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 We
all hear stories of elderly folk who wander off from home
and most of us say, “How sad.
This could never happen in my family.” My
name is Patty Quesenberry and I work for The Volunteer
Center of the Virginia Peninsula.
This DID happen in my family.
In April of 2006, my Dad left to drive a short
distance and never got to his destination.
I knew Dad was getting more forgetful but I just
assumed it was a part of the aging process. His communication skills and motor skills were just fine.
I have never been so frightened, realizing that Dad
was lost.
He was found wandering around the parking lot of a
store over 65 miles away!
He couldn’t remember where he left his car and an
ambulance was called because he had fallen and seemed
confused to the employees. Rescue personnel contacted the police. The police then
notified my family that Dad had been found and transported
to a hospital almost
24 hours after he was first reported missing.
My Dad never left the hospital, he died less than a
week later.
When
a loved one goes missing, minutes matter.
Would finding him earlier have made a difference?
None of us had a current picture in our wallet to provide
to the police as we filed the missing persons report.
Would a full alert to the police have found him
earlier? These are questions we will never answer but this
story is why I am so strongly in favor of having a secure
form of identification for elderly family members who may
be at risk of wandering off some day.
Do it NOW! Keep
a copy where it can be found easily by family members or a
friend. The
SafeAssured™ ID program of The Volunteer Center of the
Virginia Peninsula is a comprehensive high-tech safety
program that can provide your family with a media ready
tool to immediately provide the public with a missing
person’s unique identifying characteristics.
All sensitive information is encrypted and
accessible only by law enforcement when presented with the
ID kit from the family.
Information is stored only on the individual ID
kits, not in a database, which ensures the protection and
privacy of the personal information.
Do it NOW! Get
a SafeAssured™ ID kit for your loved one.
For information about this valuable program call
757-262-0190.
Click
here for information about our sponsors.
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