Sawyer Law Firm recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of the family of an 83-year-old woman who suffered a heat stroke after she was left in an assisted living facility’s van for six hours. The lawsuit was filed against Elmcroft of Montgomery LLC for negligence and outrage.
Our lawsuit alleges the facility had taken our client on a field trip with other residents. Several hours later, our client’s daughter received a phone call from the facility asking if she had picked up her mother and that she was “missing.” Shortly after, our client was found inside a van with the windows rolled up. The van had been parked in the facility’s parking lot. Our client was transported to Jackson Hospital and was diagnosed with heatstroke and other medical complications.
Speaking about the lawsuit, attorney J.P. Sawyer had the following to say:
“We hope to be able to get the full set of facts and find out exactly what happened. This obviously has to be a systemic failure in the system at the facility for something like this to happen… I’ve been handling these kinds of cases for 25 years and I always say nothing shocks me, but this did shock me. It’s just, you know, unbelievable that they could leave someone in a van for that long and not recognize that she was missing.”
At the time of the incident, our client was residing at Elmcroft because she has dementia and a hip issue. However, after suffering heatstroke, we aren’t sure she is going to make a full recovery. As of this writing, our client is still recovering in the intensive care unit.