Family of N.B. man ‘shocked’ after dementia patient goes missing after hospital visit

Family and friends of a New Brunswick senior with dementia are demanding answers, after he allegedly wandered out of an emergency room last week.

Eventually, Brian Akerley was found suffering from frostbite.

Akerley’s close friend, Don Murray, told Global News he was initially mad about the incident, but now he’s heartbroken.

“My good friend, 86-years-old, was left alone, outside, somewhere in Fredericton for two days and two nights,” said Murray.

According to Murray, Akerley was taken by ambulance from his care home to the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital with a severe foot infection.

Murray said Akerley has dementia and is a known flight risk, but was left alone in the waiting room where it’s believed he later walked away from.

Murray said it was two days before someone at a local restaurant saw Akerley and called police. The senior had frostbite and a bladder infection, which landed him back in hospital.

“When I asked him what happened, he doesn’t even remember. It must have been terrible,” said Murray. “What have they done for those two days when he was missing?”

The senior’s son, Tim Akerley, said he spoke on the phone with his father after the incident, but his father never mentioned the ordeal.

“His nurse called me on his phone and I talked to him. We didn’t have a good conversation. He was really confused, his voice was kind of slurred too from his medication,” said Akerley.

It was only when Murray later called him in his home in Florida, that Akerley discovered what had happened.

“We’re shocked. Really shocked,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking.”

He pointed out it’s still unclear what transpired during his father’s disappearance, but he knows that his father could have died.

“Obviously they made a mistake and I just don’t want to see it happen to some other person or some other family,” he said.

Global News has reached out repeatedly to Horizon Health for comment since broadcasting the story on Friday. Horizon says a response is forthcoming.

— with a file from Global News’ Rebecca Lau