It is critical that a nursing home and its staff take careful note of patients with conditions that could lead to elopement / wandering resulting in injury or even death. Dementia and Alzheimer’s are two critical conditions that staff must treat carefully. Recently, a man who suffered from dementia wandered from a nursing home and was struck and killed by a train. Read the article here. His family has filed a wrongful death claim against the nursing home claiming:

workers at the facility failed to follow the company’s established protocols for missing residents . . . [and] failed to adequately supervise [the resident].

Such residents must be carefully monitored to prevent such tragedies. If your loved one has any condition that may create wandering, check the protocol of the facility to ensure that proper measures and procedures are in place to address the condition.