Connecticut regulators have suspended the license of a nursing supervisor after a 93-year-old resident with severe dementia wandered out of a Windsor Locks nursing home in the middle of the night and died of hypothermia — a death that exposes multiple failures in the facility’s security and response.
The state Board of Examiners for Nursing suspended the license of nursing supervisor Papy Bibo, who was in charge when Margaret Healey left Bickford Health Care Center around 1:50 a.m. on February 8. According to Department of Public Health documents and police reports, Bibo failed to follow the facility’s policy to notify other staff or emergency responders when Healey was found missing from her room. She was not located until more than three hours later, and the state’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner found her death was caused in part by hypothermia.
Police who reviewed facility video determined Healey exited through an employee entrance at the rear of the building. Investigators learned the keypad-controlled door was often propped open and that the access code was printed next to the keypad. Healey was wearing a wander-alert device, but police said it only activated at doors near the front lobby — not the rear employee entrance she used.
Elopement — when a resident with cognitive impairment leaves a facility unsupervised — is a well-known and preventable danger in nursing homes. Facilities caring for residents with dementia are expected to maintain secure exits, functioning alarm systems that cover all doors, and clear protocols for responding immediately when a resident is missing. When doors are propped open, access codes are left in plain view, and alarm coverage has gaps, the safeguards that are supposed to protect vulnerable residents fail. A prompt search-and-notification response can mean the difference between a safe return and a tragedy.
An elopement death is rarely the result of a single person’s mistake. It usually reflects systemic gaps — in security, in alarm systems, and in emergency response — that a facility had a duty to close. Families who lose a loved one this way are often left wondering how a resident known to wander could simply walk out an unsecured door. Bedsore.Law helps families investigate elopement deaths and hold facilities accountable for the safety failures behind them. Call 844-407-6737 or visit bedsore.law/contact.
CT Insider — CT suspends nurse after dementia patient wandered from nursing home into bitter cold and died
