Nursing home abuse and neglect put vulnerable residents at serious risk, leading to malnutrition, dehydration, infections, and preventable injuries. When facilities fail to provide adequate care, residents suffer, and families are left feeling helpless. Lack of supervision, improper medical treatment, and unsafe conditions can result in devastating harm. Understanding the warning signs, knowing your legal rights, and holding negligent facilities accountable are crucial steps in protecting your loved ones. Learn how to take action and seek justice.
November 5, 2024
3 min
An autopsy conducted by the Franklin County Coroner’s Office confirmed that Robert Weaver died from hypothermia after being exposed to cold temperatures when he wandered away from Cherry Blossom Senior Living Facility in Columbus, Ohio. The autopsy also revealed that Mr. Weaver suffered additional injuries, including multiple brain bleeds caused by blunt force trauma to his head. Video footage shows Mr. Weaver wandering the facility’s halls for over an hour without any staff intervention. He was eventually seen exiting the building in the middle of the night and shuffling through the snow outside, dressed inappropriately for the frigid temperatures, on one of the coldest and harshest winter nights of the year. Nationally recognized trial lawyer Michael Hill of Michael Hill Trial Law is pursuing a lawsuit on behalf of Robert Weaver’s family against Ohio-Based assisted living facility Cherry Blossom Senior Living located in Columbus, Ohio. The case alleges negligence, wrongful death, and violations of nursing home resident rights laws. The lawsuit is Estate of Robert L. Weaver v. Cherry Blossom Senior Living aka Continental Senior Communities aka Continental Senior Living Management, LLC, et al. and is pending in Franklin County, Ohio.
“This is an unconscionable denial of care and disregard of a vulnerable resident’s rights,” says Michael Hill–the Weaver family’s attorney. “The sole reason that Mr. Weaver became a resident of Cherry Blossom is because both his family and physicians agreed that Mr. Weaver needed supervision to prevent him from wandering off. Cherry Blossom had one job, and it was a very simple job. Unfortunately, they chose to completely disregard their responsibilities and allowed Mr. Weaver to wander around the facility for more than an hour, exit the facility in subzero temperatures, and lost track of him for the entire night. There is no excuse for this denial of care. While we hope that Cherry Blossom takes accountability for their actions, we have not seen any indication of that yet.”
The lawsuit states that Robert Weaver became a resident of Cherry Blossom Senior Living on November 30, 2023, to receive the necessary supervision and monitoring to protect him from the risks associated with wandering away and sustaining injuries. Mr. Weaver’s family and his physicians made the decision that it was necessary for him to move into a facility that could provide 24/7 care to prevent Robert from wandering away and potentially sustaining injuries from falls or hypothermia due to exposure to inclement weather in the winter months.
Cherry Blossom Senior Living was aware of Mr. Weaver’s risk of wandering as a result of Alzheimer’s dementia prior to accepting him as a resident of their facility. This was evidenced by the medications the facility was providing him while he was living there.
The lawsuit further states that despite the known risks associated with Robert’s condition, Cherry Blossom Senior Living failed to appropriately assess Mr. Weaver and assessed him as having no behavioral issues, not being at risk for wandering behavior, and scoring him a near perfect score on a brief interview for mental status (BIMS) exam–all of which were false records as Ronald was noted to suffer from paranoia and hallucinations and was labeled a wandering and elopement risk in hospital records just days prior to his admission to Cherry Blossom.
There is video surveillance from Cherry Blossom that captured the events leading up to Robert’s death.
On January 20, 2024, at approximately 12:22AM, Robert Weaver is seen wandering the hallways of Cherry Blossom Senior Living by himself (see photographs below).
After wandering around the hallway, the video footage shows Robert taking a seat on a table in the common area of Cherry Blossom. He remains seated on the table for several minutes. While he is sitting on the table, Robert appears to be in distress and begins to look through his wallet.
Cherry Blossom’s staff did not notice Robert roaming the common area by himself for almost thirty minutes. Not a single person responded to the situation to check on him.
After sitting on the table for over thirty minutes, Robert stands up and continues to shuffle through his wallet. He then sits down on the couch where he appears to be confused and anxious as he starts shuffling through the couch cushions as if he is looking for something and begins reaching for decorations off the table.
Eventually, the video surveillance shows Robert stand up from the couch and walk away from the common area. At this point, he has been wandering the hallways of Cherry Blossom for an hour without a staff member recognizing and addressing the situation.
At approximately 1:22AM, the video footage shows Robert Weaver walking toward the door to exit the facility.
Robert is seen pushing the door open and walking out of the facility just moments later. He has been wandering Cherry Blossom for over an hour by himself without a single Cherry Blossom staff member responding to the situation.
After the video surveillance footage shows Robert exit the facility, he is seen walking outside in the middle of a winter night by himself. The temperature was 7 degrees Fahrenheit. No Cherry Blossom staff members have realized Robert left the building in the middle of the night and is roaming around by himself in the wintery conditions.
Robert Weaver is seen walking through inches of snow in the middle of the night without proper clothing to keep him warm and safe. He has been wandering by himself for over an hour without a single Cherry Blossom staff member noticing what is going on.
This is the last time Robert Weaver is seen on camera before his body is discovered later that morning after Cherry Blossom staff members realized he was not present for breakfast.
The lawsuit claims that Cherry Blossom Senior Living failed to provide proper assessment, care, treatment, monitoring, and supervision to Robert Weaver, which they knew or should have known he required. These failures included but were not limited to: choosing to improperly assess Robert for his memory, behaviors, and elopement risks; choosing to not create an appropriate plan for Robert’s memory, behavior, and elopement risks; choosing to have inadequate elopement prevention measures in place; and choosing to have insufficient staffing to monitor and supervise residents to prevent elopement events or identify elopement events before catastrophic injuries occur. The lawsuit further claims that the facility’s failures were the direct and proximate cause of Robert Weaver’s untimely and wrongful death.
“The tragic death of Robert Weaver underscores a profound and heartbreaking failure in the duty of care owed to him by Cherry Blossom Senior Living. Facilities entrusted with the well-being of vulnerable individuals, like Mr. Weaver, must have the systems, staff, and vigilance necessary to prevent such avoidable tragedies. We are committed to seeking justice for the Weaver family and holding those responsible accountable to ensure no other family has to endure this kind of preventable loss,” says trial attorney Michael Hill.
The lawsuit requests compensatory damages as well as punitive damages to deter similar conduct in the future.
The Cherry Blossom Senior Living facility is part of the Continental Senior Communities chain. There are numerous Continental Senior Community-owned facilities located throughout the State of Ohio.
Michael Hill is a nationally recognized attorney who handles exclusively cases against long term care facilities. Michael and his firm, Michael Hill Trial Law, handle cases across the country. If you have any questions about cases involving Cherry Blossom, Continental Senior Communities, or any other nursing home, assisted living facility, or group home, you can contact Michael Hill Trial Law at www.protectseniors.com, by sending an email to info@protectseniors.com, or by calling (800) 659-2712.
