Today at 1pm in Nantwich the community are lighting a candle for the tragic loss of Roy who was a dementia patient in a care home. Somehow they left the door unlocked and he wandered off last a week last Tuesday. After searching for a week he was found dead in an outhouse of a house just 400 yards from where he escaped. It brings home to me how important it is too keep your loved ones safe and as I care for my husband at home I do not leave him for a minute. I have recently been feeling a bit trapped as I have no freedom to pop to the shops or go for coffee with friends but to think what this poor mans family have had to endure with him missing for a whole week to find him dead having died alone and in the cold brings it home that I am perhaps not so hard done to.
RIP Roy. Hope the Angels take better care of you.
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When I first read this thread, I misread the sentence "a dementia patient in a
care home", and thought it was either a man living on his own, at home, or living with someone, and he had been left, and wandered off.
To think it was in a Care Home! How awful that their security systems weren't up to par, and, I assume, in spite of police searches, and, again I'm assuming, the community being asked to check outhouses, that it was a week until he was found.
Angebails, I too cared for my husband on my own, but eventually I realised I needed help, as I was crashing, and he attended Day Centres. To begin with, he went a couple of times a week, for a few hours a time, but towards the end, he went 6 days a week. By this stage, I didn't dare leave him even for the time it took me to have a wee, and took him into the loo with me.
I couldn't have coped as long as I did (12 years) without a break, as those few hours enabled me to catch up on some sleep. We carers are entitled to have some time off, so I hope you can arrange to get some support. And may that poor man's soul Rest In Peace. xxx