Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Wandering is a common symptom of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or other cognitive disorders. According to the Alzheimer’s Association more than 60 percent of those with the condition wander at some point and up to 70 percent of those who wander will do so again. More than 127,000 critical wandering incidents are reported each year. If not found within the first 24 hours, up to half of all persons with dementia who wander will become seriously injured or die, according to research obtained by the Alzheimer’s Association.

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Early Sunday morning an 86-year-old resident of Kruse Village retirement home in Brenham, Texas, pushed the wheelchair he was riding in out of the sight of nursing home staff and through a security door to a short flight of steps. That’s when police believe he accidentally rolled down the stairs and sustained serious injuries that killed him. While police strongly believe the death was an accident, because he died of unnatural causes they are investigating how and why the accident occurred.

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Richard Constable, 66, walked away from his Staten Island assisted living facility and remained gone for two days before staff bothered to call the police, according to the Staten Island Advance. Staff felt the police would respond better the longer the man was missing.

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Like many people who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, Florence Warren was prone to wandering off. She had escaped from numerous care centers in the past, which is why her family chose to move her into Good Samaritan Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Avon, Ohio, earlier this month. The home had a secure, locked unit especially for those suffering from cognitive disorders.

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No one disputes that 74-year-old Julia McCauley, a resident at Life Care Center of Acton in Massachusetts rolled her wheelchair outside the front door of the home where she had lived five years. She had done it on more than one occasion. But in August of 2004, her trip through the exit resulted in her tumbling down a flight of stairs. She died shortly after the fall.

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DuPage County, Illinois officials are stepping up their investigations into allegations of physical abuse of elderly in nursing homes and in-home health care settings, spurred in part by the horrifying story of a nursing home resident who froze to death last month after wandering outside her nursing home, according to the Chicago Tribune.

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An investigation into the death of Sarah Wentworth has taken an even more tragic turn. The 89-year-old woman was found dead outside in her Itasca, Illinois nursing home’s courtyard earlier this month wearing nothing but a hospital gown. Since she suffered from dementia, which can make its victims prone to wandering, she wore an ankle bracelet that would trigger an alarm if she crossed the threshold to the outdoors. So why didn’t anyone seem to know how Wentworth wandered out in the first place?

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The family of Sarah Wentworth can’t imagine how the 89-year-old woman could have wandered outside the Itasca, Illinois nursing home where she lived for more than two years. Wentworth was so frail that she needed assistance just to get out of bed or change her clothes. And since she suffered from dementia, which can make those who suffer from the disease prone to wander, she also wore an ankle bracelet that sounded an alarm if she crossed through the nursing home’s doors to the outside.

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An Edmond, Okla., nursing home has been fined $3,000 and is currently unable to receive Medicare or Medicaid reimbursements after an investigation found the nursing home did not respond quickly enough or adequately after learning a female resident was being sexually molested by another resident, according to KOKO-TV.

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George King Sr., of Charleston, W.V., lived in Heartland of Charleston nursing home. He had Alzheimer’s Disease, and like many individuals suffering from the memory-loss disorder, King was prone to wander.

Many nursing homes who care for patients with Alzheimer’s have practices in place to ensure patients who wander stay within the nursing home wing where they live. But few practices are foolproof.

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