Lynne Spaulding (57) was found dead in a hospital stairwell more than two weeks after she went missing while being treated

[songbirdsong]

http://mydeathspace.com/article/2013..._being_treated

Hasn't been confirmed whether the body is hers, and no COD yet.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/09/justic...html?hpt=hp_t3
Find Lynne Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/FIND-...70247543108609

San Francisco (CNN) -- She checked herself into a hospital weeks ago ago for a bladder infection. But nobody could've predicted it would end like this. When Lynne Spalding went missing from San Francisco General Hospital, her friends frantically searched and left messages on a Facebook page to keep each other hopeful. On Tuesday, the messages on the "Find Lynne" Facebook page turned from hope to anger. A body was found in an exterior stairwell of the hospital, and a law enforcement source says it is believed to be Spalding.

How could this be? Spalding's friends had searched throughout San Francisco, in alleys and shelters, handing out hundreds of fliers. They wondered whether the woman, dazed by powerful medication, was wandering around somewhere.

"So we have a lot of questions as her family and friends," said David Perry, a Spalding family spokesman. "Did anyone see her leave the room? Did she leave alone? Is there videotape of Lynne leaving the hospital or wandering the halls?" All who looked for Spalding, 57, who has two adult children, assumed the hospital had been searched thoroughly.

"Dumbfounded that they didn't find her for two weeks?! Where the hell were they looking?!" Liz Kennedy wrote on the "Find Lynne" website.

"I honestly believe there should be an investigation into how the hospital areas were not thoroughly checked by the staff," another poster named Sunil Raj wrote.

Hospital officials and police say they are investigating. The hospital says it has no idea how the body ended up in the rarely-used staircase.

"We're distressed," Rachael Kagan, a spokeswoman for San Francisco General Hospital, told CNN affiliate KTVU. "We don't know what happened. That's our top priority, is to find that out."

Spalding was last seen in the morning of September 21. Nurses were checking on her every 15 minutes, but at 10:30 a.m., she was gone. Thirty minutes later, two of her friends and her boyfriend arrived at the hospital to visit, Perry said. They were told that Spalding had been missing for 30 minutes, Perry said.

"Someone has died in a mysterious fashion at San Francisco General Hospital, an institution which is known for healing," Perry said. "And tonight I'm sure the staff of SF General is horrified and confused, certainly the family is horrified and confused."

Hospital news release:



Wow, unbelievable. She was a very pretty lady with a lot of life left, I'm sure. Also, the news reports give her last name as Spalding, but the Facebook page uses Spaulding. She also went by Lynne Ford.

[blighted star]

I see what you mean, for almost 60 she's gorgeous. What a horrible way to go after heading to hospital for something so minor. It's unbelievable??

[*crickets*]

There is so much weirdness to this story...first, she's hospitalized for a 'bladder infection"? And being checked every 15 minutes, after 2 days in the hospital? They only do that in the ICU or a step-down unit, and not for someone with a UTI. Then they say a nurse checked her 15 minutes after her previous check, and initiated a hospital search when she was not in her room. Really?? Normally a nurse would just assume she had gone for a walk or something. There is so much that is just not adding up here.

And the part about the door of the stairwell locking from the outside makes me wonder...was she trapped in there and died of starvation/dehydration? I've been trapped in a stairwell before and totally panicked, imagining that exact thing.

[neenerneener]

She *checked herself in* for a bladder infection? First off, you don't check yourself in. You are admitted. By a doctor. You check yourself into a mental institution, a hotel, at an airport.... second, no doctor in the universe is going to admit someone for a bladder infection. They will either give you some iv antibiotics or a shot in the ass, and send you on your way with a prescription for more meds.

[bowieluva]

She is not gorgeous in any sense of the word. She looks like a tranny having a stroke.

Still, this story is beyond confusing and fucked up.

[*crickets*]

That's harsh...(funny tho.)

[PunkerDuckie]

pfft I can never get away with being in a hospital stairway without being caught for 5 minutes, let alone two weeks....

I mean... what?

[songbirdsong]

There is so much weirdness to this story...first, she's hospitalized for a 'bladder infection"? And being checked every 15 minutes, after 2 days in the hospital? They only do that in the ICU or a step-down unit, and not for someone with a UTI. Then they say a nurse checked her 15 minutes after her previous check, and initiated a hospital search when she was not in her room. Really?? Normally a nurse would just assume she had gone for a walk or something. There is so much that is just not adding up here.

And the part about the door of the stairwell locking from the outside makes me wonder...was she trapped in there and died of starvation/dehydration? I've been trapped in a stairwell before and totally panicked, imagining that exact thing.

