The niece of a dementia patient who was found dead a week after walking out of a Saanich care home is looking for answers about how he was able to get out of his supposedly secure facility.
Christian Dube, 64, who had advanced dementia, was last seen at 7 p.m. on Nov. 23 at Veterans Memorial Lodge, where he had lived for several months.
Somehow, he was able to make it past three potential barriers and travel roughly 15 kilometres to a Langford trailer park where he was later found dead outdoors of severe hypothermia.
“There’s neglect somewhere there,” said his niece Brittany Dube, 38.
Dube said her uncle should have been blocked by three levels of security — a keypad-controlled locked door on his special unit, an elevator keypad, and a keypad-controlled lock at the front door, an entrance that should be staffed 24/7 but isn’t.
Dube said her uncle first got past the unit-floor keypad. She was told by an administrator that the elevator keypad hasn’t worked in years. And as for the front door, there’s a note above the keypad at the door with the unlock code and instructions written on it. After 4 p.m., the door is not physically guarded.
Dube said she’s been told the lodge is investigating how her uncle got out, and is implementing security measures.
“Well, I want to know what those security measures are,” she said, adding she believes families with a loved one with advanced dementia on floors A1 and A2 and B1 and B2 should know their person might be able to leave the facility.
“They can wheel themselves right out the front door, right — is that safe?”
https://www.timescol...o-leave-9930954
Edited by Victoria Watcher, Today, 07:05 AM.
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