Woman dies: Found outside of assisted living facility

Posted on December 11, 2009 by Justin P. Walsh

King 5 is reporting that last night a 95-year-old woman was found dead outside of the Assisted Living Facility where she was a resident. Within a few hours of last seeing the woman, the Facility called police who initiated a search. She was found at the garden of a neighboring facility.

Wesley Care's CEO, Kevin Anderson, says this has never happened in the 26 years the facility has offered care and they are cooperating fully with authorities.

"We grieve with the family deeply over this tragic incident," he said. "We are extremely sorry that the incident happened. (Jensen's) family has our deepest sympathies."

Anderson told KING 5 News Jensen did not have a history of wandering away from the Center. The police report said staff told officers that earlier that evening, Jensen was found in another wing of the care center and had to be escorted back to her room.

If your loved one has a history of wandering, it is important the facility take action to prevent it. in this case, there is a question as to how alert they should have been given her recent evidence of confusion. However, in other facilities, the failure to care for the special needs of your loved ones is easily preventable. 

My prayers go out to her family.

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Dead by Mistake

Posted on August 10, 2009 by Justin P. Walsh

I often get asked by friends and family why I do what I do. You have to admit, its a big investment. Not only are you devoting 3 years of your time to law school and upwards of $100,000, you’re also slightly pigeon-holing yourself into a profession. I’m sure that can be said for just about any other profession, but with law, medicine, and I’m sure a few others, you lose that ability to bounce freely between careers. As you move through time, your practice generally becomes more focused and honed.

Simply put, I do it for the victims of negligence. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran an article entitled Dead By Mistake. The article explains the myriad of deaths that occur in the health care system simply by virtue of someone making a mistake. Now, I make mistakes, you make mistakes – everyone makes mistakes. Most of the time my mistakes are merely grammatical or spelling errors. It tends to happen when you type a lot. I’m sure one day I’ll make a mistake that cause harm to a client by causing trouble within their case. Unfortunately, for doctors, a mistake can often have tragic consequences.

“So what?,” you may say. “Everyone is entitled to make mistakes.” Sure, but that doesn’t mean that a person isn’t held accountable for their mistakes. The same powers that shout “PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY!” over and over when it comes to a reason why they shouldn’t lend a hand to a homeless man largely fall silent when the same topic is applied to professionals. You hear arguments that to hold these people accountable for their mistakes places a burden on the health care system.

Yes, I’ll admit, it does place a burden on the health care system. A burden of change. A burden to not allow simple mistakes to be made. A burden to innovate so that people don’t die at their hands when the death was entirely preventable. Unfortunately, the only way to press change, it seems, is to make the alternative hurt. If a hospital has to pay for its mistakes, it will invoke change when it becomes cheaper to go through the change than it does to continue paying claims. Hospitals are no different than Ford, making its cold calculated decision of gas tank deaths in the Ford Pinto. The only difference is, there’s not a video-clip with which we can be appalled.

Be appalled.

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