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My precious father in law with Alzheimer's walk out of his home and was missing for 6 weeks. He walked out on September 17th and his body was found October 30th. He was found in the woods by hunters. Its was determined he most likely died the day he went missing. He deteriorated so quickly mentally but physically he was still strong. He was 80 yrs old. Please keep a close eye out for your loved ones with dementia. He lived with family members and still managed to walk away. We are so heartbroken and he deserved to die in a nice warm bed surrounded by those who love him. He deserver so much better then what happened to him. If our story will save just one person, it will be worth me sharing. Thank you and hold your loved one a little bit tighter tonight.

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I am so sorry.
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Upall you say he should have passed in his bed surrounded by family but do you really know what he would have wanted? If he was an outdoorsman with a love for nature maybe he sensed his time was near and that's where he wanted to be, at peace in nature.

I'm so sorry for your loss but you have to consider what he might have wanted, not what you wanted.
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Upallnight thank you for relating a terrible time - it is a lesson to us all to be vigilant. My aunt used to wander The police told the family to get her a mobile phone with a gps in it and pop it into her dressing gown each night. Of course only any use if they put the dressing gown on but I think you can get gps watches now
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He was not a outdoorsman at all. It is just hard for family to think he was all alone in the woods at night, hurt, cold and scared, and could not find his way out. The whole town was looking for him. You just do not know how many woods are around until something like this happens! You right and maybe he did not want to be found but who would want to die out in the open like that. ( the animanls ect....) Its a horrible situation and this Godly man would have wanted to be taken care of by the ones who loved him. His mind was sick and he did not know what he was doing. In our hearts we believe this and hope he did not come into foul play in the process.
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Not to mention my husband has dementia too. This whole thing has been awful for him to process himself. He is heartbroken about losing his father this way.
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Upallnight you have a tremendous load on your shoulders. We can only pray he decided to take a nap and just slipped away. God Bless you.
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Upallnight, he wasn't alone. Our Lord Jesus Christ took his hand...
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upallnight, I am so sorry to read about what happened to your Dad-in-law. My hearthfelt sympathy to you and your family.

I noticed at my Mom's nursing home, some of the patients were wearing what looked like the size of a watch with a ban around their ankles. I have seen one patient, who was wearing one, does roam the hallways. I assumed it was some type of tracking device. With your story and using such a device saves one person that would be great.
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I can't imagine how much pain your family is in; my heart goes out to you.
As a former geriatric social worker, I worked with this population and also experienced it in the family. There are many expensive safety devices on the market but honestly, we found the child proofing devices out there now were just as effective at a fraction of the cost. My daughter has covers for doorknobs that you have to squeeze to open, coves for the gas range knobs, etc. if there are two elderly people together perhaps this would not work, but it did in our case.
I wish I had the right words to say, but you have done a service calling other people's attention to this frightening and sad situation.
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