Elderly Patient Leaves Nursing Home in Boca Raton Unattended and Dies
It is a very heart wrenching moment when you have to face placing one of your elderly parents in a nursing home. You hear the horror stories, but you want to believe that after you’ve done your homework and researched all of the facilities in your local area, that once your loved one is settled into the nursing home, they will be well cared for. Unfortunately, it is a sad fact that this is not always what happens, as we see here in this Florida nursing home negligence case.
This husband and wife had been living in an apartment in the assisted living portion of this well-known nursing facility in Boca Raton, Florida for some time. However, as time went on, the husband began suffering from Alzheimer’s dementia and would wander. He was also legally blind. When the decline in his cognitive abilities became quite evident to both his family and the medical staff, it was mutually decided that the husband should be moved to a higher level of care within the facility, with the wife to stay in the apartment in the assisted living section. He was allowed to visit his wife’s apartment when attended on these trips by a nursing home attendant.
However, on several occasions, he was found wandering aimlessly around the facility and would state “I got lost”, or would wander to his wife’s apartment without assistance. Several times the medical records from the nursing facility stated that he had “periods of confusion”and “wanders at times”. Because of this wandering propensity, this gentleman wore a bracelet that was connected to an alarm system within the facility.
One January evening, the couples’ daughter took them out to dinner at an area restaurant. Because the next day was her mother’s birthday, the daughter asked her mother to stay with her for the evening at her home in Tequesta, Florida. Before they left for the evening, they left voice mail messages for the head of the nursing home’s medical unit and the director of nursing, and told them that she would be away and that her husband should not visit their apartment. In addition, they also placed a note on her husband’s room in the medical unit to this effect. In spite of all this, there were security people and other nursing home employees that had seen her husband walking outside the medical unit later on that particular evening.
The next evening while the wife was still at their daughter’s home, the husband had dinner in his room at approximately 6:00 p.m. At approximately 8:00 p.m. his room was checked and he was not in his room. The records reflect that at this time, the staff started a search throughout the facility, including the apartments, parking lots, and outside the facility, but were unsuccessful in locating the patient. It was later learned that the alarm system which connected to the patient’s bracelet had not been working at the time.
At 8:50 p.m., the staff at the nursing facility was advised that there had been an accident on the highway that ran in front of the facility and that an individual had been struck by a car and killed. Sadly, the pedestrian that was killed was identified as the missing nursing home resident.
The family of this gentleman contacted Richard D. Schuler to assist them in this Florida nursing home abuse case to obtain justice from this nursing home for the careless and negligent supervision of their loved one. Mr. Schuler was able to settle this case in a presuit mediation for $400,000.00.
