Articles Posted in Wandering

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Helen Ende was 89 years old and suffered from dementia. While she was a resident at Parkside Manor, she was allowed, unnoticed, to wander off the premises and remain outside in the cold for almost seven hours before the nursing home staff realized she was missing. She froze to death. Ende is survived by her son.

Ende’s son, on behalf of her estate, sued Parkside Manor’s parent company, Encor Wisconsin LLC, alleging that its manager and staff disregarded Ende’s safety rights.

The Ende estate maintained that Encor’s policy required staff members to account for all residents after an alarm sounds. But on the night of Ende’s death, the three workers on duty chose not to follow this policy. The estate also alleged that one worker left the nursing home facility for multiple hours during his shift.

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Doe, 81, lived in a nursing home’s secure memory unit. She tended to wander and had exit-seeking behaviors, necessitating her use of the WandergGuard, a wearable safety device.

Even after a door alarm was activated, a nursing home staff member did not see that she had fallen down multiple flights of stairs. She was discovered at the bottom of the stairs, bleeding and crying for help.

Doe suffered serious injuries, including a subarachnoid hemorrhage. She unfortunately died eight days later.

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A state court has found that the plaintiff’s claim that a home health caregiver and agency may be liable for the caregiver’s negligence in supervising a patient but it did not amount to a medical negligence case.

Tammy Upchurch was an employee of Right at Home; she was assigned to provide at-home caregiving services to Ida Stratz. During Upchurch’s shift, she fell asleep. While Upchurch was sleeping, Stratz wandered outside her residence. Several hours later, she was found lying face-down in the snow, unconscious.

Stratz was taken to a nearby hospital where she died. Stratz’s estate sued Upchurch and Right at Home, alleging liability for Stratz’s death.

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Ralph Ford, 73, lived at St. Francis Nursing Center. He suffered from cognitive impairment and had a tendency to wander.

On one night, he left the nursing home unnoticed in his wheelchair. He was found early the next day in a Dumpster several blocks away; his limbs were frozen solid. He unfortunately died shortly thereafter. He was survived by two siblings.

Ford’s estate sued the nursing home alleging it negligently allowed him to leave the nursing home through an unlocked, broken and unarmed door and then delayed initiating a search for him for five hours after discovering that he was missing from his room.

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