Mildred Hernandez, a 100-year-old woman suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, was found dead out in the cold after wandering outside through a door that locked behind her. She was a resident at Greenhaven Estates Assisted Living and Memory Care in Sacramento, and her family later filed a lawsuit against the facility following her death in February 2019.
According to the lawsuit, when Hernandez was found outside, she was “cold to the touch” and was also suffering from “agonal breathing” with a low heart rate. “A jury is hearing testimony this week as part of a wrongful death and elder abuse trial brought on by the lawsuit,” Law & Crime reported.
The complaint also mentions, “Emergency room health care practitioners at Kaiser Hospital were unable to obtain a body temperature or palpate a pulse. Hernandez died from hypothermia.” The lawsuit further alleges that the facility staff members were well aware that Hernandez was “often forgetful, had become confused with times of day and night, required redirection, and was a high fall risk.” However, her behavior was not formally documented, and there was a lack of proper care, which the lawsuit claims led to her death.
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The complaint also stated, “Wandering was known. Hernandez’s known wandering was not stated in written assessments or reappraisals of her condition, nor was this risk of harm identified or addressed in Mildred Hernandez’s individualized care plan with meaningful interventions to protect her from harm.”
Ed Dudensing, who is the family’s lawyer, told local ABC affiliate KXTV that the elderly woman was “out there for several hours” before she was found. He then added, “There was no kind of silver alert. There was no alarming of any doors, and she was found by a caregiver, but she couldn’t be saved.”
The complaint states that the facility did not ensure Hernandez’s safety or take steps to prevent her from wandering off repeatedly. The family is now seeking damages on multiple accounts, including wrongful death, negligence, and elder abuse.
As Law & Crime reported, “State inspection reports from the California Department of Social Services show the facility has been cited for deficiencies related to staffing, training, and resident supervision. Citations have been filed as recently as 2025, KXTV reports.”
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The facility’s lawyers have claimed that Hernandez’s family has not been able to prove that “negligence caused the decedent’s death” and the evidence that hints at the same remains “insufficient.”
Hernandez’s daughter, Roberta Hernandez Tapia, spoke about her mother, saying, “She was like superwoman. She kind of did it all and raised four girls. Family was super important. So she was amazing.”
The case highlights the longstanding problem of elderly care facilities that often run on negligence, leading to fatal results. Since Hernandez’s problem of wandering around was well known and yet no one cared for her that night, highlights how these facilities often operate without actively taking responsibility for residents’ safety.
