Wandering nursing home resident killed by train

A 71 year old resident of a Missouri nursing home was killed last week when she left the facility and wandered onto a nearby set of railroad tracks where she was killed by a train.

One of the main causes of people admitting family members to nursing homes is that with the onset of dementia, they leave the home and put themselves at risk by wandering into unsafe areas.  When the family comes to recognize that this is a problem which they cannot monitor on the 24/7 basis called for, this is what prompts the decision to admit their parent to a nursing home.

On admission, the nursing home is required to perform an assessment on the resident's condition and where the resident is determined to be at risk for "elopement" -- the technical term for wandering, then a care plan must be put into place to address the risk of elopement.  The usual course of action is to place a sensor on their clothing or person which sets off an alarm when they leave the facility and/or placing them on a secure floor where they are not free to leave.  Simply tying them or restraining them is not an acceptable alternative because this has its own risks.

Wandering or elopement in a nursing home is a serious safety risk to the health and well-being of a nursing home resident.  There have been instance where nursing home residents have wandered into traffic, have fallen into bodies of water and drowned, been the victim of violent crimes, or have frozen to death during winter months.  Nursing homes know that wandering is a real danger and must develop and implement a care plan to prevent wandering.

This wrongful death will no doubt be investigated by state authorities, and I would be willing to bet that at least one of these things will turn up:  that the resident was not wearing a sensor; that the alarms were either shut off or malfunctioning; or that the alarms did sound but no one responded because they were short-handed.