PORTLAND, Ore. — A family is suing Mount Hood Senior Living and the Oregon Department of Human Services, which regulates memory care facilities, after a resident with dementia wandered away and froze to death outside a day later.
Around 9 p.m. on Dec. 23, 2023, John Hyun moved his 83-year-old mother, Ki Soon Hyun, into Mount Hood Senior Living after having cared for her for many years at home. The next morning, Ki Soon went missing, less than 24 hours after she had been admitted. She was found dead in the woods a half mile from the facility on Christmas Day.
"We cannot believe how this can happen," John said. "We just left my mother the day before, and we had a good memory of it, and yet not even 24 hours later, somebody is telling me she’s gone."
The family is seeking tens of millions for personal injury and wrongful death, according to a lawsuit filed in the Multnomah County Circuit Court on April 17, 2024.
Once learning of Ki Soon's disappearance, the family says Mt. Hood Senior Living did not inform them or call law enforcement to alert them of the situation until later that afternoon, the lawsuit said. The Hyun family first learned their mother was missing just after 3 p.m. when a member of law enforcement called them.
"We just received a report that she’s missing, and I just can’t think," John said. "My mind blacked out, and I don’t know what to make of it and [law enforcement] was under the impression that we had already received a call from Mt. Hood memory care, and I told him that no, we have not."
According to court documents, John and his five siblings decided their mother needed more "eyes on her" and a higher level of security than living at home with her children provided. After a tour of the Mt. Hood facility and assurance that it was adequately equipped with security measures, including passcodes on doors, cameras and other layers of protection, the Hyun family agreed to pay the $7,000 to $9,000 a month for her care.
"I visited the place a number of times and talked to the director, intake, assistance and the owner," John said. "All the conversations made us feel that this is the place that is best for my mother."
Prior to Ki Soon moving in, the family informed the facility of her risk to wander. The facility assured them it was adequately equipped with proper security measures, the lawsuit said; however, the Hyun family said that turned out to be woefully untrue.
An Ombudsman report following Ki Soon's death found not only did Mt. Hood Senior Living failed to care for her and other residents, but the owner of the facility also had no experience in this line of work nor did many of the employees and manager.
In an email sent in November 2023, from the facility's office manager, who was acting as the interim director, to the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS). She outlines her concern saying she does not have the "credentials, training, or education to fill in," as the interim director after the previous one had been terminated. The office manager went on to say she was assuming the role with only a high school diploma and had no prior work experience in the field.
In January, ODHS licensing staff also waived an Oregon Administrative Rule requirement to allow the "inexperienced owner" to serve as the interim administrator — just 16 days after Ki Soon's death, according to the Ombudsman report. The decision to do this also came after the licensing staff had received concerns from Mt. Hood Senior Living’s consultant about the "owner’s potential lack of adherence to the regulatory laws required to operate the facility."
Later that month, ODHS shut down the facility after seeing several of the red flags that the Ombudsman report says — it should have caught sooner. Dozens of residents living there had a day to pack up and move out.
"We feel deeply for families and their communities anytime there is a loss of life," a spokesperson from ODHS told KGW. However, they are unable to comment on the current lawsuit.
The investigation found that four days after Ki Soon's death, the facility's owner provided a "safety plan" to ODHS that included items like installing an alarm system on certain exit doors, indicating that it may not have had alarms in place as required by state law, the report stated.
"No one should go through this kind of pain," John said. "It's unbearable. Something has to change so that no other family can go through this anguish and pain and suffering as we have."
John said his family felt an obligation to care for his mother in her final years to honor the way she raised him and his siblings.
Ki Soon had moved her family to the U.S. from South Korea in the late 1970s. John said she had sacrificed all her life to give her children the opportunity to have a better life. He and his siblings had many family meetings to discuss what was needed for her safety.
"Nothing can bring her back, and nothing can change what we are going through," John said. "We are suffering every day, but we want something good to come out of this."