Wandering from Nursing Homes

Nursing homes are meant to be places where we can take our elderly loved ones and be comfortable with leaving them in the care of trained professionals who can meet their many needs. However, each year there are cases of elderly individuals wandering from their nursing homes and coming into serious harm or even death. If an elderly loved one of yours has been injured or even died after wandering from their nursing home, contact the professional Boston-based elder attorneys at Altman & Altman LLP today.

For elderly individuals who suffer from dementia, wandering can be the result of an episode where they do not understand where they are, or why they are there. They may try to wander to a place that they recognize as “familiar,” despite being many miles from that location. In these states of confusion, an elderly person is vulnerable to many potential hazards that can lead to serious injury.

For example, an elderly individual may not realize they are walking in the middle of a populated street, putting them at risk of being hit by a car or a bus. They may not realize they are walking in cold or wet weather, which can result in hypothermia or other illnesses like pneumonia. In other cases they may wander so far that they suffer from exhaustion or heat stroke.

For seniors, even something as simple as a fall can be life threatening. So any type of wandering, also known as elopement, can be cause for serious concern.

Responsible Nursing Homes do not let Seniors Wander

If a senior is able to leave the facility unnoticed and wander for an extended period of time, it is likely the facility in which they are residing is either improperly staffed or is engaging in nursing home neglect. There should be multiple layers of security which would disable a senior citizen from leaving the nursing home unnoticed or without at least being stopped and questioned about their destination.

In Massachusetts, nursing home and extended care facilities have a legal obligation to provide enough staffing to ensure the proper supervision and quality of life for the senior citizens they house. If a senior citizen is allowed to wander and injured themselves while not being supervised, this is obviously a failing of that obligation and can mean the facility is liable for the injuries sustained.

Nursing homes care for elderly individuals that, nearly half the time, have some sort of memory illness or form of dementia. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities are literally designed to care for people who can no longer adequately care for themselves. To allow one of these senior residents to wander and harm themselves is simply unacceptable.

Contact Us for a Free Consultation Today

Elder abuse and neglect attorneys at Altman & Altman are ready and waiting to help you in the case that your elderly loved one was injured following an episode of wandering from a nursing home. Our firm has over 50 years of experience working with seniors and ensuring that they are properly compensated for any incidents of neglect or abuse which occurs during their residency at a nursing home.

We can assess the situation with you and your elderly loved ones to figure out exactly what happened, who is responsible and carve out a satisfactory legal plan to ensure a high degree of success and win compensation to assist in transferring your elderly loved one to a new facility or helping pay the medical expenses they incurred from any harm that they suffered due to the negligence of the nursing home.

Call us for a free consultation to go over the details of your case today at 617.492.3000 or toll-free at 800.481.6199. We are available 24/7.