Assisted living facility faces $2k fine after elderly couple busted out using military training in Morse code
Updated: May 2 2021, 10:57 ET
AN assisted living facility has been fined $2,000 after an elderly couple with dementia busted out using military training in Morse code.
Last month, an elderly couple, who remain unnamed, briefly escaped the Elmcroft Senior Living in Lebanon, Tennessee, after the husband used Morse code to decipher and memorize a security door in the facility.
3
An elderly couple managed to bust out of an assisted living facility using military training in Morse codeCredit: Alamy
The couple, who have dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, went missing from the facility for about 30 minutes on March 2.
Elmcroft vaccinates residents
Elmcroft Senior Living resident Joan Sampson receives a vaccination shot.
Darryl McGee | Greene County News
Elmcroft Senior Living Resident Assistant Kelli Baxter received her first dose.
Darryl McGee | Greene County News
Elmcroft Senior Living Business Office Coordinator Angie Brayfield took time to pose for a photo with Elmcroft’s Emotional Support/Service Animal Ellie Mae.
Darryl McGee | Greene County News
XENIA Elmcroft Senior Living of Xenia held a vaccination clinic for its residents and associates Feb. 12.
At the clinic, all participants received either the first or second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. For those who missed the clinic, another vaccination event will take place on Friday, March 5. The clinics are held in conjunction with pharmacies that are approved to administer the vaccine by the state. Greene County Public Health set up Friday’s clinic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has provoked a great deal of unseemly behavior in many places, but as Adam Searing of the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute’s Center for Children and Families pointed out in a weekend tweet, a national senior living chain may have just taken the cake.
Recently, in an apparent effort to recruit new residents when many people are understandably hesitant to enter congregate care (seven of the 12 Elmcroft locations in North Carolina are on the state’s most recent list of COVID outbreaks in congregate living settings), the firm bought online advertising in which it implied to prospective customers that they could gain priority for COVID vaccinations by moving into one of its facilities.
Three community groups have planned to give back to Virginia’s House during this holiday season. The groups which contributed in different ways were the students of Woodland Elementary School who partnered with Elmcroft Senior Living center, Young County Toys for Tots and Order of the Eastern Star #668.
Virginia’s House is a child advocacy center which seeks to meet the needs of abused, neglected and traumatized children through prevention, advocacy and support programs. The center is an umbrella organization which encompasses the Court Appointed Special Advocate program locally, area school mentor programs and other services through both their Graham office and in Breckenridge through Dr. Goodall’s House.
The coronavirus continues to spread unabated in Moore County, where laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 surpassed 4,000 on Thursday.
A total of 4,032 cases have been linked to the county since March, according to the local health department. The latest four-digit milestone was reached amid a surge that started shortly after Thanksgiving.Â
Over 940 cases have been reported in the past two weeks alone. Those infections account for about 23 percent of the countyâs total cases.
Some of the growth can be attributed to outbreaks in long-term care facilities. The virus has ravaged places like The Greens, a 120-bed nursing home in Pinehurst.Â
Patricia Watson is among the 82 elderly residents of the nursing home who tested positive earlier this month, albeit after she initially tested negative. She was well-known in the village, having served as president of the erstwhile Sandhills Little Theatre before retiring in 1996.