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By Anna Sargent of RNZ

A man whose wife went missing from a rest home while in respite care for dementia last month is horrified to learn of Christchurch woman Elisabeth Nicholls’ death.

Miles Vercoe said his wife Amy Vercoe disappeared from the Edmund Hillary Retirement Village in Auckland on May 10 after wandering out of a fire escape door and walking for hours, before being found safe by police.

Nicholls, 79, had dementia and vanished from Ryman’s Margaret Stoddart Retirement Village in Christchurch on June 4, hours after being admitted for respite care. She was found dead at an abandoned property on Gracefield Ave in the central city last Sunday – just 250m from her home.

Ryman said it was “terribly saddened” by the news and would work with Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora to look into what happened.

Vercoe, speaking out after hearing about Nicholls’ death, said his wife could have suffered the same fate had she not been found.

“That was an entirely possible outcome of her running away because she has Alzheimer’s, she wouldn’t know how to get home, how to get back to where she was, and it was late and cold. It was the consequence I was so scared of that night.”

Amy Vercoe. Photo / Miles Vercoe

Vercoe said his wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s three-and-a-half years ago.

On May 5, she was admitted for respite care at the Edmund Hillary Retirement Village for what was supposed to be a week, to give him a break as her sole caregiver at their home.

On her fifth night there, Vercoe said he got a call from staff at about 6pm saying they could not find her.

“I told them to call the police. The village is in Stonefields, we live in Ōrākei, she was found in Parnell like three to four hours later, she’d walked. She’s still pretty strong and fit.

“She must’ve been walking that whole time, the distance she got and the time. She was just on a pair of sandals, she hurt her feet, she was sore for a few days, but other than that no lasting damage, compared to poor Mrs Nicholls.”

His wife left the rest home via a fire escape door across the hall from her room, he said. He brought her back home that night.

“By the time I got her out of there, I just thought, ‘Oh, that’s me done with them’,” he said.

Elisabeth Nicholls.

Vercoe said the situation was unacceptable and he lodged a complaint with the Health and Disability Commissioner.

A letter the Edmund Hillary Retirement Village sent Vercoe on June 25, following an investigation, said the village had been given incorrect information by the local Health NZ Needs Assessment and Service Co-ordination (NASC) team about the level of care Amy Vercoe required.

The NASC team confirmed she needed rest home-level care on April 16, the letter said – not dementia-level.

“On 16 June, as part of this investigation, our team contacted the NASC team to reconfirm the assessment information regarding Mrs Vercoe’s required level of care, which we had received before admission in April. The NASC team confirmed Mrs Vercoe’s assessment for rest home-level of care,” the letter said.

“Later that day, a second email from NASC indicated that Mental Health Services assessed Mrs Vercoe for older people in March this year, and this assessment recommended that she receive dementia level of care. I note that this information was not provided to our team before this date.”

The rest home said having no knowledge of Amy Vercoe’s dementia assessment, it was not aware of any need for her to be cared for in its special care unit.

Elisabeth Nicholls, 79, who was last seen on June 4 at the Chateau on the Park hotel in Riccarton. Her body was found on June 22. Photo / New Zealand Police

“Had we been aware of this, we could have completed the necessary paperwork and admitted Mrs Vercoe, with your agreement, into our Secure Dementia Unit, which would have prevented her from leaving the unit and then the village,” the letter said.

“As a rest home resident, we respect residents’ rights to maintain their independence, and we cannot guarantee that a resident in a rest home unit won’t choose to leave via any exit should they wish to. Our review found that the fire escape operated as required. Furthermore, we implemented the proper care strategies for Mrs Vercoe as a rest home resident.”

Vercoe was under the impression the rest home knew his wife had dementia.

“[The rest home] did know that she had dementia because I told them. I had a phone conversation with a nurse and then I had about a half hour pre-admission interview, and then I probably had another 20 minutes with her then on the day of admission. Different people every time, I think, but I was clear to them verbally, we discussed her condition.

“This was after Health NZ had assessed her as having dementia and then [being] a suitable candidate for this type of rest home care. She clearly wasn’t suitable to be in that place but I didn’t know that, I don’t know the ins and outs of what facilities they have, but she was assessed as having stage five dementia, not being able to cope and also being eligible for the subsidy for respite care because I’m her sole caregiver.”

The letter to Vercoe said on April 15 during his initial walk-through of the village that a unit co-ordinator discussed his wife’s requirements with him, and Vercoe confirmed she did not wander away from home.

“The question they didn’t ask me is what would the consequences of her running away be, and the answer would be it could be potentially quite severe if she wasn’t caught quickly,” Vercoe said.

“Maybe there was a communication breakdown between them and the health department, but that’s not enough of an excuse in my opinion for them to not know she had dementia, because I told them.”

Ryman did not comment on Vercoe’s specific case, but said if the company received a referral for dementia-level care, the patient would always be placed in secure, specialist dementia care.

“Outside of independent retirement living, Ryman offers three levels of care: rest home, hospital and specialist dementia care. These three levels are offered at Edmund Hillary village,” Ryman said in a statement.

“While our rest homes are supported by 24-hour staffing, rest home level care is not a secure level of care and residents have the independence and freedom to come and go from the unit.

“The initial referral for a new respite resident comes from the local division of Health New Zealand who assess their needs, and our contracts with them sets out the level of care to be provided.”

Ryman did not answer RNZ’s question about how many cases there had been in the last year of dementia patients in respite care wandering out of the premises and needing to be searched for.

Ryman previously said the Margaret Stoddart Retirement Village, where Elisabeth Nicholls was referred, was not a dementia care facility.

Nicholls arrived at the village on the morning of June 4 and was last seen at 6.01pm.

“At 6.20pm, team members at the village became aware that Elisabeth may have chosen to leave, on what was her first night at the village, and immediately commenced a search of the premise,” Ryman said.

“A village search was undertaken, including a search of each room, shared space and the rest home grounds, followed by contacting [her] next of kin. As is standard protocol, if a resident is still unable to be located following this process, we then contact police.”

Following her disappearance, police and Land Search and Rescue volunteers scoured areas of the city to find Nicholls.

Pleas were made for the public to check their backyards and anywhere she might have taken refuge.

‘Adored’ wife

In a statement, Nicholls’ family said they were very saddened and relieved her body had been found.

Nicholls’ husband of nearly 60 years Gary Nicholls had described her as an adored wife, mother, grandmother, friend and colleague who had always put other people first.

Health New Zealand Te Waipounamu regional commissioner Chiquita Hansen said the agency acknowledged the past few weeks had been a distressing time for Nicholls’ loved ones.

“We will work with Ryman to look into what happened, which is standard practice, but for now our priority is working with police and family at this difficult time,” she said.

The death will be referred to the coroner.

RNZ has approached Health NZ for comment on Vercoe’s case.

– RNZ