Suit Over Wandering Nursing Home Resident's Death Settled for $750,000

A Philadelphia federal judge has approved a $750,000 settlement between a Pennsylvania nursing home and the family of a Alzheimer's patient who died from injuries sustained while wandering from the facility.

Francis X. Ounan alleged that his mother, Margaret Ounan Boyle, 83, died Nov. 5, 2005, from head injuries suffered in a fall she had while wandering from the Quadrangle in Havertown, Pa.

Ounan, as the executor of his mother's estate, filed the lawsuit Jan. 15 against national nursing chain Sunrise Senior Living Services Inc., the Quadrangle's owner, in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas.

The suit also named nursing home administrator Lynn Plasha and nurse Cynthia Harbaugh as defendants.

Sunrise removed the case to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Feb. 16 based on diversity of citizenship. The company is headquartered in Virginia, the two defendant employees are Pennsylvania residents and Ounan lives in New Jersey.

According to Ounan's complaint, that Quadrangle admitted Boyle Nov. 3, 2005. The facility knew at the time that her Alzheimer's put her at a high risk for wandering, Ounan said.

Plasha and other Quadrangle employees allegedly told him the facility had adequate precautions in place to prevent Boyle from wandering from the facility. Ounan said he and his sister, Regina Watson, relied on these assurances when they admitted their mother.

According to the complaint, Boyle wandered from the facility Nov. 4, 2005, the day after her admission, and fell, striking her head, knees and left arm.

She was found later that day with police assistance and taken to a local hospital, the complaint says. Doctors noted abrasions and contusions on her temple, knees, shins, left cheek, left elbow and left wrist.

They diagnosed her with severe head trauma and bleeding in her brain. She died the next morning.

Ounan alleged the Quadrangle was grossly negligent in failing to provide adequate safety measures to protect its Alzheimer's patients and devise a care plan to address Boyle's tendency to wander.

He further claimed the facility failed to hire competent staff and properly train them.

Ounan accused Harbaugh, one of his mother's chief caregivers, of failing to follow the care plan and monitor her whereabouts.

Plasha committed similar negligent acts, Ounan said, and failed to adopt adequate rules, policies and procedures to deal with Alzheimer's patients like Boyle.

Sunrise Senior Living and the two staff members filed an answer to the complaint denying any wrongdoing.

The defendants said they fulfilled their duties to Boyle by developing a proper care plan to address her propensity for wandering and providing her with an electronic monitoring bracelet that would set off an alarm and lock the doors if she tried to leave the facility.

The parties reached the settlement in May and submitted the agreement for court approval in June.

Judge Stewart Dalzell signed an order approving the deal July 5.

Under the deal Boyle's estate will receive about $112,000 in survival action damages and her two children, Ounan and Watson, will each receive $223,000 in wrongful-death damages.

The rest of the money will cover attorney fees and costs.

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