When Bailie Smith’s grandmother made the difficult decision to move her husband of nearly 60 years into a care home, she hoped he’d finally be safe.
Instead, just 36 hours after moving into Preston Special Care Home in Saskatoon, William Cone, fondly known as Lauri, wandered out of the facility completely unnoticed on Oct. 11. He had Alzheimer’s.
“It was around 10:30 [a.m. CST] when my grandma got the call,” Smith said in an interview. “A concerned citizen had called her who actually saw my grandfather fall and they called the ambulance.”
She said care home staff had no idea he had left and it was her grandmother who informed them.
Cone, 86, was wearing slippers and had gone about eight blocks with a walker when he fell and broke his hip. He underwent surgery at Royal University Hospital on Oct. 13 but declined rapidly afterward. He died on Oct. 20.
The care home is operated by the Saskatchewan Health Authority, which has initiated a formal review of the situation to determine what happened.
Smith said her grandmother, Elizabeth Cone, who had been her husband’s sole caregiver for years, is devastated.
“She tried to talk with the care home … she said it really felt like they just were blaming her — or blaming him for leaving,” Smith said.
“It was very avoidable,” she said. “I’m sad and I’m angry because it didn’t have to happen.”
Cone was admitted to the facility on Oct. 9 for short-term care while waiting for a permanent place. Smith said staff later told her grandmother that a kitchen renovation was underway and a door near his room had been left propped open.
She said the only safety measure in place at the facility was that all exit doors had pin pads locked by security codes. But the door Cone likely used to leave had been left propped open without any monitoring by staff, security cameras or alarms, she said.
Smith said Cone was a retired Canada Post worker, an active member of his church and was still lucid much of the time.
“He loved the Riders. He also curled and played slow pitch,” she said.
“He was very involved in the grandkids’ lives. He was the granddad who showed up for everything and it didn’t matter how little, like he was in the audience for it.”
Calls for investigation and change
Smith said the family wants an investigation into what happened and broader reforms to prevent it from happening to others.
“This is a widespread problem. I have talked to other people whose family members with Alzheimer’s, they get out of their care homes all the time. This is not a one-off situation. This is just a situation where somebody ended up passing away,” she said.
“We just want changes,” she added.
“We want something to be put in place where it’s mandatory that cameras are installed and alarms are put on patients and doors are kept locked because they shouldn’t be able to just walk out,” Smith said.
“It’s really disheartening that a facility that was supposed to have these things didn’t.”
She said her grandmother has reached out to the provincial ombudsman and is considering speaking to police, but has not received any written communication from the care home.
“The care home, they have been brushing my family off quite a bit, like they don’t really want to say too much. I don’t think they want to admit anything,” Smith said.
Health Authority response
In a statement, the SHA said it “extends its deepest condolences to the family for their loss and has reached out directly to the family to extend an invitation to discuss any care concerns further.”
The formal review “will include obtaining family perspectives, a post analysis disclosure to the family, which includes facts and actions taken or to be taken, and actions to be considered to improve care delivery moving forward,” the health authority said.
Smith said her family hopes their decision to speak publicly will help push for accountability, and help other families ask questions before it’s too late.
“These are our loved ones. We need to keep them safe. You know, they’re the ones who raised us and now it’s our turn. We need to take care of them.”
