An Army veteran was found dead in a parking garage in subfreezing temperatures, wearing only a light jacket, after being allowed to check out of a Wisconsin veterans hospital On New Year’s eve.
Vance Perry likely died of hypothermia, the medical examiner says, after being found dead on New Year’s Eve in a freezing-cold parking garage in Madison.
Perry’ Atlanta based family says it was negligence that led to the death of their father.
Erika Perry hasn’t seen her father in five years. Now, she and her siblings are trying to figure out how to see him one last time — for his funeral. Last month, Vance Perry moved from Atlanta to Madison, Wis. That’s where the Army veteran died Sunday morning.
“He was the most giving person that I ever met,” Erika Perry said. “It’s just sad he died a lonely death.”
Erika said her father was picked up by a Veteran Affairs van for a routine appointment at the Madison Veterans Hospital for paranoid schizophrenia. He was then admitted for mental instability. source
“Friday morning, they released him and didn’t make sure he got in a car,” she said, “He walked away.”
A hospital spokesperson confirms Perry arrived “through the disabled American Veterans van program,” and said the hospital arranged for a taxi to take him home. It is unclear why Perry didn’t take the cab home. “But there is video footage showing him walking off without an escort,” Erika Perry said.”It’s negligence.”
The hospital released this statement: “We are terribly saddened to learn of the loss of this veteran. Prior to his death, he voluntarily checked out of our facility, which had no grounds to prevent him forcibly from doing so.” As detectives investigate Vance’s death, Erika and her four siblings are considering legal action against the hospital.
“Regardless of his mental illness, and especially because of his mental illness, he should have been taken better care of,” Erika said.
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I can understand that sometimes parents and children are separated against their will. Children become pawns, sometimes. Parents leave homes when they feel inadequate or have issues they are concerned may be to much for their families. That being said, I was a Veteran's NURSE at that very hospital. I became disabled on a different floor. I know that overall, that hospital is one of the better VA hospitals. No doubt he was on second floor and signed himself in. The issue is really that no one had legal recourse to prevent him from signing himself out again. The hospital stated they called a taxi which he did not take. It is ridiculous to sue a hospital who cannot prevent someone from leaving. The ONLY way that they could have held him there is if there was a hearing of incompetence and someone had been assigned to be his legal guardian/obviously NOT the case here. People need to keep an eye out in places like the parking lots....especially in freezing weather like we've been having. NOTHING would have prevented him from going back into the lobby of the hospital and spending the night there if he had needed to!