It also said the stairwell door had an alarm. I was thinking either starvation/dehydration or she fell down the stairs, or a combination. She looks really tiny in her pictures, I can see how pain meds could throw her for a loop. Poor woman.

I'm with you on the "search party after 15 minutes" thing, though. Seems pretty damned on-the-ball for a hospital that has a dead person in their fucking stairwell.

She *checked herself in* for a bladder infection? First off, you don't check yourself in. You are admitted. By a doctor. You check yourself into a mental institution, a hotel, at an airport.... second, no doctor in the universe is going to admit someone for a bladder infection. They will either give you some iv antibiotics or a shot in the ass, and send you on your way with a prescription for more meds.

CNN writers kinda suck. The hospital can't legally share her medical info, so that might be an oversimplified explanation from her boyfriend/family. Sometimes they do surgeries for recurrent infections, but dunno.

[blighted star]

She is not gorgeous in any sense of the word. She looks like a tranny having a stroke.

Still, this story is beyond confusing and fucked up.

Haha, I was waiting for it. It's relative. Believe me, if you lived in this town - where the local "beauty industry" consists of retirees getting a trim, a perm & a blue-rinse & you saw the yellowing tobacco-stained, leathery wrinklies that pass for 40 & 50, you'd be somewhat more impressed.

20 years ago I'd have said the same as you, but I lived in the city then & only the homeless looked their age. The over 30's with the $$ to do it were investing heavily in trying to look like their younger neighbours. It was easy for me to forget what natural 50 & 60 usually look like because I just didn't see it, I was surrounded by people using their $$$ to make it look like something else. Moving down here was a rude awakening.


When I originally posted I did almost add "assuming she hasn't had thousands to spend on prolonging her external use-by date". If she has been spending up big for decades, I'll switch to your side, but if she's 100% chemically & surgically unaltered, I stand by my original statement.



A lot of people down here remind me of Kath Knight. She's 30 or 40 here^^. So yeah, lol I think I'm gonna assume our baselines are a little different?

[*crickets*]

Her fb page says "she left the hospital wearing blue jeans, black boots and a black sweatshirt."
So, she's hanging out in the hospital, being treated for "a bladder infection," wearing street clothes and being checked on every 15 minutes? Not buying this...

[songbirdsong]

The Medical Examiner confirmed that the body is that of Lynne. Still waiting on COD.

A missing person flyer:



From FB: (BTW, they aren't kidding about her being "very thin" -- maybe she had a medical condition? I still think she's pretty)



About that infection (snipped):

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-...firmed-missing

May went on to say that Spalding's condition had improved since she checked into the hospital Sept. 19, and was in fair condition at last check but provided little information about what the woman was being treated for, or what medications she may have been on. Spalding's boyfriend and daughter drove her to the hospital from her home, 10 blocks away in the Mission District, after she began acting increasingly disoriented and had lost a significant amount of weight, a family spokesman said. She was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection and was hospitalized in a fifth-floor room, steps from the nurses station, for two days before she went missing.

[debk589]

Those second two photos are much more flattering of her. She definitely looked amazing for 60.

Also, add me to the bandwagon here that definitely this:

[Trahnse]

UTIs can make people act totally nuts. Especially elderly people; although I don't consider 60 to be elderly, but anyway. I want to know what kind of unit she was on where her nurse could be checking on her every 15 minutes. There are some shifts when I barely make my hourly rounds on my patients. I am fairly sure we're not getting the whole story. Will be interesting to see what comes from the autopsy.

I bet the staff are in some deep shit. I couldn't imagine losing a patient, much less for them to end up dead in the facility. ugh

[hamdinger125]

UTI's can spread to the kidneys, too. Still don't know if that would require hospitalization or not.

I don't suppose the COD has been released yet, has it?

And I don't think she looks that bad, although she probably had some work done. Her face is very smooth, but her wrinkly hands betray her.

[Nic B]

According to her boyfriend and daughter, she was acting disoriented, so maybe that's why they had someone checking on her all the time? I don't know. I was in the hospital when I was 20 with pneumonia. I've heard of people having it and not being admitted to the hospital, but they admitted me because it was pretty bad. Was there for 3 days, and the entire time I was there a nurse would check in on me every hour. I remember because I was pissed when that happened because if I was asleep it always woke me up, and all I wanted to sleep for more than 30 minutes.

[*crickets*]

Her missing persons report said she was an alcoholic. Don't know if that means sober/in recovery or actively drinking, or maybe someone smuggled in some alcohol and she relapsed?

She had lost a lot of weight in a short time...makes me wonder if she had been diagnosed with something 'bad'...could it be a suicide? Or did she just go into the stairwell to sneak a cig and got trapped? (Her room was on the 5th floor and she was found 1 floor below.) Hospitals are all smoke-free these days and patients and visitors go into stairwells to smoke all the time. I really don't want to think she got trapped in that stairwell and died a slow death due to dehydration but that would make sense b/c if she had died right away the smell would surely have led to her being discovered long before she was.

