96yo Man left in freezing van overnight
This story has been bothering me for a few days now. Too many things went wrong.
96 year old Prostler Samuels was left in the back of a church van in freezing weather for 18 hours. According to the reports I have read he has been recovering well from hypothermia.
Details:
- Has attended the 2400 member church for 30 years.
- Was a regular on the route, but the typical routine was broken so he may have been abandoned in his sleep
- The nursing home followed up on him 6 hours late (probably assumed he was just spending time with others)
- The nursing home called the church and left a message on voicemail that was not received until the next morning.
- Police were called off when the nursing home thought they had located him (I am interested in how this happened)
- People are distraught, but no charges have been filed.
Lessons:
- Train people to responsibly look over areas before they are closed. A quick walk through a vehicle for lost people or items is necessary.
When I was in charge of parking the transport vans many years back I did a final sweep just to make sure there was no lost & found and that there were no spilled perishables which would make the van stink.
Here in Florida there have been cases of children dieing of heat exhaustion when left on school buses, make sure there are no kids hiding under the seat. - Have an emergency number on your voice mail. I just checked our church number and we don’t have any way for anybody to reach anyone in the event of an emergency. Everyone on staff knows who to call, but nobody else would.
- I am also concerned about there being just one person in charge of the vehicle when it is full of old people and kids.
Are there other items of importance from this situation?
Leave a Comment