Indiana NH Resident Froze to Death
Posted by Patti on February 16th, 2007
Print This PostThis happens FAR too often. It’s preventable. A simple head count does the trick. Often. Like every hour.
MARION, Ind. — An Alzheimer’s disease patient froze to death after he wandered away unnoticed from a nursing home, authorities said.Staffers at Bradner Village Health Care found Clarence B. Elliott, 76, dead about 3 a.m. Thursday outside a locked door, Grant County Coroner Stephen Dorsey said.
“He had a history of walking outdoors,” Dorsey said. “It looks as if he possibly fell and tried to crawl back to one of the doors to gain entry.”
An autopsy determined that the preliminary cause of death was hypothermia and that it was accidental. Temperatures fell below zero overnight in the area.
Elliott had lived at the nursing home’s Alzheimer’s unit since May 2003, Bradner said in a statement.
“Bradner Village is fully cooperating with local law enforcement authorities and Indiana State Department of Health personnel. We ask the community to please join us in prayer for the Elliott family,” the statement said.
A nurse noticed about 2:30 a.m. that Elliott was not in his bed, Marion Deputy Police Chief Cliff Sessoms said. Investigators were working to determine why a bed check normally done about four hours early was not conducted and why no one heard the alarm on the door by which Elliott was believed to have left, Sessoms said.
What a way to die.
February 20th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
It does seem like this happens a lot more lately.
I wonder why…people with dementia have long been residents in nursing homes and group homes. Why this increase in wandering, unchecked? Staffing certainly hasn’t gotten any better or worse although the quality of staff might have something todo with it all.
February 25th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
I think I have read 5 or 6 articles recently about residents getting out in the cold and not being noticed as missing.
Head count works.
March 15th, 2007 at 8:39 am
Have there been any recent cases of residents getting out and freezing to death in Cincinnati? I think we have a handle on that because we are accustomed to the weather.
March 15th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Thanks for stopping by Olivia…I believe we have found about 6 articles this winter of residents eloping from nursing homes and assisted living facilities and being found dead out in the cold.
It’s sad. I don’t think it’s a matter of having a handle on the weather. I think it’s a management issue where units MUST have a way to account for every single resident, and often. A place that houses demented people really should do head counts every hour. Even that is not enough when it’s bitterly cold outdoors.