NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - The owners of a North Charleston assisted living facility say they weren’t notified a mentally ill resident had been released from a hospital days before he was found dead earlier this month, according to local media reports.
Leverne Reed, 63, was living at Cabading Homes on April 9 when he was taken by ambulance to Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital after becoming disoriented and having seizures, authorities said.
Reed was treated, and a spokesman for the hospital said that Bon Secours paid for a cab to take him home.
According to the coroner, Reed was dropped off at an intersection near the home. He was found dead April 18 in a marsh about a mile away.
Home administrator Alan Cabading said that he wasn’t told Reed was discharged and assumed that he’d been admitted to stay there overnight. According to an incident report, one of Reed’s caretakers requested that the hospital contact them prior to his release.
But the hospital said that it notifies a care facility that someone has been released if special treatment is needed, which wasn’t the case with Reed.
The coroner has not said exactly how Reed died or when. Officials with the Lt. Governor’s Office on Aging visited the group home Friday for an assessment.
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