The family of a 100-year-old woman who died “cold and alone” on Christmas morning 2020, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a Florida assisted living facility where she resided. The complaint alleges that the assisted living facility failed to monitor or protect the 100-year-old resident who was found dead of hypothermia outside of the facility.
According to the complaint, the 100-year-old resident, who had dementia and was dependent upon oxygen, was last seen by her family at the assisted living facility on Christmas Eve. Her sister, who shared a suite with the resident, noticed that she was gone and used a call bell to summon staff, but no one ever responded.
On Christmas Day, around 7:45 am, firefighters were dispatched to the senior living facility for a 911 call involving another resident. When the firefighters arrived, they noticed a person on the grass at the bottom of a hill about 100 yards from the assisted living facility’s front door. The person was lying next to a pillow and a walker.
The complaint states that there was still frost on the ground, as the temperature that night had been in the mid-20’s, but she was barefoot. Staff were notified and a facility manager came outside and the identified the 100-year-old woman as a resident who was in the care of the assisted living facility; who did not even know she was missing. One of the 100 year-old woman’s sons arrived at the facility later that morning for a visit and noticed the first responders at the scene. A deputy informed him that his mother had been found dead.
An autopsy ruled the cause of death as hypothermia. The complaint also states that she had multiple cuts and bruises and injuries including a broken thigh bone.
The 100-year-old woman had moved into the assisted living facility in 2019 and was not supposed to leave the facility unassisted. The family had also reached an agreement with staff that they would check on her every few hours throughout the night to make sure she hadn’t removed her oxygen tubing.
The lawsuit states that the assisted living facility is licensed for 99 beds, and there were two employees to oversee and care for the residents on Christmas Eve through early Christmas morning. Additionally, the lawsuit states that while the front and other doors had alert systems, a kitchen door was a “potential problem spot,” and that days before the 100-year-old’s death, another resident managed to get outside undetected and hitchhiked to the bus station before the police returned him.
The state Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) reviewed the two incidents and found that aside from staff training, the facility had not put into place any further interventions between the first incident and the second incident which involved the death of the 100-year-old woman.
The administrator at the assisted living facility told state regulators that there had been only two incidents involving residents wandering away from the facility over the past year. However, a staff person revealed in a phone interview that a third resident walked away months earlier and was found near an interstate. An official from the assisted living facility later confirmed the third incident, though he acknowledged not completing a state-mandated adverse incident report. The administrator told ACHA that the senor living facility responded to that incident by installing locks and a higher fence in the area where the third resident left the facility.
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages against the assisted living facility and its corporate parent.
Compliance Perspective
Issue
All facility leaders should be well versed in Life Safety Code requirements. Safety of the residents should always be the top priority. Safety rounds should be conducted routinely by facility leadership to identify life safety risks and address findings immediately. The Life Safety Code requirements should be reviewed by facility leaders who must ensure that staff are aware of and meeting the requirements.
Discussion Points
- Review the most current Life Safety Codes and ensure that your building meets those requirements. Update your Life Safety documents if needed.
- Ensure that the facility Maintenance Director and staff are aware of current Life Safety Codes, including the importance of keeping doors to supply closets and equipment storage areas locked, and provide training as needed. Document that these trainings occurred, and file the signed documents in each employee’s education file.
- Periodically conduct environmental rounds audits to ensure that Life Safety codes are being followed.
