A woman from California is saying that a hospital in Long Beach left her mother outside care facility at 2 a.m. Her 84-year-old mother has Alzheimer’s and is said to have the cognitive abilities of a child.
Alzheimer’s Disease Patient
According to Costanza Zerbi, Alzheimer’s disease has left her mother Savina Zerbi with the cognitive abilities of a child and so must not be left alone. However, security footage at 2:17 a.m. on Jan. 13 shows Savina trying to get into the care facility and pacing the alley before she got in.
Evidently, Savina had spent four hours agitated in the emergency room of College Medical Center earlier in the evening, and was supposed to be admitted to the hospital. Instead, Costanza says that the facility placed her mother in a taxi that left her outside the care facility.
According to College Medical Center, Savina had insisted on being taken home, and that at the time her discharge was compliant with all regulations. However, Costanza notes that the facility was aware that her mother has Alzheimer’s disease and that they were supposed to notify her if she left. She only got a call from the care facility later on that her mother was back.
So far, College Medical Center has reached out to Costanza to discuss the incident, and she is hoping that they will apologize.
Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that affects and causes problems with memory, behavior, and thinking. It is the most common form of dementia, and accounts for 60 to 80 percent of all dementia cases.
While Alzheimer’s is common among people ages 65 and older, it is not a normal part of aging, and neither is it only a disease of old age. In fact, about 200,000 Americans below 65 years old are already suffering from younger-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Although the current treatments for Alzheimer’s cannot stop it from progressing altogether, it does help slow the worsening of the dementia symptoms.
