The family of a 76-year-old Army veteran wants answers after their “disoriented” loved one was recently found wandering outside a Long Island nursing home in arctic temperatures.
The “outraged” family of George Yacobellis alleges the Hilaire Rehabilitation & Nursing home in Huntington lost track of the septuagenarian — and he might lose his left foot to frostbite.
“We want answers. The nursing home was negligent, uncaring. There was a dereliction of duty. I’m so upset,” the vet’s sister, Mary Zeiss 77, told The Post this week.
Yacobellis was moved to Hilaire — a 76-bed facility — on Jan. 15 following his discharge from the Northport VA Medical Center for pancreatitis and a broken foot, the family said.
While at the veterans hospital, the dementia patient was closely supervised in a lockdown unit, said Zeiss, a former nurse.
Six days after he arrived, at around 4 a.m. Jan. 21, the “combative” vet was found “wandering near the front door” outside the facility, according to Zeiss and medical records obtained by The Post.
“I yelled for assistance & staff came outside & assisted him back inside facility,” the nursing home employee wrote, according to the document. Yacobellis was looking for his sister, the report said.
A registered nurse assessment noted the vet had a “small skin tear to left inner hand & a skin tear to left toe,” which was cleansed with neosporin and bacitracin ointment, the medical paper said.
The sibling went to the nursing home the next morning to pick up her brother and take him to Northport VA to have the cast of his broken foot checked, only to be “horrified” to discover his left foot was frostbitten.
“What happened to his foot? ” Zeiss demanded.
“They said they didn’t know,” she claimed.
The family — who said the vet was outside with bare toes on the foot with the cast — yanked Yacobellis out of Hilaire that day, bringing him home to West Islip.
“The next day, he started running temperatures, so I brought him back to the VA, where he is now,” the sister said. “He could have died. His fingers are still hurting him. He has lost a lot of sensation. We will find out Monday if the foot has to be amputated,” Zeiss said.
Temps on Jan. 21 plummeted to 14 degrees on Long Island, according to weather records.
In the meantime, the sister said there had been an explanation “blackout” on the part of Hilaire.
Attorney Joseph Campisi, who is pondering a lawsuit, said the family “wants answers” on how Yacobellis was allowed to leave the facility. “There is no dispute — verified by their own records — that George got out of the nursing home, unsupervised and into the cold,” Campisi said.
Doctors at the VA hospital diagnosed Yacobellis with frostbite, Zeiss and Campisi said.
“The family wants to know how George wound up getting frostbite when he was entrusted in the care of this nursing home. They haven’t provided any answers the attorney said.
The family received the medical notes on Thursday from Hilaire and turned them over to their lawyer on Friday.
“How does a 76-year-old man whose on a locked unit with a cast get out in the middle of the night when it’s [14] degrees and develop frostbite?” asked Zeiss’ daughter Diane Adamson.
Hilaire nursing home is run by the federal government, which also runs Northport VA Hospital, but the family has been satisfied with the care Yacobellis has received at the latter facility.
Yacobellis served during the Vietnam War as a truck driver in Germany.
Hilaire did not return messages.
