Opinion ID: 2637002
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Count IIDaniel Barreto

Text: Barreto, age eighty-four, suffered from Alzheimer's disease and required twenty-four-hour supervision prior to his admission to the Sleepy Hollow Panther residence. On December 21, 1996, Barreto left the residence without the knowledge of Vallery or Mack, both of whom were present in the house. It was snowing. Vallery discovered that Barreto was missing and began searching for him. Testimony indicated that about fifteen or twenty minutes passed between the time Barreto was last seen and the time that Vallery noticed that Barreto wasn't where she could see him. Caregivers spent five to ten minutes looking for Barreto in the house before they proceeded to search outside the house. Barreto was found covered in snow fifty to sixty feet outside the house under a tree. Paramedics called to the scene were unable to ascertain any life signs in Barreto and instituted resuscitative measures, which were unsuccessful. Because of the chilled condition of Barreto's body, he was transported to a hospital as hypothermia cases may still respond if given more extensive resuscitative efforts at a medical facility. At the hospital, his core temperature was measured at seventy-nine degrees. Medical personnel advised Barreto's family that there was little chance he could be successfully revived because of the length of time he had been non-responsive and his temperature. In addition, the family was informed that if he were revived he would have significant impairments. Barreto's family declined to authorize extraordinary procedures, and Barreto was officially pronounced dead. An autopsy report and medical testimony indicated the cause of death to be organ failure due to extreme hypothermia. Experts gave conflicting testimony regarding how long Barreto must have been outside to obtain a body temperature of seventy-nine degrees. The periods ranged from twenty minutes up to one hour. Evidence was admitted that at least one other resident had left the Panther house without a caregiver's knowledge. In addition, Barreto had eloped from the Sleepy Hollow facilities, including the Panther house, three times prior to December 21, 1996. Finally, evidence was admitted regarding the functioning of the door alarms. The exit doors at the Panther residence were equipped with alarms to prevent a resident from leaving the house without a caregiver's knowledge. Vallery and Mack testified that they did not hear the alarm. However, they did not assert that the alarms were malfunctioning, and an expert testified that there was nothing wrong with the alarms. The testimony raised three possible explanations for the failure of the alarms to alert Vallery and Mack to Barreto's elopement: (1) the alarm was improperly set on a soft chime mode that could not be heard, (2) the batteries on the alarm were bad, and (3) Barreto or another resident had turned the alarm from the loud setting to the chime setting. Vallery and Mack testified that they did not leave the alarm on the loud setting at all times because the loud alarm bothered the residents. Therefore, the alarms were only set on the loud mode at night. Mack testified that he had checked the alarms that night. There was no testimony that any resident had ever tampered with the alarms, though there was testimony that the residents had fiddled with other fixtures in the house.