By Susan Bromley

Staff Writer

Brandon Twp.-An 89-year-old township man with dementia was found dead in a canal near his home last week.

Brandon deputies and medics were called at 11:25 a.m., Nov. 4 to the 1900 block of Lake Pointe Drive in the township after the man’s neighbor, who checked on him frequently because the elderly man suffered from dementia and lived by himself, noticed his garage door was open. He searched his neighbor’s house, but couldn’t find him and was then joined by another neighbor to search the area. They found their neighbor in a nearby canal, floating face up.

When the victim was removed from the water, it was discovered he had suffered trauma to his head, but an autopsy determined the head injury was superficial, possibly caused by the fall into the canal. An autopsy determined hypothermia was the cause of death.

The man is not the first township resident with dementia to die from exposure to the elements. On Jan. 31, 2013, an 83-year-old Brandon Township woman with dementia died after wandering from the home she shared with her son on Oakwood Road into freezing temperatures. She was found deceased near a neighbor’s front porch dressed only in pajama bottoms and a light cotton shirt in 23 degree temperatures. Nearby were her jacket, purse, and walking cane.

Lt. Greg Glover, commander of the Brandon substation, noted there are many cases of dementia patients walking away from their homes.

In last week’s case, the man had a caregiver that came to his home once a day, but his neighbors told police his condition was worsening.

More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s Disease, a progressive mental deterioration, the most common form of premature senility. There are other forms of dementia as well, said Dr. David Pinelli, DO, internal medicine, McLaren Oakland, with it sometimes being age-related and a slow loss of memory. Alzheimer’s typically comes on fast and progresses rapidly. In the early stages of dementia, the symptoms can be very mild, he adds, and may not be recognizable as the disorder as early signs could be something any one of us do just from absent-mindedness or in an age of multi-tasking— forgetting where you left the keys, or forgetting a name.

Dementia can strike people as young as in their 50s. One in three seniors will die with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. Signs of the disease can be difficult to pick up in loved ones that use defense mechanisms.

“A person suffering from memory loss often laughs off things they have forgotten— ‘Oh, I don’t remember my daughter’s name’— they use humor or levity so they don’t feel so stressed about it,” said Pinelli. “Family members have a tendency to miss the severity because they are fooled by the coping mechanisms.”

A diagnosis is imperative, however dreaded it may be, because while there is no cure, medications can slow down progression of dementia and enable patients to stay independent for as long as possible.

There are several signs that can help determine when a dementia patient can no longer safely live alone.

“When do you know?” asked Pinelli. “It really comes down to the ability of a person to carry out the activities of daily living— eating, bathing, grooming, and their level of confusion. As (dementia) gets more severe, there is a real decrease in the knowledge of names and faces, time and place. If they are driving, there is a tendency to more and more often get lost. There is increasing disorientation and a big one is their ability to take care of themselves— they forget to bathe, or forget to eat or forget to take their pills. With more severe dementia, there is increased anxiety, aggression, agitation, and delusional behaviors— seeing or hearing things that aren’t there. These should throw big red flags that the loved one is not safe to be on their own.”

These individuals need alternative arrangements to living on their own— such as someone coming to live with them full-time, or the patient being moved to a facility that can care for them.

At least a third of the 235 senior citizens that live at the Lourdes Senior Community in Waterford have dementia, said Colleen Burke, memory care expert. The community offers independent living, in which residents just need support of someone making their dinner as well as doing housekeeping, as well as assisted living, in which residents get help with their medications, all their meals and assistance with showers. There is also a memory care facility at Lourdes, in which 20 patients live in a secured building to prevent wandering, and finally, a nursing home offers services for patients with end stage memory loss.

“Not everyone will get dementia, but the numbers will increase, because the number of seniors are increasing and the people who live alone are most at risk for this type of situation because there isn’t someone in the home to tell them not to go outside,” said Burke. “If you’re a family member, look for signs— if the food is suspiciously old in their refrigerator, if they aren’t taking their medications right, If they are not wearing clean clothes, or if their clothes used to match, but now they don’t.”

For more information about dementia, visit www.alz.org.