Nursing homes are supposed to be secure and safe facilities where residents can receive the best care in their sunset years. That said, this is not usually the case due to the many cases of wandering and elopement reported about in the media. Due to cognitive difficulties and advanced illnesses, many nursing home residents may not have an appreciation of their location and as such, they may find themselves wandering out of the nursing home premises, only to be found many days later, cold, hungry and traumatized. These events should never happen if nursing home management does its due diligence to account for and closely watch nursing home residents. Should this happen, you may be able to file a nursing home negligence lawsuit on your loved one’s behalf in order to collect damages and prevent such an occurrence from ever happening again at that particular nursing home.
Did your loved one elope or wander away from their nursing home facility? Please contact our nursing home negligence attorneys NOW at (773) 823-0298 to learn more about your legal options for compensation. The nursing home attorneys at McCready Law have over 90 YEARS of combined legal experience that they’d love to put to work for you in helping resolve your wandering and elopement lawsuit. We take on cases on contingency fee basis, and what this means is that we don’t charge you a cent for our legal services until we recover compensation on your behalf. Please call (773) 823-0298 NOW to receive your ABSOLUTELY FREE consultation into your legal options for compensation. Serving all nursing home negligence victims countrywide.
Technically speaking, elopement is a nursing home resident’s ability to leave a certain facility without supervision or being noticed by staff, thereby putting their own safety in jeopardy. On the other hand, wandering refers to movement that is undirected and aimless where a resident moves up and down a facility, thereby putting themselves at risk of being hurt and injured.
Nursing homes are legally required to provide a certain amount of reasonable supervision in order to prevent wandering and elopement. In addition, some residents are more prone to wander and elope more than others, such as in the case of individuals with dementia or Alzheimer’s, where short-term memory is compromised by the illness.
Here are some of the steps nursing homes can take to prevent these two behaviors:
- Closing all exit doors and requiring a centralized operation of buttons to open them
- Making sure that all residents are aware of all exit doors so they can monitor them
- Making sure that they are not understaffed at any given time
- Installing CCTV cameras at certain key locations
- Noting down the individuals with memory deficit as being at higher risk of elopement
Dangers of Wandering and Elopement
Elopement and wandering can lead to severe dehydration during hot summer days, getting run over by vehicles in the dark, getting exposed to harsh cold weather, going into a coma such as in the case of diabetics missing to take their daily medication dose, and even getting sexually assaulted.
Nursing Home Negligence Attorneys – Call Us Today!
To this end, it is important that you hold nursing home accountable should residents elope and wander. Please contact our nursing home negligence attorneys NOW at (773) 823-0298 to learn more about how we can help you file a lawsuit to recover compensation. Thanks, and we look forward to helping you.