Staff at a Salisbury Township personal care facility waited more than two hours to call police after noticing that 77-year-old Audrey Penn was missing, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed Tuesday in Lehigh County Court.
Penn, who was found dead in a roadside ditch three weeks later, had a history of wandering, the lawsuit states. Staff at Woodland Terrace at Oaks Senior Living Community knew this, according to the lawsuit, but failed to take precautions to keep her from leaving the facility.
Attorneys for Penn’s family say in the lawsuit that Woodland Terrace personnel were not adequately trained, and that “understaffing and under-budgeting” led to Penn’s death.
The plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial and damages in excess of $50,000.
Penn’s disappearance on Aug. 23 prompted an extensive search that included police dogs, a drone and dozens of volunteers who combed the area near Woodland Terrace on South Cedar Crest Boulevard. Members of the Penn family’s church, St. Paul Baptist on East Goepp Street in Bethlehem, passed out fliers, held a prayer vigil and joined the search.
Her body was found Sept. 17 in a ditch at Hamilton Boulevard and Kressler Road in Lower Macungie Township, a nearly 2-mile walk from the nursing home.
Days after Penn’s disappearance, Woodland Terrace officials issued a statement saying they were reviewing safety measures and testing security systems.
In October, the state Department of Human Services revoked Woodland Terrace’s operating license, accusing the facility of “gross incompetence, negligence and misconduct.”
In a letter contesting the state’s order, an attorney for 1263 S. Cedar Crest Blvd. Senior Housing I OPCO, which owns Woodland Terrace, said the unnamed employee who failed to immediately report Penn missing was fired for violating company policy.
Two days before Penn went missing, attorney Mark Mattioli wrote, the employee had been trained on what to do if a resident could not be located.
“The individual caregiver assumed that the resident would be found in another resident’s room, and it was not until the caregiver completed her rounds on the memory care unit that she alerted staff between 7:15 and 7:30 that she could not locate the resident,” Mattioli said in the letter.
The plaintiffs contend in the lawsuit that staff noticed Penn missing during a 6 a.m. bed check, but didn’t call police until approximately 8:45 a.m.
In the same letter, Mattioli wrote that an investigation revealed that staff knew Penn sometimes would wander into other residents’ rooms at night, and that she previously deciphered the exit code to the secured memory care unit.
Woodland Terrace officials did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit Tuesday. Also named in the suit are Karep Master JV, LLC, and Woodbine Senior Living, LLC, which are identified as management companies affiliated with Woodland Terrace.
Penn was admitted to Woodland Terrace in February. She suffered from dementia, diabetes, glaucoma and other ailments, the suit says.
Penn worked her entire career as a nurse at the former Allentown State Hospital, according to her sister Antonia Williams. At Woodland Terrace, Penn was often seen tending to other residents by pushing them in wheelchairs down the hall and helping them eat, family members said.
Staff at first tried to stop her, Williams said in August, but eventually allowed her to do minor tasks because “Audrey thought she was still at work and it made her happy.”
