Elderly woman disappears from hospital

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A local hospital lost an 82-year-old patient with dementia or Alzheimer’s for about 12 hours last weekend.

And now the woman’s grandson said he might sue the hospital because the incident negatively affected his grandmother.

“Now it seems like her episodes come more frequently,” said William Tonacchio. “She has mental instability. Who knows what could have happened?”

The incident began Saturday when Margareth Tonacchio spent the day at an assisted living facility in Rio Rancho, William Tonacchio said. Her caregivers said Margareth began acting strangely, so they called an ambulance to take her to Presbyterian Rust Medical Center.

But Margareth became angry at the hospital, saying over and over that she just wanted to go home, according to medical records. Staff at the hospital noted that Margareth suffered from dementia, but found nothing else wrong with her.

After four hours, the hospital discharged her at 10:19 p.m.

“She’s a big lady – a big Norwegian lady,” William Tonacchio said. “So I could see her kind of bullying people out of the way.”

But the hospital released his grandmother without notifying either her grandson or her caregiver, William Tenocchio said.

And that’s where the problems began.

The hospital sat Margareth on a bench in the emergency room lobby and caller her a cab. However, no one apparently kept watch over her because when the taxi arrived, she was nowhere to be seen.

The hospital then called the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, which sent a deputy to Margareth’s North Valley home, but no one was there. The deputy went back about 10:30 the next morning and found Margareth at home.

Nobody knows where she was for 12 hours, and Margareth doesn’t remember, her grandson said.

“They totally lost her,” he said.

Presbyterian Hospital is investigating what happened.

“If we have any reason to believe someone had dementia or is incompetent, then we take an entirely different approach,” said Dr. David Arredondo, medical director at the Presbyterian Medical Group. “We would not put them in the waiting room. We would keep them under close medical supervision.”

Margareth is now at Lovelace Medical Center getting the treatment Adult Protective Services said she needs. At this point, her grandson doesn’t think she’ll ever be allowed to go back home and live on her own.

“It’s heartbreaking to know that I will not be able to have her go home ever,” William Tenocchio said.