A senior living caregiver was sentenced last week to two years of probation and six months in jail for her role in the death of an 82-year-old resident who wandered from the assisted living community where the caregiver worked and died from exposure.
Colleen Kelly O’Connor was convicted in June by a Clinton County, MI, jury on one felony count of vulnerable adult abuse-second degree after a resident at Vista Springs Imperial Park at Timber Ridge Village died of exposure in the early morning hours of Dec. 23, 2022. Imperial Park offers active adult living and assisted living.
O’Connor twice observed the woman attempt to go outside without the appropriate attire into a blizzard, but failed to act, according to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. The woman wandered into single-digit temperatures with a sub zero wind chill.
A snow plow driver reportedly found the resident in the parking lot at 7 a.m., partially buried in the blowing and drifting snow. She died from hypothermia shortly after arriving at the hospital. O’Connor was charged in November 2023.
In addition to the probation and jail time, O’Connor was ordered to pay $1,115 in restitution to the daughter of the victim.
“Caregivers bear immense responsibility, which is tragically neglected at times,” Nessel said in a news release. “The devastating consequences of this incident underscore the importance of vigilance and compassion in fulfilling that obligation.”
Vista Springs had not responded to a request for comment from McKnight’s Senior Living as of the production deadline.
Senior living resident elopements and elopement-related deaths were the focus of a Washington Post package of stories in December, kicking off the publication’s “Memory Inc.” series, which subsequently questioned a provider’s use of a staffing algorithm and accused a senior living referral site of manipulating reviews of communities.
The initial Post articles and others from lay media outlets prompted the US Senate Special Committee on Aging to launch a review of the assisted living industry and to hold a hearing during which senators asked for federal study of assisted living, sought consumer feedback and pondered federal oversight.
