Family Awarded $1.65 Million for Death of Aunt Left on a Bus [WXMI-TV, Grand Rapids, Mich.]

Dec. 27--KENTWOOD, Mich. -- A $1.65 million lawsuit has been awarded to the estate of Susanna Wells, 87, of Grand Rapids, after the courts decided Wells death back in 2008, was due to being left behind on Hearthstone Assisted Living Facility's bus that she rode on with other residents to a local Meijer store.

La Shanda Snell, Well's great niece, is the one who oversees the estate and she sat down with FOX 17.

She said putting her aunt in the home was not an easy decision but it had to be done. Wells was still very active for her age, even driving up until the time she entered Hearthstone, LaShanda stated.

"With her diagnosis of dementia I became concerned that she was independent and she just needed someone to keep an extra eye on her." Snell said.

LaShanda and her aunt visited several facilities, talked them over with social workers and even did research with the Better Business Bureau, she added. Together, they found the Hearthstone facility at 4352 Breton Ave. SE, Kentwood, Mich., to be the "Cadillac" of facilities.

Snell, who also works in the medical field, claims she was very good about speaking with her aunt multiple times a day while she was at Hearthstone, even visiting her. However, back on Sept. 8, 2008, LaShanda worked third shift and only had a morning conversation with her aunt.

"That day, that morning, I spoke to her; she wanted to go on the shopping trip. I gave the facility permission to allow her to go on the trip." Snell told FOX 17. "The next call I received was at 12:20 a.m. from the supervisor there at the facility asking me if I had Susanna in my possession. I was a little taken back; I'm like its 12:20 a.m. what do you mean is she in my possession?"

LaShanda believes the bus would have arrived back to the facility around lunch time.

"When is the last time anybody physically had seen her, I said. Did she eat lunch that day?" LaShanda claims she was told Hearthstone had no record of her eating or taking her medications.

At that point, is when the authorities were called, according to Snell.

"I was told they brought dogs out there, had divers in the pond; they were looking for her."

A police dog had picked up a scent, not once, but twice by the bus, Snell said.

"They used infrared and they noticed that there was some heat coming from the bus, but they weren't sure if it was an animal on the bus." LaShanda stated. "They kicked in the door and they discovered her body on the floor of the bus and they discovered that the Tylenol, there was a First-Aid Kit, that she had eaten everything pretty much out of the First-Aid Kit, drank the alcohol, drank the peroxide, she was soaking wet with urine and feces." LaShanda shared.

She recalls that it was the first hard frost of 2008. Her aunt was suffering from multiple issues, including hypothermia, according to court documents. Barely conscious, she was rushed to St. Mary's and put into the Intensive Care Unit. Later, she was transferred to Kent Community Hospital, the place where she worked as the head of housekeeping up until her 70s, LaShanda said. Her aunt Aunt Susanna died 10 weeks later.

Long after her aunt passed away, LaShanda got a bill for $13,000. She claims the charges ranged from past due rent at Hearthstone, to food along with medication administration, even though her aunt had passed. LaShanda claims the facility said they had no record of her aunt dying.

"I said you get a lawyer because I am not paying this bill."

Attorney John "Randy" Allaben with Allaben & Bandeen, P.C., is representing LaShanda. Allaben told FOX 17 that a couple of months ago, one of the attorneys representing Hearthstone, a lawyer by the name of Norris Cunningham, told Allaben that he was no longer representing the assisted living facility. LaShanda believes it has to due with Hearthstone not having the money to pay the lawyers.

Kent County Circuit Court Judge, HON. Christopher P. Yates, declared on Dec. 8, 2011, that $1.65 million would go to LaShanda partially due to the fact, according to court documents, that Hearthstone was given two weeks to "hire substitute counseling, and Hearthstone having failed to hire any counsel to date." The ruling also mentioned that "defendant Hearthstone Management, Inc., having failed to respond to Plaintiff's Interrogatories and Request for Production of Documents, served on defendant on December 9, 2010."

LaShanda doesn't know if she'll ever see a dime of the money, but wants to bring awareness to Michigan not requiring nursing homes to have liability insurance, she said. She is going to work on a petition so no other families have to go through the same thing.

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