Man with Dementia Abandoned at Airport

Caring for an elderly person with Alzheimer’s disease can be a difficult task, particularly if the disease causes their behavior to become hostile or aggressive, leaving many families with no other option but to institutionalize their loved one or hire professional round-the-clock care.

There are some families, however, who, when faced with a difficult situation like this, resort to something much worse than handing the person’s care over to the experts. Instead, they abandon the family member or attempt to pass them off to someone else without any concern for their well-being.

Such has been the case with Jerry Ellingsen, an 80-year-old man with Alzheimer’s who was found wandering around the Denver airport with his small dog. When he was discovered by United Airlines employees and questioned by police, he was found to have no memory of who he was, where he was, or why he was there.

After further investigation, police found out who the man was and learned that he was traveling from Fort Myers, Florida. They attempted to contact his daughter, who was the one who put him on the plane in an attempt to get him out of her hair and back to his wife, but to no avail.

Ellingsen’s estranged wife was also called, but she refused to come and pick her husband up, stating that he’d shown aggressive behavior toward her.

“I have no use for him,” she said. “I mean, a man that wants to kill me? Come on. I don’t want to live with him.”

Jackie refused to give police her address and said that if Ellingsen showed up at her house, she would not let him in.

Recently, Ellingsen had been living with his brother, sister-in-law, and nephew in Florida for a few weeks because no one else would take him in after he left his wife’s home. They were okay with having him stay with them, but they claim he got angry one day for no apparent reason, packed his bags, and left.

Ellingsen’s brother and his family contacted Ellingsen’s daughter, Pamela Roth, about the matter, and she put him in a hotel in Fort Myers for a few weeks. But it wasn’t long before she gave up on caring for him as well and sent him on a one-way flight to Denver by himself, hoping that his wife would handle the situation from there.



But rather than call her mother and explain the situation, Roth, who had power of attorney for her father at the time, and who works for a company specializing in senior home care, simply sent a text saying, “My dad and Corky will arrive on a flight in Denver tomorrow afternoon.”

With nowhere to go and no one to take him in, Ellingsen ended up wandering around the Denver airport before being admitted to the University of Colorado Hospital, where he has been for six months. His wife would only agree to take the dog.

Ellingsen is not alone in this difficult situation. A whopping 113 people were found to have been abandoned in the Denver area when 9 News looked into the issue, and all were being held at hospitals, some for as long as 577 days, despite having no immediate medical needs. About 30 percent of them had dementia.

Photo: 9 News

Hospitals are legally obligated to keep these people if they have no place to go, and the hospital generally eats most of the cost. Denver Health has an entire wing of stranded patients and estimates the cost of keeping them to be about $18 million per year, which only serves to drive up the cost of care for other patients and is an extra burden on taxpayers.

“If you need to drop my dad at a homeless shelter, it’s fine,” Roth texted. “I just want him to have a roof over his head. Please.”

Photo: 9 News

The case was investigated as elder abuse but dismissed as “legally insufficient” to pursue. Ellingsen’s sister-in-law describes the issue as “a sad sad circus.”

Learn more about Ellingsen’s story and the tragic epidemic of abandoned people with dementia in the video below.



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Man with Dementia Abandoned at Airport

Autistic man abandoned at Naples hospital has no place to go

A public guardian and a state agency thought they had a solution for a severely autistic young man whose mother abandoned him more than a year ago at a Naples hospital.

Placement in a local group home lasted four days before the 22-year-old — referred to as “John Doe” in court records — was back at NCH Downtown Baker Hospital, said Patrick Weber, the public guardian in Collier County. 

“In my history I have never quite had a case like this before,” said Weber, the county’s public guardian for 25 years. “Nothing is the same as this case.”

Doe's care requires intensive services in a 24-hour setting, and no group home in Collier is equipped for that, experts say.

The young man can smile and acknowledge people around him but is nonverbal; he can’t speak about his fears and wants, Weber said.

Doe was first taken to NCH in May 2017 for emergency medical care, court records show.

He was hospitalized for treatment and cleared for discharge in mid-August 2017. The catch is that the hospital had no place to send him.

