Seniors home reviews security after escaped resident hit by train

CTV Vancouver Published Monday, February 3, 2014 6:20PM PST Last Updated Monday, February 3, 2014 6:56PM PST

A care home is now investigating security procedures after a senior with dementia wandered away from the complex and was hit by a train on Saturday, Feb. 1.

The man, in his seventies, wandered about ten blocks when he was hit around 8:15 that night. He was airlifted to hospital where he remains, but his injuries are not as serious as first thought.

Now officials at the Evergreen Baptist Campus of Care, which has been in the process of adding extra security measures, is trying to figure out what went wrong.

That's something we're trying to get to the bottom of and we'll do that with our investigation, said Stephen Bennett, Executive Director of the home. The senior was in a unit that either staffs or locks the front door, but he was not in one of the secure lockdown units.

The care home is reviewing why the elderly man was not in a lockdown unit, pointing to the fact that dementia progresses at varying rates for different people.

In some its much slower. So without speaking about this individual in particular, it may be that dementia had progressed more rapidly and we hadn't moved him to a more appropriate location," said Bennett.

This most recent case is not the first elderly home care resident to wander away from a facility.

In December, 76 year old Joan Warren died of hypothermia after walking away from her care home in North Vancouver.

There's believed to be 70,000 B.C. residents with dementia and that number is supposed to double in 25 years.

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Seniors home reviews security after escaped resident hit by train