Kerry Wood saved many games as the closer for the Chicago Cubs, but he was too late to save a nursing home resident who presumably drowned in Belmont Harbor.
Mr. Wood was paddle boarding Monday morning when he discovered the body floating in the water according to the Chicago Tribune.
The man was wearing a wrist tag that identified him as a resident of a North Side nursing home. The police haven’t released the name of the nursing home or the victim yet, but they did indicate that the man was 40-years-old and was reported missing on June 19th by the nursing home where he was living.
When nursing home residents leave a nursing home, it is known as an “elopement”, and it’s a common symptom of nursing home neglect.
When people think about elopment, they often picture a scenario where a resident is cleverly escaping from a nursing home. In this scenario, the residents play the well meaning nursing home staff members like dupes in a heist movie. Lawyers and administrators for nursing homes like to promote this theory because it lessens their accountability.
In reality, most nursing home elopement happens when a staff member props an emergency door open to have a cigarette outside, or an understaffed nursing home has no one manning the nurses’ station or the front desk. Sometimes staff turnover is so high that the staff has no idea who is a visitor and who is a resident.
When a resident elopes from a nursing home and is injured as a result, the nursing home is accountable for those injuries. In this case, the nursing home may be liable for the wrongful death of their resident.
If you have a loved one who has been injured after wandering from a Chicago area nursing home, contact our Chicago nursing home lawyers for a free and confidential evaluation of your case. At my law offices we never charge a fee unless we win a recovery for you.
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