Missing Elderly Woman Who Wandered from Pennsylvania Nursing Home Found Dead
An elderly woman who wandered from her Pennsylvania nursing home last month was found dead the day after she was reported missing, says an NBC Philadelphia article. On Monday, July 8, 84-year-old Nadine Beech was reported missing from the Waverly Heights retirement community in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, after staff members discovered she hadn’t shown up for lunch. Her body was found the following afternoon in Bryn Mawr.
Due to the dangerous heat that Monday, the woman’s unfamiliarity with the area, and her possible confused mental state, police initiated a search for Beech and asked hospitals and local residents to check areas of their property in an effort to find her. The police search for Beech, who apparently wasn’t carrying her cellphone or any money, involved drones, choppers, ATVs and K9s making a large-scale search of the area.
Beech, who had moved to Waverly Heights on June 29, had been assessed as someone not at risk of wandering off and was “free to come and go,” according to Waverly Heights president Tom Garvin. According the article, officials could not determine why Beech had walked out of the facility, other than that she “wasn’t thrilled” about having been admitted. Garvin said that Waverly Heights implemented a missing resident protocol once Beech was discovered missing.
Elopement, the term for when a resident at risk of wandering leaves his or her nursing home undetected, is a surprisingly common type of nursing home malpractice that unfortunately often results in death, requiring the involvement of a wrongful death attorney. A recent investigation shows that a startling number of American nursing home elopements occur, often with tragic results, as was the case with Nadine Beech.
Many times nursing home elopement is the result of low staff-to-resident ratios. Elopement sometimes goes undetected when staff engages in such neglectful instances of nursing home malpractice as ignoring door alarms, skipping bed checks, or sleeping on the job.
If your loved one living at a nursing home has been determined to be at risk for wandering and staff does not prevent him or her from elopement, nursing home malpractice has occurred and a nursing home malpractice lawyer should be immediately contacted, particularly if injury has occurred. In the tragic situation of a death occurring as a result of elopement, a wrongful death attorney needs to be contacted.
Protecting Your Loved Ones from Nursing Home Malpractice and Wrongful Death
Attorney Brian P. Murphy represents victims of abuse and neglect in Philadelphia/PA and NJ nursing homes. As an accomplished nursing home malpractice and wrongful death attorney, Brian Murphy holds Philadelphia/PA or NJ nursing homes accountable for substandard care and incidents of abuse, particularly staff negligence that leads to elopement or any type of nursing home malpractice that results in wrongful death. Attorney Brian Murphy is convinced that no resident of a Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, or New Jersey nursing home should need to live in fear of elder abuse, neglect, or any kind of nursing home malpractice. He is ready to discuss your legal options. If you or your loved one needs to contact a nursing home malpractice and wrongful death attorney, call Brian Murphy today.
