Seniors with Dementia Abandoned by Family Caregivers at Hospitals and Homeless Shelters

Jeremy Jojola, investigative reporter for Denver KUSA/9NEWS, has published a heart-wrenching story uncovering a horrifying, but all-too-common, practice of family caregivers abandoning seniors suffering from dementia by abandoning, and stranding  seniors in public airports, malls, hotels, hospitals, homeless centers, and in at least one instance, a local McDonald's.  Jojola described the plight of 80-year- old Jerry Ellingsen, who suffers from Alzheimer's:

Within the bustle and organized chaos of Denver's massive airport, an 80-year-old man with Alzheimer's disease named Jerry Ellingsen was found wandering alone after traveling with his small dog from Fort Myers, Florida. 

Jerry didn’t know where he was or why he was in Denver.

A United Airlines supervisor found Jerry confused and alone, with only a small dog, near an exit door outside the ticket counter, and promptly called the police.  A police report indicated a flight attendant described Jerry as possibly suffering from Alzheimer’s.  One Denver police officer spoke with Jerry, and noted in his report:

“He was very confused about general details of his life to include where he was at, where he was coming from, who he was coming to visit and his family members’ names."

Police looked up the woman who checked him into his flight, and ended up talking to his daughter.  Police soon learned that Jerry's daughter, who was his agent under a Power of Attorney, put him on the one-way flight from Fort Myers, Florida.  She intended for Jerry to live with his estranged wife, but had texted the estranged wife only the day before with a simple notification that Jerry, and his dog "will arrive on a flight in Denver tomorrow afternoon."  The daughter made no other arrangements to transport her father, or communicate with her father's estranged wife, until sometime after he arrived, and then only texted the estranged wife, "[i]f you need to drop my dad at a homeless shelter, it’s fine. I just want him to have a roof over his head. Please." 

Jerry's family refused to rescue Jerry so police transported Jerry to University of Colorado Hospital. Laws require hospitals to admit and keep at-risk adults who’ve been abandoned until caseworkers can find safe placement for them, which can lead to extended stays for months and even years.

Jerry’s story sparked a 9Wants to Know investigation into at-risk adults who end up languishing in hospitals because they have no family to take care of them, or a facility willing to take them in due to a lack of space, finances, or appropriate scope of care.  The investigators conducted a point-in-time survey with the help of the Colorado Hospital Association because hospitals do not keep track of stays by people like Jerry.  Investigator Jojola described what the investigation discovered:

A three-month long 9Wants to Know investigation is uncovering a growing health care epidemic where hundreds of people like Jerry are abandoned every year at metro-area hospitals. The epidemic is costing hospitals and in some cases, taxpayers, millions of dollars a year.

Nineteen metro area hospitals participated in the survey, which revealed on a single day in September, 113 at-risk adults were stuck in the system, beyond medical necessity.  Of those patients, about 30 percent had mental health issues like Alzheimer's and dementia. Most of the stranded people were men over 40 years old.  The longest stay was 577 days!  

According to the article, Denver Health has a special wing called the "Oasis Unit" that houses around 30 at-risk adults on any given day. Denver Health reports it expected to spend $18 million on the Oasis Unit in 2018.  Anecdotally, Denver Health officials cited a case that resulted in a stay of eight years in the Oasis Unit.  Tax payers and consumers end up bearing the cost.  Hospitals in Colorado can cost up to $2,500 per day, per patient. 

A Knoxville television station also broadcast a report about Jerry's case.  Both reports indicated that charges were unlikely to be filed against and member of Jerry's family. The video broadcast identified the daughter's name, who, ironically worked for a health care agency specializing in providing health care for seniors.  

Instances of professional caregivers abandoning patients and residents are well-documented (see, for example, here, here, and, see here, what is hopefully an usual case in which professional caregivers abandoned a couple, who were then later abandoned by a privately paid professional caregiver who had worked for the first professional caregiver).  Family abandonment is less well understood and documented.

Given the stress and strain of caregiving, and the feelings of helplessness and abandonment that caregivers often feel, it is possible that caregivers simply surrender, leaving their vulnerable wards at risk.  Regardless, the only solution is advanced planning, including considerations of the demands and risks of caregiving, and the costs of same.  Greater education and support for caregivers from the community is also well past due.