A lawsuit was filed on February 11, 2009, on behalf of the Estate of Sarah Wentworth, a nursing home resident found frozen to death outside of the Arbor of Itasca,  the nursing home where she resided. The family is being represented by Louis C. Cairo and Christopher P. Hughes of GWC.  The lawsuit alleges that the nursing home failed to take adequate steps to insure the safety of Ms. Wentworth who was entrusted to their care. This tragic incident has sparked multiple investigations that have resulted in criminal and civil proceedings.  GWC has retained a professional consultant on nursing home regulations and standards to assist the family’s attorneys in this litigation.  As a result of methodical investigation by the Itasca police, an apparent “cover-up” has been discovered which has resulted in a grand jury proceeding wherein criminal charges are anticipated to be filed against at least one of the nursing home aides working in the early morning hours when Sarah Wentworth wandered outside into the frigid cold courtyard on that frigid cold February morning and ultimately was left to freeze to death in her pajamas.  

GWC lawyers, Cairo and Hughes, attended a court-ordered inspection of the facility on February 20, 2009 and videotaped the facility, tested the alarm system and photographed the areas involved in this fatality.  This video, along with interviews with attorneys, Cairo and Hughes, on nation news programs can be viewed by clicking on the following links: 

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"The family is still in shock over the fact that their mother was able to leave the security of the nursing home, go outside in her nightgown and bare feet and pass away from exposure to the subfreezing temperatures, without being detected by any of the nursing home staff. There is a very real issue here of whether this nursing home and its staff were prepared to deal with elderly patients suffering from dementia, who often wander. When a loved one is placed in the care of a licensed nursing home, their family should feel secure that their loved one will be safe from harm, which was obviously not the case here.” According to Louis C. Cairo, lead counsel for the Wentworth Estate.

Thus far, their investigation indicates that a young nursing aide heard the early morning alarm that was set off when Sarah Wentworth exited the building into the outdoor courtyard.  She promptly disabled the alarm, and rather than immediately checking the courtyard to determine if one of the dementia patients inadvertently walked outside and had the door lock behind them, she proceeded to return to the TV room, 15 feet from her nursing station to watch a program that she had been watching.  This individual’s criminal fate is in the hands of the grand jury as of February 26, 2009.

Additional information will be provided in this site as it develops.  For information about GWC's nursing home practice, click on PRACTICE AREAS and then on NURSING HOME LIABILITY.       

— February 26, 2009