Fall Leaves Dementia Patient With Broken Neck At Assisted Living Facility

The family of Mabel Montgomery is bringing a wrongful death lawsuit against the assisted living facility where she lived, Juniper House.  The lawsuit alleges that Ms. Montgomery left Juniper House through a fire exit and fell.  The fall resulted in a fracture of Ms. Montgomery’s neck and traumatic brain injury.  The injuries from the fall ultimately lead to the woman’s death.

The lawsuit further alleges that the Oregon Assisted Living Facility knew that Ms. Montgomery had dementia and had a propensity to leave or wander from the facility.  The staff at Juniper House apparently went so far as to assure the victim’s family that the fire doors were secured in a way to prevent residents from easily opening them.

Understaffing is the real culprit here.  Too often the simplest preventative measures could stop dangerous situations from occurring.  I would be interested to see what time of day this incident occurred as how many staff were working at the time.  My guess is that this incident occurred at a time when staffing was at a minimum.