliakoff & Associates Law Firm : Elderly Care, Senior Care

Fort Worth Star Telegram had an article about a nursing home facility that allowed a resident to wander away from the facility unsupervised.  The resident is a 67-year-old woman with an aggressive form of Alzheimer’s disease who walked away from a Fort Worth nursing home.

The woman was last seen about 5 a.m. at the Tanglewood Oaks nursing home.  Police described the woman, Linda Kay Eichelberger, as white, 5-feet 3-inches tall, weighing about 135 pounds, with blond hair. Police think she may have tried to walk to her home near TCU.

Anyone with information about Eichelberger can contact Fort Worth police at 817-335-4222.

I am not sure how this happens when the facility knows that the woman suffers from dementia. Why weren't they keeping an eye on her?  How long was she missing before they even noticed?  Did they have a wanderguard on her? Were the doors locked to the facility?  Did they have enough staff to watch her?

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The Charleston Gazette out of West Virginia had an article about the tragic and clearly preventable death of a nursing home resident who wandered away from the facility unsupervised and was struck by a train on nearby tracks.  Why didn't the facility notice he was missing?  Why weren't they able to prevent him from wandering away from the facility? What was their staffing level on that day?  Did they have a wanderguard on him?

In a lawsuit filed in Kanawha Circuit Court, George W. King Sr.'s children, Sharon Milam and George W. King Jr., allege that Heartland of Charleston, a subsidiary of Health Care and Retirement Corp. of America, LLC, failed to properly monitor the 73-year-old former owner of Pineview Cemetery in Orgas.  "George King Sr. 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," the suit reads.

Workers at the facility failed to follow the company's established protocols for missing residents and failed to adequately supervise King.  "The staff of Heartland of Charleston failed to keep him secure in the facility, failed to immediately discover that he had left the facility, searched for him in the wrong area (because they confused him with a different person who had left the facility on a prior date), failed to use the exterior security cameras to identify the direction in which he left the facility and failed to utilize all available resources to locate him quickly [such as a search dog team]," the suit states.

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WBBM, News Radio 780, out of Chicago had a tragic story about a senior citizen who was missing from a nursing home weeks ago.  He was discovered dead just 20 feet from the scene of his disappearance. Arthur Vaughn, 72, was found face down with his nose and mouth submerged in a wooded marsh area behind Robbins Supportive Living.  An autopsy determined Vaughn drowned.

The article did not mention how the resident was able to leave the facility?  Was their a Wanderguard in place?  How long was he missing when the facility finally noticed?  Why weren't they able to find him since he was only 20 feet away from the facility?

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The body of a nursing home resident was found dead,  The man had been missing from a Caroline County nursing home since Aug. 3.  The date and cause of death are still under investigation and how he exited the nursing home where he was supposed to be supervised. Additional information about where the body was found, and by whom, was not available from the sheriff's office last night.

Richard Eddie Robertson was found Friday morning.  Cenk Kalemdaroglu, an administrator at Bowling Green Healthcare Center released a statement:  "We are deeply saddened to learn of the tragic outcome of the exhaustive search to find Mr. Robertson, Our sincere condolences go out to his family and loved ones. We would like to thank all of the individuals and volunteers that have assisted in this search effort."

Robertson suffered from dementia and was known to wander.  Wandering is a major problem in demented residents and why staffing and supervision are so important.  The nursing home should have had a Wanderguard on or even a simple GPS unit.  They are cheap and would not bother the residents.

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A $750,000 settlement between a Pennsylvania nursing home and Francis X. Ounan has been approved by a federal judge. Ounan filed suit against nursing home chain Sunrise Senior Living Services, Inc. on January 15, seeking damages for claims of negligence and wrongful death.

Ounan's mother, Margaret Ounan Boyle, died in November of 2005 from injuries she sustained while wandering from the nursing home. The day after her admission, Boyle fell while wandering from the nursing home, sustaining head injuries. She was found with police assistance and taken to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with bleeding of the brain and died the next morning.

Ounan claims that the nursing home knew at the time of his mother's admission that her Alzheimer's made her a high-risk for wandering. Ounan claims that the nursing home was grossly negligent in failing to institute adequate measures to prevent its residents from wandering. Further, he claims, the nursing home failed to formulate a plan to address his mother's tendency to wander.

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Poor conditions at a Tn nursing home prompted the state to prohibit the facility from admitting new patients.   The state suspended any new patients from being admitted to the Cornelia House.

A State Health Department review paints a different picture, detailing a successful escape this past April, in which a patient with dementia walked out a smoking door and was found down the street. 

Cornelia House is banned from admitting new residents because staff just can't keep patients from wandering outside. The state said residents there are in "immediate jeopardy."

"There are specific things that are supposed to be done to prevent patients from running away, and those haven't been done. So, all of these deficiencies have to do with operational issues," said Andrea Turner, TN Department of Health.

State inspectors also cite inadequate resident care plans, and failure by the staff to keep patients with feeding tubes from choking.   The state issued penalties in February of 2003, March of 2004, February of 2005, and August of 2006.

See article here.

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