Elderly woman died after being found unresponsive outside local nursing home

by: Peggy Gallek

WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS, Ohio (WJW) — Warrensville Heights police are investigating the death of an elderly woman after she was found unresponsive outside of the Avenue Warrensville Care and Rehabilitation Center on Christmas Eve.

The FOX 8 I-Team obtained a copy of the Warrensville Heights police report that states the 84-year-old woman was last seen by a nurse at 8:40 p.m. Dec. 23.

The report further notes that another nurse went to check on the woman at 9:30 p.m. and she was not in the room. The nurse told officers that she “assumed” the woman left the hospital with her brother. She then said she checked the logs and found that no visitors were at the hospital on Dec. 23. The nurse said she then tried calling the woman’s brother but he didn’t answer.

The nurse then told the officer “multiple times that she is a new nurse and was not sure what to do after that,” the report states.

According to the report, about nine hours later the nurse told a coworker about the woman’s disappearance. A few minutes after alerting her coworker a “Code Purple” was issued and the officials searched the facility for the woman. At 7:30 a.m. police were called and sent to the facility.

A short time after police arrived the woman was found outside in a corner of the patio. She was unresponsive. She was taken to the hospital, where she later died.

The report states the officer asked officials for security video from inside the facility. Officials , however, told police the cameras only have views of the common areas and none of the footage showed the woman’s direction of travel, the report stated.

The woman was sent to the facility Dec. 18 for physical therapy. The report noted that she could not walk and was in a wheelchair. Her brother told officers he had talked to her earlier and she said she wanted to leave the facility.

No arrests have been made.

We reached out to officials at Avenue Warrensville Care and Rehabilitation Center to discus the matter and received the following statement:

“We are sorry for death of the resident and have expressed our condolences to the family. This continues to be an active investigation and therefore we are unable to comment further at this time.”

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Elderly woman died after being found unresponsive outside local nursing home