The former administrator of an assisted living and memory care community where a resident froze to death after wandering outside will retain her state license but is required to complete 10 hours of training on elopements and write a report.
Dwala Marie Lehman was executive director at Courtyard Estates at Hawthorne Crossing in Bondurant, IA, in 2022 when memory care resident Lynne Stewart froze to death just outside the front doors of the senior living community.
According to a state investigation, Lehman received a series of text message alerts when the door alarms were triggered, but she slept through those alerts. The on-call registered nurse reportedly received a similar series of alerts but did not respond, telling investigators that mechanical defects caused the alarms in Stewart’s room to trigger “constantly.”…