Hospitals are required by state and federal law to follow discharge planning requirements that include making sure discharged patients have access to services that fit their needs. NCH was stuck because Doe’s mother refused to accept responsibility for him.

The hospital racked up a huge sum for uncompensated care and filed a complaint in court to have Doe moved to another setting.

NCH cannot comment on specific patient cases because of privacy laws, but in general, hospitals have a responsibility to use inpatient hospital beds for patients who medically require that level of care, spokeswoman Debbie Curry said.

“Unfortunately, on a somewhat regular basis, many hospitals are put in the unfortunate position of having to address situations involving patients who do not (or no longer) require hospital care, but who are without a safe discharge plan due to a lack of family involvement, funding, or other circumstances beyond the hospital’s control,” Curry said in a statement.

“These situations ultimately result in millions of dollars of uncompensated care annually to the hospitals involved,” Curry said.

Weber said NCH filed the court complaint in hopes of convincing the mother to take responsibility.

“This was a legal battle because of the inactivity of the mother,” Weber said.

The court declared Doe mentally incapacitated and appointed Weber as guardian, and he began working with the Agency for Persons With Disabilities to get involved. The agency agreed, even though Doe did not qualify for benefits.

Doe’s mother sponsored him in June 2016 to come to the United States on a green card. At the time she agreed to take responsibility for him, but she didn’t complete the process of becoming his guardian, Weber said. Court records do not say which country Doe is originally from or his mother's name.

Once APD agreed to pay for services he needs, Doe was moved to a local group home April 23. It didn’t work out. Weber declined to disclose which group home.

After leaving the hospital, Doe was being weaned off an antipsychotic medication. He became physically aggressive, and the group home realized it couldn’t accommodate him. The state agency also does not allow the group home to administer the injectable antipsychotic medication, Weber said.

“He was returned to NCH and having seizures,” Weber said.

The state agency is looking to place him in a more intensive group home that can address people who require a higher level of services.

That type of group home offering intensive behavioral services doesn’t exist in Collier, Weber said. That means Doe will be placed out of the county or will wind up in a state mental hospital in Tallahassee or Miami.

“He’s going to be institutionalized unless his mother agrees to take him home,” Weber said. “He’s never going to live independently. He will require either institutional or family" care.

Karen Govern, executive director of STARability, formerly the Foundation for the Developmentally Disabled, confirmed there are no group homes offering a higher level of services with medical personnel.

“There are none that are intermediate care facilities for people who require regular medications for (conditions such as) diabetes or seizures,” she said.

It is unusual that Collier doesn’t have intermediate care homes; the issues are land availability, costs, objections from neighborhoods and an entity’s desire to open one, Govern said.

Long-term housing is the top concern for parents with a developmentally disabled child, especially when parents get too old to care for the child. Parents also desire for their child, as he or she gets older, to have some independence and /to feel connected, with opportunities for a job and social interaction. 

She knows of one intermediate care home in North Fort Myers because a Naples family needed to place a loved one there.

“Lee County may have more than one,” Govern said. “Housing is part of our long-term strategy, to try and help our members of the community and people with developmental disability. It really is about educating the community about the needs of families.”

She is not familiar with the case involving Doe and has never heard of a family refusing to care for a developmentally disabled loved one.

“That is a very unique and unusual situation,” Govern said.

Melanie Etters, spokeswoman for the APD in Tallahassee, said she is not familiar with the Doe case and could not speak about it if she did because of privacy laws. In general, APD steps in when there is a dire situation.

“We work with a bunch of different organizations to figure out the best option to protect the health and safety of an individual,” Etters said.

In terms of a parent abandoning a developmentally disabled child at a hospital, Etters said she is not aware of that happening.

“It’s a very rare incident, in general,” Etters said.

Weber said he does not know if Doe’s mother has visited him since he has been back in the hospital.

“I do know she has done nothing to pursue taking back guardianship,” he said.

He could not say if her abandonment of him would be criminal.

“There’s not been a complaint to the state attorney’s office for abandonment,” he said.

Samantha Syoen, spokeswoman for the state attorney's office, said the matter would be civil.

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Autistic man abandoned at Naples hospital has no place to go