Aubrey Giles' daughters announced Thursday they hired a lawyer who said the daughters have no immediate plans to file a lawsuit against the Belleville nursing home from which their father went missing before he died in the cold.
"It's just a shame he was found in a ravine -- cold and alone," said one of his daughters, Terri Dancy. "He was not supposed to die that way."
Giles, 77, who was suffering from dementia and heart disease, walked away Saturday afternoon from Midwest Rehabilitation and Respiratory Care, 727 N. 17th St. in Belleville. He was found dead Monday in a heavily wooded creek about a block from the nursing home, having died of hypothermia, authorities said.
"A longtime resident who suffers from dementia and other life-threatening conditions should not be able to walk out the door to the nursing home unnoticed and unsupervised. It absolutely should not happen ... period," said O'Fallon-based attorney Staci Yandle, who is representing Dancy and Giles' other daughter, Linda Woods. "Once we have answers, we will decide what we can do to prevent this type of tragedy from ever happening again."
Midwest Rehab regional director of operations Steve Feigenbaum said it would be premature to comment because of the ongoing investigations.
Yandle said Giles walked out the front door of the nursing home. Neither she nor the daughters knew when he disappeared or what safety guards were in place to prevent him from wandering. They said the family was contacted at 10 p.m. Saturday, about three hours after he was reported missing to police.
Midwest Rehab has not offered the daughters an explanation for how Giles was able to leave the home unattended, they said. They were satisfied with the care Giles had received prior to his walking away, they said.
Belleville police and the Illinois Department of Public Health are investigating the case. No charges or citations have been issued against anyone.
Yandle would not answer questions about whether the family had any complaints against the nursing home in the seven years that Giles lived there. She did say Giles had previously attempted to leave the home unattended.
Giles' daughters said they were unaware the nursing home, when it was known as the Calvin Johnson Care Center, received the lowest rating in 2008 from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Midwest Rehab currently has an average rating but a centers-operated database noted 23 health deficiencies were found between August 2010 and October 2011 by state health inspectors.
Midwest Rehab took over ownership of the nursing home in June 2011.
The daughters praised the police for their work and expressed no concerns about the search.
"We would like to thank everyone who was involved in the search for our father," a prepared statement they released said. "In particular, we want to thank Detective Mark Heffernan and the members of the Belleville Police Department, other law enforcement officers, emergency workers and the public for their efforts."
The funeral service for Giles is scheduled for noon Saturday at Pilgrim Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal church in East St. Louis. He will be buried at Sunset Gardens of Memory near Millstadt.
