An elderly San Francisco man, also a dementia patient, that succumbed to the elements after being stranded in the wrong location by a transit agency, is at the center of a wrongful death suit filed against the agency, the bus driver and the conservator, as reported by The San Francisco Appeal.
The family of K.C., 73, has cited both elder abuse and negligence in the lawsuit.
During a news conference on February 9, San Francisco-based attorney, Ingrid Evans, announced the litigation. Members of K.C.’s family were also in attendance.
Every day K.C. was transferred from his home in a assisted living facility in the Richmond District to the Irene Swindells Center for Adult Day Services. His family stated that he used a shuttle operated by MEDSAM Enterprises and San Francisco Paratransit for these daily trips.
When K.C. failed to arrive at the home on February 25, caregivers alerted both the police and his conservator: Jewish Family and Children’s Services.
After several days – March 6 – K.C. was located in Lincoln Park. He had died within a mile of where he was supposed to have been let out of the shuttle.
On February 25, the first night that K.C. had gone missing, Evans said that the night had been cold and stormy. An autopsy later revealed that K.C. had died of hypothermia.
K.C.’s niece, J.C., said, “I remember lying awake at night, it was pouring and freezing, I remember praying that he was indoors somewhere.”
E.P. was identified as the shuttle driver the day that K.C. was reported missing. The suit alleges that K.C. failed to know the shuttle’s normal route and didn’t speak English very well.
Evans claims that due to these mitigating circumstances, K.C. was negligently dropped of in the wrong location. From there K.C. would have become increasingly confused while wandering around outdoors, lost, for days.
Evans further attests that the Jewish Family and Children’s Services failed to inform the family of K.C.’s disappearance until three hours had passed. She said, “He clearly got lost. It was stormy that night, and it was already dark by the time the family was notified.”
E.C., K.C.’s brother, said that K.C. had been riding the same bus for years while in the adult day care program – and in all of that time nothing like this had happened before. E.C. also said, as his brother was very private and shy, “He would never have sought help on his own.”
K.C.’s assisted living facility is not named in the suit because, per Evans, they “did everything they were supposed to do. It's a small home with good people who I think did a good job.”
Prior to his death, K.C. had retired from a job he had held with the state of California.
Evans said that K.C. suffered with mild dementia but was not completely impaired.
Loosing a loved one in any circumstance is difficult. Loosing a loved one in a wrongful death circumstance, doubly so. Contact a personal injury lawyer for help in filing your lawsuit.