AVONDALE, AZ — A family is suing an Avondale assisted-living facility after a 75-year-old woman with dementia was found on a patio last summer and died of heat exposure.
Linda Hughes was a retired bookkeeper. For the last three years, she had called Silver Birch of Avondale home.
“She was friendly. She was kind,” said Martin Solomon, a Phoenix attorney who is representing her estate.
"She had a little dog that she had with her all the time, even when she developed worsening dementia."
Hughes later moved into a memory-care unit at the facility, a secured area designed so that residents cannot wander out.
But on July 21st of last year, staff lost track of Hughes, according to Avondale police and Arizona Department of Health Services reports. She walked out a door and onto a courtyard patio.
"We know that Linda went out of the door that was supposed to be alarmed. We know that the alarm wasn't functioning,” Solomon said.
Police reports say she was found outside by a staffer around 4:20 p.m. She was outside for more than an hour, according to police. Temperatures were in the triple-digits that day.
The medical examiner ruled Hughes died of heat exposure.
In the long-term care industry, what happened to Hughes is called an “elopement.” Elopements are when a person with dementia wanders away from a secure facility without staff realizing it.
In Arizona’s summer heat, this can prove fatal within minutes.
“It’s very easy for them to get lost,” said Brendon Blake, advocacy director for AARP Arizona. “We hear about wandering all the time.”
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Earlier this year, the Arizona Department of Health Services fined Silver Birch of Avondale a total of $2,000 for failing “to ensure the health, safety or welfare of a resident” and failing to monitor her whereabouts.
Solomon, the attorney, calls the $2,000 fine the equivalent of a “parking violation.”
Seven months after Hughes died, her family filed a civil lawsuit against Silver Birch, alleging neglect and abuse.
"We have a lot of information about what happened,” Solomon said. “And what we hope to learn as a result of the litigation is why it was permitted to happen."
Silver Birch did not respond to ABC15's multiple requests for comment on the lawsuit’s allegations. The suit was only recently filed, so there is not yet a response from the company in court filings.
Email ABC15’s Anne Ryman at anne.ryman@abc15.com, call her at 602-685-6345, or connect on X, formerly known as Twitter.
