At least 98 elderly patients, many with Alzheimer’s disease or other mental impairments, have died after wandering away from their assisted-living facilities in recent years, according to more than 100,000 state inspection reports analyzed by The Washington Post.
The dozens of deaths are the extreme cases in a trend of neglect across a $34 billion industry that has caused more than 2,000 seniors to get away from or be abandoned outside their care facilities, the newspaper reported.
Such facilities charge families an average of $6,000 a month to care for their elderly parents.
The causes of death turned up by the Post varied, with some patients drowning or being hit by cars, but more than 61 percent died of exposure to extreme heat or cold, including one 86-year-old Colorado woman whose family was told in 2021 that she “passed outside watching the sun set, an activity she loved” after she was ignored for six hours in a roasting courtyard.
The Post noted that, since 19 states do not allow the public access to their state reports, the numbers discovered by the newspaper are “almost certainly” an undercount.
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These assisted living business should be sued and closed down, for neglect.
Only 98 ?!!
Thousands of seniors died walking away from their own homes while living with their love ones. It is nearly impossible to keep an eye 100% of the time.
I just hope that if my time comes that I lose my mind, somebody have the charity to allow me to drift to my end
You definitely will not be missed !!
Yes senior die everyday, but those in assisted living are in the care of nurses and doctors who are suppose to take care of them.