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Project Lifesaver spares the life of wandering seniors
• Two Margate seniors in two days found dead in local canals
Friday,
August 14, 2009
Two seniors too many in Margate have lost their lives this week to what may be a likely culprit: wandering caused by dementia.
Charles William Takacs, 94, was found facedown in a Coral Springs canal Thursday and Marguerite Fragapane, 71, was pulled from a Pompano canal Friday. Both Margate residents who apparently suffered from the ill-fated progressive brain disorder known as dementia that destroys memory and intellectual function.
Both were last seen wandering away from their homes on foot. Presently, no foul play is suspect in either case.
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Roughly 60 percent of all dementia patients wander, said Eric Hall, CEO of the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. As the retiring Baby Boomer population continues to age, Hall says, the likelihood of dementia will flourish alongside it.
Currently, one in eight Americans over the age of 65 suffer from dementia as do half of all seniors over the age of 85. Alzheimer's disease is the leading cause of dementia in America.
Read about the differences between Alzheimer's and dementia.
Dementia can cause seniors to become disoriented, lost, lose track of their surroundings and faculties and, as a result in some cases, lose their lives.
“The next generation of seniors will develop a prevalent manifestation of having the disease,” Hall told MargateNews.net.
Death by symptoms of dementia can be prevented or greatly reduced by enrolling loved ones who suffer from the disease in a locator program sponsored by Project Lifesaver International, an organization that provides a timely response to saving lives and reducing potential injury to adults and children who wander due to Alzheimer’s, autism and other related conditions or disorders.
Instead of utilizing GPS, Project Lifesaver technology relies on good old fashion radio frequencies to locate lost seniors within an hour.
Citizens enrolled in Project Lifesaver wear a small LoJack® SafetyNet™ personal transmitter around the wrist or ankle that emits an individualized tracking signal. If an enrolled client goes missing, the caregiver notifies their local Project Lifesaver agency, and a trained emergency team responds to the wanderer’s area. Most who wander are found within a few miles from home, and search times have been reduced from hours and days, to minutes.
Recovery times for PLI clients average 30 minutes -- 95% less time than standard operations.
Hall (also on the board to PLI) said there are pros and cons to all kinds of technology, but Project Lifesaver has a 100% success rate and a proven track record.
“More than 1900 searches have been conducted using Project Lifesaver technology and lost seniors are found quickly,” Hall said.
Project Lifesaver wrist and ankle bands cannot be pulled off, so victims of dementia cannot easily remove the device in common fits of frustration .
In June, Broward residents Anna Smith and David Milligan, both Alzheimer's victims, wandered away from home and were found miles away at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. How Margate's Smith got there remains a mystery.
To enroll a loved one in Project Lifesaver, go to the Project Lifesaver website to get started. It entails a $99 enrollment fee and a dollar a day maintenance fee.
The Florida Sheriff’s Association is a partner to Project Lifesaver International, to which Broward Sheriff, Al Lamberti, is a member, but BSO Public Information Officer, Mike Jachles said he wasn’t sure if the Broward Sheriff Office was a participating Project Lifesaver Agency or not.
Call Project Lifesaver International headquarters at (757) 546-5502 to find out more.
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Project Lifesaver Success Stories in Florida
- In Tallahassee, Florida, a 20-year old mentally ill man went missing. Deputies at the Leon County Sheriff’s Office gathered equipment and launched their search. A signal was detected from the aircrew, and from there, ground units were directed to a small area of a wooded park where they believed the subject was hiding. Ground units found the subject approximately 20 feet from the road in a heavily wooded area. The man was located in good health.
- In Lake Worth, Florida, an 81 year-old man diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease went missing and the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to the scene. While investigating, it was learned the family had waited longer than initially reported to call in the missing wanderer, so the officers expanded their search perimeter. The man was located just outside the perimeter expansion and returned home safely.
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Our sincere condolences to the family and friends of Charles William Takacs and Marguerite Fragapane of Margate.
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Copyright Cassius Group 2009
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