Nursing Home Field Trip Results in Lawsuit Over Injuries When Resident Wandered Off

A nursing home negligence lawsuit has been filed against an Illinois facility after a resident suffered severe injuries when she wandered off during a field trip to a local high school.

The complaint alleges that employees at Brighton Gardens Assisted Living of Orland Park in Illinois failed to provide proper supervision and monitoring during a field trip with Margaret McCauley, a resident who suffered from severe dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

McCauley wandered off unnoticed on December 2, 2007 while attending a high school concert with other residents at the same facility. She was discovered eight hours later on train tracks a mile from the school, with injuries caused by a fall and being out in the cold weather for an extended period of time.

The Illinois nursing home lawsuit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court by McCauley’s guardian, Wayne Marz, against Sunrise Senior Living Services, its Activity Director Debra Ann Adler, and Brighton Gardens.

According to the complaint, the nursing home negligently failed to monitor McCauley, failed to properly assess her risk of wandering off before taking her on the field trip and failed to provide an adequate number of staff members to care for the residents and ensure their safety.

Federal nursing home regulations require that every resident have an assessment done when they enter a facility and the assessment must be updated on a regular basis or with changes in their medical condition. Based on this assessment, nursing homes are expected to take proper steps to protect the resident and determine what level of supervision is required both at the facility and on any field trips.

Nursing home wandering, which may also be referred to as “nursing home elopement”, is a surprisingly common problem, and often occurs at the facility when the resident is able to leave because of inadequate protections, such as alarms or bells on doors.

In an unrelated incident that occurred earlier this year at another Illinois nursing home, an 89 year old resident was found frozen to death in the courtyard of a facility wearing only a nightgown after nursing home employees failed to check on an alarm that went off while they were watching a TV show.

A nursing home wrongful death lawsuit was filed in that case against the owners and managers of The Arbor of Itasca in Illinois. The case is also pending in Cook County Circuit Court.