Old Woman Left in Building After Dialysis Facility Closed Died of Natural Causes: Coroner

The elderly, sickly woman who died the day after she was left alone in a dialysis facility’s building, possibly for as long as eight hours, passed from natural causes, said Will County Coroner Patrick O’Neil.

An ambulance scheduled to take the 71-year-old woman from DaVita Renal Center West never picked her up, police said. Officers sent to the 1051 Essington Road facility saw her sitting in her wheelchair inside the building, police said.

The woman was supposed to be transported by a Kurtz ambulance, police said, but a second call was never made to the company.

The woman was a resident of an area assisted living facility, O’Neil said.

Firefighters gained entrance to the the building housing the dialysis center shortly after 11:45 p.m. Saturday and took the woman to Presence St. Joseph Medical Center. She was pronounced dead just before 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

O’Neil said the woman’s doctors were consulted and they reported that she suffered from a “host” of illnesses.

“We’re not exercising jurisdiction” over the woman’s death O’Neil said, as it appears she died of natural causes.

David Tauchen, a communications manager for DaVita Healthcare Partners, said the woman was no longer in the part of the building housing the dialysis center when employees departed at the end of the day.

“We know that by the time our team left the facility, the dialysis suite was clear,” Tauchen said. “The team left through a service entrance, which is the entrance they use every day.”

Tauchen explained the building has a “common lobby that is outside the dialysis suite.”

Tauchen also said DaVita is still looking into the circumstances surrounding the woman’s remaining in the building after the facility closed.

“We are deeply saddened any time there is a loss of a patient,” he said. “With any incident, we examine the facts very intensely and we constantly look at how we can adjust our practices to be better.”