[Nic B]

UTI's can spread to the kidneys, too. Still don't know if that would require hospitalization or not.

I don't suppose the COD has been released yet, has it?

And I don't think she looks that bad, although she probably had some work done. Her face is very smooth, but her wrinkly hands betray her.

I once had a bladder infection and tried to get rid of it myself without going to the doctor with otc meds. Didn't work, and I ended up having to go to urgent care because I woke up one morning with the worst pain in my back. Turned out, with the bladder infection not treated, it spread and I ended up with a kidney infection on top of that. They just gave me antibiotics, told me to take advil for the pain and sent me home.

[*crickets*]

According to her boyfriend and daughter, she was acting disoriented, so maybe that's why they had someone checking on her all the time? I don't know. I was in the hospital when I was 20 with pneumonia. I've heard of people having it and not being admitted to the hospital, but they admitted me because it was pretty bad. Was there for 3 days, and the entire time I was there a nurse would check in on me every hour. I remember because I was pissed when that happened because if I was asleep it always woke me up, and all I wanted to sleep for more than 30 minutes.

The statement that was released today said she was being treated on a medical-surgical unit...those units are not staffed to have a patient checked every 15 minutes. If they need that level of monitoring they need to be on a step-down unit or have a private sitter paid to stay with them. So that part of the story does not hold water...

[songbirdsong]

The statement that was released today said she was being treated on a medical-surgical unit...those units are not staffed to have a patient checked every 15 minutes. If they need that level of monitoring they need to be on a step-down unit or have a private sitter paid to stay with them. So that part of the story does not hold water...

Someone on another site mentioned the possibility of a 5150 psych hold, which would certainly warrant the 15-minute checks and the hospital initiating a [FAIL] search upon not finding her in bed. Dunno, maybe the bladder thing was just a excuse. Alcohol withdrawal? The flyer also said she had a medical condition that requires medication, wonder if they were antipsychotics.

[*crickets*]

I saw that post on the 5150 hold too, but the report specifies that she was on a med-surg. unit. Also if it had been a 5150 she would have been in a locked ward with no access to stairwells...

[*crickets*]

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) --Lynne Spalding's cause of death is still under investigation but officials say it appears the woman had been dead "many days" before she was found in the hospital stairwell.

Maintenance workers found the body of 57-year-old San Francisco woman in an exterior stairwell while conducting a routine inspection, according to officials. That was 17 days after Spalding was reported missing from her room at the hospital where she was being treated for an infection.

So at least it seems like she wasn't trapped out there for a prolonged period before she died, but HOW DID NO ONE SMELL ANYTHING??

The media is also saying that foul play has been ruled out, so no attack. I'm kind if surprised this much information has come out...

[bowieluva]

So at least it seems like she wasn't trapped out there for a prolonged period before she died, but HOW DID NO ONE SMELL ANYTHING??

The media is also saying that foul play has been ruled out, so no attack. I'm kind if surprised this much information has come out...

Because no one used that stairway.

[emmieslost]

Every uti I've ever had spread to my kidneys. I spent a week in the hospital once with a Uti/kidney infection. Still very odd that she wasn't found for two weeks. Had to have been moved, yeah? I hope we get to see the autopsy report.

[ZoMyGoddess!]

I saw that post on the 5150 hold too, but the report specifies that she was on a med-surg. unit. Also if it had been a 5150 she would have been in a locked ward with no access to stairwells...

Im not sure how big this hospital is, or what kind of facility they have for their pysch unit but at the one I worked at if a psych patient had a medical issue they were sent to a med-surge unit and put on 15 minute rounds if they were not on a 1:1 (suicide watch)

Now that it was said that she was an alcoholic, and might have been suffering from withdrawal, she was probably on falls precautions, which also would require 15min rounds.
We had a saying at our unit, "alcohol is not a preservative", most of our older alcoholics came in very confused and unsteady. I think she was probably on the psych unit, required medical care and transferred to a med-surge unit.

[PunkerDuckie]

I saw that post on the 5150 hold too, but the report specifies that she was on a med-surg. unit. Also if it had been a 5150 she would have been in a locked ward with no access to stairwells...

in CA. they can keep them in med surg, er, ccu or anywhere else while waiting placement at a psych facility at most hospitals, with a full time sitter. we have them sit in our hospital for days waiting for tox screen, or them to heal up from a suicide attempt. Once they're medically cleared, they're psych eval'd and then placed in a facility. Sometimes they're in limbo for weeks.