Elderly Woman Killed After Wandering From Escondido Nursing Home
Posted by
Randy WaltonNovember 27, 2007 3:36 PMCases involving nursing home wanderers are not uncommon in the nursing home abuse and neglect arena. I have had them, and I know my colleagues have as well. When an elderly resident of a nursing home wanders away, usually because there is some memory impairment, it rarely ends well.
That was the case in Escondido on Thanksgiving Day when 94-year-old Maria Cobian, a resident of Palomar Heights Care Center in Escondido, wandered away from the Escondido nursing home. Ms. Cobian, who was considered a wandering risk, apparently walked away unnoticed by the nursing home staff as she walked out the door of the nursing facility.
Ms. Cobian was struck by a car while walking in a traffic lane on Grand Avenue and died.
"We're still confused about how this happened," Cobian's grandson, Jesus Cobian, 33, of Oceanside said yesterday. "We're upset and confused." Jesus Cobian said he and his father, Alberto Cobian, were told by a worker at the nursing home that night that there had been an emergency involving another patient and the staff had been distracted.
"We just don't understand how she could just slip out like that," Jesus Cobian said. Just before the accident, one person had stopped and was about to help Cobian when she was struck by a Crown Victoria driven by a 58-year-old Escondido security guard.
This is not the first time this facility has been under scrutiny.
Last year, the same nursing home was hit with the most severe citation the California Department of Health Services can issue and was fined $100,000 after a 66-year-old patient died after being left alone while smoking a cigarette on a patio while connected to an oxygen machine. A state report said the man became "engulfed" in flames and burned for six minutes, suffering injuries to his face, torso, arms and legs. The state concluded poor care led to the man's death.
Palomar Heights Care Center is not associated with the Palomar Pomerado Health district.
For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Nursing Home and Elder Abuse.