Dementia patient left outside locked facility at 2 a.m. in a bathrobe, daughter says
Security video obtained by local outlets shows a woman, wearing a bathrobe and sandals, tugging away at the locked door of a California assisted living facility in the middle of the night.
Costanza Genoese Zerbi says that video is of her 84-year-old mother Savina Genoese Zerbi, who has dementia and was left outside Regency Palms in Long Beach at around 2 a.m. earlier this month, according to The Long Beach Press-Telegram.
“I was horrified,” Costanza said, according to KTLA5. “My mom has a hard time piecing together anything. She thinks something that happened yesterday happened 10 years ago; she thinks something that happened 10 years ago happened today.”
Savina had made “suicidal comments” on Jan. 12 while at Regency Palms, and was then taken to a nearby hospital’s emergency room, according to WVTM13.
When the hospital released the woman hours later, she was sent back to Regency Palms in a taxi cab, according to The Long Beach Press-Telegram. Savina was dropped off shortly after 2 a.m., and then spent about 25 minutes before someone finally let her inside.
Video shows Savina walking up and down an alley way and hitting the door in an attempt to get someone’s attention.
The hospital didn’t give anyone at Regency Palm information on when the woman would arrive, the facility’s staff say, according to The Long Beach Press-Telegram.
“It’s like taking a child and dumping him on the street in the middle of the night – it’s insane. It’s criminal,” Costanza told KCAL.
Now, the upset daughter says she is hoping to make sure something like this doesn’t happen at the hospital again, as reported by KCAL.
“I would just like to see the hospital operate in a more responsible way,” she told the TV station.
The hospital said it will reach out to Savina’s family, according to KCAL. The hospital also said that “a relative and the care facility were notified that she was being discharged,” the TV station reported.
Officials with the California Department of Public Health released a statement to Fox11.
“Details about any potential pending or ongoing investigation are kept confidential until the investigation is complete and findings are issued to the facility,” it reads, according to the TV station. “There is currently an ongoing investigation at this facility.”