Woman Who Went Missing from Chicago Nursing Home Commits Suicide
A woman who had been reported missing from a Chicago, Illinois nursing home has committed suicide. According to police, 37-year-old Catherine Ryan dove to her death onto the Dan Ryan Expressway from an overpass on March 9.
Autopsy findings indicate that she died from multiple injuries caused by a high fall onto the expressway. The medical examiner’s office ruled her death a suicide.
The last sighting of Ryan was earlier this year when she was admitted to Northwestern Abbott Hospital. She called a friend on February 25. Ryan was a nursing home resident at Margaret Manor Nursing Home.
Wandering/Elopement
Many nursing home patients cannot take care of themselves, which is why assisted living facilities must make sure that residents are properly supervised and don’t wander off the premise. Also, many patients with dementia or other forms of mental illness are at high risk of elopement.
This is why assisted living facilities must have enough qualified and properly trained staff to work every shift, make sure that residents that are at risk of wandering are placed in bedrooms close to the nurses station, lock the side doors and secure the windows, install alarms on doors, and activate security cameras and/or employ security guards.
Unfortunately, lack of security, inadequate supervision, and nursing home neglect can make it easy for patients to walk out of nursing homes, which places them at risk of getting hit by a car, becoming the victim of a violent crime, dying from the heat or cold, sustaining serious injuries during a fall accident, starving, or becoming severely hydrated.
In the event that a nursing home resident wanders off and gets hurt or dies, the victim’s family may be able to obtain Chicago, Illinois nursing home neglect compensation.
Woman's death in Ryan jump a suicide: autopsy, Southtown Star, March 10, 2010
Related Web Resources:
Controlling Unsafe Wandering Behaviors in Alzheimer's Patients, Caregiving.com
Please contact our Chicago nursing home abuse lawyers and ask for your free case evaluation.
