UW patient found wandering in Puyallup in hospital gown

By Susan Gilmore
Seattle Times staff reporter

Jessica Spencer stepped out of her house in Puyallup on Thursday evening when she saw a strange sight: a man walking down her block in the pouring rain in a hospital gown, bandages on his head, and hospital-issued socks with no shoes.

The man had just been dropped off by a taxi and was confused, so Spencer grabbed him an umbrella and tried to find out where he lived.

The man, James Absten Sr., gave her a mixture of old and new addresses and he didn't know where he lived. He gave Spencer, and her friend Josh Skilton, two phone numbers and the pair finally connected with Absten's wife.

"It concerned me on two points: The hospital released him in that condition, and the cab left him on his own in that condition and in that dress," Skilton said.

They drove him home, a five-minute drive away in Puyallup.

That was just the beginning of a puzzling saga that has led to a University of Washington Medical Center investigation.

Absten, 58, who has had four brain surgeries and had just had tests at the UW Medical Center, was sent back to Puyallup in a cab Thursday after the tests were completed.

He had been taken to the UW by "cabulance" from a skilled nursing center in Puyallup, Linden Grove, but wasn't returned there as UW policy dictates. Instead he was given a cab voucher and sent on his way, said Absten's son, James Absten Jr.

"We don't know what happened," said UW hospital spokeswoman Tina Mankowski. "We've been doing an investigation. Senior leadership is reviewing what happened."

She said UW policy is to return patients to the same facility they came from. "This is not the ideal way for a patient to leave the facility."

She said the hospital is pulling together a team with everyone who had any dealings with Absten while he was in the hospital Thursday, from the time he was admitted until he was discharged. That team will meet Tuesday, Mankowski said.

Absten's son said he has filed a complaint with the UW and the state Department of Health over the treatment of his father.

"We're not money chasers," he said, "I just don't want this to happen to anyone else."

Absten Jr. said his father was supposed to be returned to Linden Grove after the UW tests. He said his father has a tumor around his optic nerve that has required several surgeries.

He said family members could have found a way to pick him up from the medical center, but they didn't even know the assisted-care facility had sent him there for tests.

He rushed to his parents' house after Spencer and Skilton returned him, and got on the phone to UW. He said he finally reached the administrator on call, who apologized. "She was extremely upset," he said, of the UW official. "She said 'sorry' multiple times."

Absten Jr. doesn't know the name of the cab company, and the UW hasn't released the name. His father apparently gave the driver a garbled address.

"But they were not supposed to send him home, he was supposed to go back to Linden Grove," he said.

Linden Grove officials were not immediately available for comment, but Absten Jr. said the facility wasn't told by UW that Absten was being sent back.

"My dad was completely confused and [the UW] put him in a cab when he was too confused to know his address," Absten Jr. said. "That's why he ended up walking around Puyallup.

"There's so many questions, so many little things that could have veered this from happening," he said. "I'm not a mean person, and I understand mistakes happen. People slip up. But at this point, how far this went and the extremity of this, something needs to be said so it doesn't happen again."

Absten Jr. said he is very grateful to Spencer and Skilton for helping his father. "I'm extremely appreciative," he said. "It goes without saying how thankful I am. That's my father. All I want is for this not to happen to anyone else."

Seattle Times