Illinois Nursing Home Neglect Lawsuit Filed After Resident Wanders Off During Field Trip and Sustains Serious Injuries
In Cook County Circuit Court, the guardian of Illinois nursing home resident Margaret McCauley is suing Brighton Gardens Assisted Living of Orland Park for personal injury. McCauley sustained serious injuries during a fall accident and from exposure to cold weather when she wandered off unnoticed during a field trip to a local high school on December 2, 2007. The elderly resident, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and severe dementia, was found eight hours later on train tracks about a mile from the school.
Bright Gardens, Sunrise Senior Living Services, and Activity Director Debra Ann Adler are the defendants named in the Illinois nursing home neglect complaint. The Illinois civil lawsuit accuses nursing home employees of failing to properly supervise and monitor McCauley.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association:
• Over 60% of Alzheimer’s patients will wander at least once.
• Over 127,000 serious wandering cases reported every year.
• If a dementia patient who wanders is not discovered within 24 hours, he or she could get seriously hurt or die.
The Mayo Clinic says that people wander for a number of reasons:
• They may be looking for something or someone familiar or they may be hungry or thirsty or need to go to the bathroom but can’t remember where to go.
• They may be trying to get away from too much stimuli because they find the noise or surroundings overwhelming.
• They may be trying to reestablish an old routine from their old life.
Illinois nursing homes charged with taking care of a sick or elderly resident are responsible for anticipating and preventing potential wandering incidents. When failure to supervise or monitor a patient with Alzheimer’s or dementia results in the resident wandering off, getting hurt, or dying, the long-term care facility can be held liable for nursing home neglect.
Nursing Home Sued After Woman Found On Train Track, CBS2Chicago.com, April 24, 2009
Alzheimer's: Understand and control wandering, MayoClinic.com
Related Web Resources:
Alzheimer’s Association
Brighton Gardens Assisted Living of Orland Park
