How thirsty would you have to be to drink hydrogen peroxide? How hungry to eat Tylenol?
For one victim, abandoned on a nursing home bus after a shopping field trip, it was somewhere less than 14 hours. That’s roughly how long it was before police and other searchers happened upon her unconscious form. She was placed in intensive care and later died.
Missing a bus passenger happens on occasion. It doesn’t happen often because drivers are taught to walk through the bus when they return to the garage. When it does happen, it usually ends like this: a student falls asleep on a bus and misses his or her scheduled stop; a panicked parent calls the school district; the school district calls the bus driver; the student is found.
The problem is not that this woman was left on the bus. The problem is that so little care was taken to track the residents that the bus wasn’t one of the first places to check. It amounts to gross nursing home neglect on the part of the nursing home.
A nursing home neglect suit was filed of course, and a judge approved a settlement of $1.65 million. Before the case could be settled the company sold the assets of the company, but not the liability. Then, they dissolved the company.
Will the family ever receive a dime? It depends. A skilled investigator will need to track down the individuals who have responsibility for the failures of the home. That could take a lot of time and money.