Elder Law

Family Files Suit after Illinois Woman Freezes to Death

By Levin & Perconti

A woman who was too frail to get out of bed or change her clothes without assistance ended up leaving her Itasca nursing home last week and freezing to death in the courtyard. The family has now filed a lawsuit alleging elderly neglect and abuse on the part of The Arbor of Itasca, the nursing home where the woman had lived for more than two years. The major question is how the woman who had been suffering from symptoms of dementia could have wandered from her room and the building without staff members noticing. The woman was found dressed only in a hospital gown after being outside for at least 90 minutes, still wearing the exact ankle bracelet that should have triggered the alarm keeping her inside the home. Although the daughters of the woman say that they had never been concerned about the safety of their mother at the nursing home, public records show that the Illinois Department of Public Health had conducted 12 separate investigations in response to complaints. To read more about the pending nursing home lawsuit, click the link.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on February 13, 2009 (boomark / email).