It's one of those stories that you dread: A loved one is in a facility, and then that facility drops the ball, and your loved one is gone.

Nobody really likes the idea of admitting a family member into a "home," especially when you hear about a woman locked outside, screaming for help, and then passing away from the cold.

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The family of a woman who died out in the cold outside of her nursing home in Louisville, Colorado, has filed a lawsuit against that company, the company's CEO, along with two employees for several charges including "felonious killing." The woman died in February of 2022, when the low temperature that night was 15 degrees.

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HOW DID IT HAPPEN?

According to the Denver Post, the investigation shows that the woman walked outside of Balfour at Lavender Farms (these places always seem to have the most "soothing" of names, don't they?) with her robe, boots and gloves on. The door she exited locked behind her. She followed the sidewalk, but it ended at a 5-foot snowbank. The poor woman climbed over that snowbank and crawled 75 feet to a pair of doors right by the nurses station. Nobody saw her, or heard her screams for help.

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It's almost unbelievable to me, to find that nobody was charged or reprimanded in the woman's death. According to the Denver Post, even the The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which regulates Colorado nursing homes, did not find Balfour violated any state regulations. That just amazes me.

Hopefully, the family gets what they're asking for from Balfour and finds some solace after all is said and done.

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