Elopement in Ohio Nursing Homes Can Quickly Lead to Resident Injuries or Death
We have written many times on this website about elopement. Elopement typically means when two people run off and get married in some remote location. Tragically, in the nursing home industry, elopement means when someone who cannot leave the facility safely, leaves the facility unattended.
The winter weather creates a particular danger with respect to elopement. Temperatures have been in the single digits lately. This is a concern for everyone. My children's school was closed because the school did not want young kids waiting for the bus in such frigid temperatures. The same frigid temperatures pose a very real and very serious threat to nursing home residents who should not be allowed to leave the nursing home unattended.
If someone you love has been neglected or abused in a nursing home, please call us at The Dickson Firm at 1 800 OHIO LAW as we would be happy to talk with you and help you in any way that we can.
Recently, an Ohio nursing home allowed an 84-year-old woman to walk out of the facility through an exit door that closed and locked behind her. She tragically froze to death on the patio. Alvera Meuti was at The Avenue at Warrensville Care and Rehabilitation Center in Cleveland, Ohio when she disappeared from her room on the night of December 23, 2024.
A nurse at the facility, Amber Henderson, is facing a felony count of involuntary manslaughter in connection with Meuti's death. She is named in the family's complaint as a defendant along with the nursing home for her alleged failure to report Meuti's disappearance and provide her with adequate supervision.
At 9:30 p.m. on December 23, 2024, Amber Henderson went into Alvera Meuti's room and Ms. Meuti was not there. And yet, Amber Henderson did not make any report. She did not take any action. She did not contact Ms. Meuti’s family.
When the weather is as cold as it is, time is of the essence. Nursing homes are legally obligated to provide their residents with adequate supervision to prevent accidents. They are legally obligated to provide their residents with a safe environment. When a nurse or a nurse’s aid discovers that a residents is not where she is supposed to be, the nursing home must immediately locate her. The resident might have eloped out of the facility, and if the weather is as cold as it is, she is in grave danger. The resident might be somewhere she is not supposed to be.
Elopement leads to questions, including:
- Can an Ohio nursing home be held liable for injuries that occur when a resident goes missing?
- Who is ultimately responsible for a resident's elopement?
- How can I make sure that my loved one does not elope from an Ohio nursing home?
- Is the nursing home responsible for elopement – or is it the individual staff who was working?
- How will I (or will I) know if my loved one has eloped?
- Do I need to contact an attorney if my family member eloped from a nursing home?
- How can an attorney help me with an elopement claim?
We have been involved with cases where residents ingested cleaning supplies because they got into a cleaning cabinet or they got into the kitchen. We have been involved in cases where residents eloped and suffered horrible injury, if not death, because of the weather. We have been involved in cases where residents left the facility and fell outside of the facility and suffered a fracture. We have been involved in cases where residents left the facility and drowned in a nearby pond or pool. We have been involved in cases where residents eloped from the facility and wandered into traffic.
Ms. Meuti's family said that there was an exit door near her room that was left unlocked and had no keypad or alarm. This is inexcusable. We recently handled a case where a resident repeatedly eloped out of the facility. When we filed suit and began taking depositions, we discovered that none of the doors were locked. This resident was in a room at the end of the hall, far away from the nurse’s station, right next to a door leading to the outside and that door was always unlocked. Further, this resident eloped multiple times and the nursing home did nothing to prevent future elopements. Finally, the resident left the nursing home late at night in the freezing cold. He was found blocks away from the nursing home. He had fallen and broken his leg. He was wearing a t shirt and pajama bottoms and he was freezing cold. He died as a result.
There is no excuse for this. If there are residents in a nursing home who cannot leave the facility safely, unattended, then the doors must be locked. There are many ways to accomplish this. There can be a release lever that is placed high where a demented or confused resident would not think to look for it.
You can put a keypad on a door. You can even write the code for the keypad on the wall. If the resident is not safe to walk outside by themselves, they are probably not able to enter the key into the keypad.
Tragically, Alvera Meuti was found the next morning, December 24, 2024, Christmas Eve, on the patio outside of the facility, near the area where she exited and near a door that locked behind her. She literally froze to death. Had they gone to look for her immediately, they likely would have found her immediately outside the facility and brought her in and she would not have died.
Amber Henderson claims that she thought that Alvera Meuti left with her family. That is not sufficient. The nursing home must verify where each resident is. Tragically, Amber Henderson apparently falsified her charting and indicating that she had done certain tasks that she was required to do with respect to Alvera Meuti even though Alvera Meuti was not in the nursing home. She lied and said that she completed those tasks when she obviously did not because Ms. Meuti was not in the facility.
False charting is another huge problem that we face in many of our cases. Nursing homes are required to have a sufficient number of adequately trained staff who are qualified to care for their residents. In this case, they clearly, did not and tragedy occurred.
If someone you love is in a nursing home and they cannot leave the nursing home safely on their own, then you must find out what the nursing home's plan is for keeping them safe. You should ask how the doors are secured. You should ask about all the facilities in the area of the nursing home where your loved one is going to reside.
Are the doors locked? Will they use a wanderguard with your loved one, which will alert them if your loved one leaves the unit where they are supposed to be? How will they monitor your loved one? How will they keep him or her safe? This case is a tragic example of what happens when a nursing home does not follow the laws, does not provide their residents with adequate supervision, and does not provide them with a safe environment.
If someone you love has been neglected or abused in a nursing home, please call us at The Dickson Firm at 1 800 OHIO LAW as we would be happy to talk with you and help you in any way that we can.
