

All facilities entrusted with the care of the elderly should have this combination in place, but as we’ve seen time and time again, some nursing homes do not always follow regulations put in place to prevent catastrophes such as these. Penn’s causes shock, but the truth is that without a combination of vigilant staff and preventative measures, nursing home residents could easily wander or elope from a facility. Several years ago in Chicago, ex-Cubs player Kerry Wood was paddling in Lake Michigan when he discovered the body of a man who had eloped from a north side nursing home. This is one of several headline-grabbing cases of elopement and wandering from nursing homes this year.

Penn was missing and when she decided to call the police. Penn had left her room to visit with another resident and finished her rounds, leaving a 2 hours gap between when she noticed Ms.
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Penn to exit the facility unnoticed that day (referred to as elopement) had just been trained 48 hours prior on how to handle residents who had eloped or wandered. Ironically, the staff member who allowed Ms. Penn’s tendency to wander and failed to protect her on August 23rd. After her admittance to the facility, it was noted that she had a tendency towards wandering, a condition that requires precautions including door alarms, personally-fitted tracking devices, and staff vigilance. The victim, Audrey Penn, was admitted to Woodland Terrace in February of this year with a documented history of dementia and other ailments. Her body was found dead 3 weeks later in a ditch almost 2 miles away. It is unclear for how long the victim had been deceased before she was located. Two hours passed before the facility, Woodland Terrace at Oaks Senior Living Community in Allentown, Pennsylvania, called the police. The family of a 77 year old woman with Alzheimer’s has filed a lawsuit against her nursing home after the facility allowed the woman to go missing.
